When over the weekend I finally got the chance to open the cover of my final Christmas present, a copy of Alan Sugar’s autobiography, “What you see is what you get”, I guess I expected to learn a few lessons, but what I didn’t anticipate was a generous helping of equality and diversity training; a lesson in racism to be more precise. Before you get the wrong idea, no, the book does not declare Sugar as a racist, in fact it was he that suffered from the racist behaviour of others.
In his autobiography, Alan Sugar describes growing up in a Jewish family in Hackney in the 50s. Following the somewhat daunting challenge of going to school for the first time, during his early years, he enjoyed the company of many friends and pals, both in and out of school; the thought of differences never raising its head. Just kids playing as kids do.
It was in later school life that Sugar became aware that he was seen as “different”, and it was when he was granted exceptional holidays from school for the Jewish festivals of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, that the racist views of some of his peers really started to emerge. It’s strange as he recalls that some of those schoolmates who had been close friends slowly became more distant as they were tainted by the prejudices of some of the older pupils. Sadly, some of the children who were his friends never spoke to him again. What a shame, they had grown up!
The story of Sugar’s life soldiers on but the fact that he recalls his encounters with racial prejudice in the first few pages of his book suggests that perhaps the scar hasn’t quite healed, even today.
By John Freshney| Righttrack’s Operations Manager