A lesson for Rupa Huq from the ancient Greeks

The Labour MP Rupa Huq, of Pakistani heritage, has been suspended for suggesting that Kwasi Kwarteng, of Ghanaian heritage, was only superficially black and did not sound black on the radio. The ancients would have been baffled by her comment. They were fascinated by their world’s many different cultures, but colour held no significance for them.

People’s beliefs, however, were a matter of great interest. The widely travelled Greek historian Herodotus (5th century bc) produced a fine example (among many others): while Greeks expressed utter revulsion at the Indian idea of eating their dead, an Indian tribe also did so at the idea of burning their dead. Conclusion: there was no right and wrong way to do it. It was simply a matter of custom. But obviously, being Greek, he preferred the Greek way.

But what of people’s physical and behavioural characteristics? Reasonably enough – knowing nothing of what we know – they put this down to climate. A Greek doctor asserted that in Asia ‘men will be of fine physique, tall, differing little from one another, but courage, endurance, industry and high spirits are impossible to find among the natives and immigrants’. Racist? Certainly not. ‘Immigrants’ were obviously not of the same racial stock as the natives: it was the simple fact of living there that made the difference.

And that was the point. In the absence of any other possible explanations, it seemed obvious to the ancients that it was location that was crucial in shaping you, and if you moved elsewhere, you would assume the idiosyncrasies of the culture that you now called home. When the Emperor Claudius argued that Gauls should join the Senate, some appalled senators protested that the brutes wore trousers! ‘Don’t worry,’ said Claudius, ‘they’ll soon be wearing togas.’

And here we have Ms Huq, still hung up about skin colour! If the ancients could deal with it, is she, as a born-and-bred English, highly educated MP (private school, Cambridge, and a doctorate, just like Dr Kwarteng) not intelligent enough to do likewise?