10
ISSUES: Racial & Ethnic Discrimination
Chapter 1: Racism & discrimination
Reeta Chakrabarti, MPs Priti Patel, Sajid
Javid, Sadiq Khan and David Lammy,
novelistsKamlaShamsieandAndreaLevy,
actors Mera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar –
and so on, and on. Yesminorities can now
reach for the skies, but most fall to earth,
get hurt and lose hope.
Let me try and explain everyday,
normative racismandhow it works. Think
about how people of colour are branded
“controversial” when they are assertive;
how white deaths matter more than
brown or black deaths; how little black
kids are called “ugly” in playgrounds, and
trolls who attack us for our race and say
we do not belong; the way we and our
children are constantly asked where we
come from; theway themediademonises
dark-skinned people and how politicians
describe us as trainee citizens on lifelong-
learning programmes to become true
Brits.
Men write in to tell me black and Asian
women are hot and sexy: that is horribly
racist, and also sexist. Those who ask me
all the time why Muslims won’t integrate
need to understand the bigotry inherent
in that question. I am not responsible for
thosewho live separate lives and choose
to harm this nation and its people. The
7/7 bombers killed people of every
nationality. I daily damn these ghetto
mentalities.
This is not intended as a pessimistic
dirge. Great Britain is a vibrant,
cosmopolitan, modern nation, where
love and friendships flourish between
the races and ethnicities. But structural
racism is back. The good news cannot
offset the bad.
Writer and novelist Hanif Kureishi wrote
recently on Enoch Powell’s abiding
legacy: “Racism is the lowest form of
snobbery. Its language mutates: not
long ago, the word ‘immigrant’ became
an insult, a stand in for ‘p**i’ or ‘n****r’...
people like Powell, men of ressentiment,
with their omens and desires to
humiliate, will return repeatedly to
divide and create difference.”
We have to talk about racism, find
words and courage to repeatedly defy
malevolence. Easier said than done.
Millions of dear, white people get livid,
don’twant to knowor deny theproblem.
That is why anti-racism is so weak today
and why it must get bolder and braver.
12 July 2015
Ö
The above information is reprinted
with kind permission from
The
Independent
. Please visit www.
independent.co.uk for further
information.
© independent.co.uk 2017
Revealed: the truth about ethnic diversity
of neighbourhoods
An article from
The Conversation
.
By Aneta Piekut, lecturer in Quantitative Social Sciences, University of Sheffield
I
n many European countries, people
overestimate the share of minority
populations
and
immigration
volume. This could be a result of
people not being well informed or
knowledgeable about the social issues
around them. But skewed perceptions
of ethnic diversity have implications
for social relations and openness
towards minority ethnic groups.
Although the influence of ethnic
diversity on various aspects of social
life has been thoroughly investigated
in many countries, results are still
inconclusive. Some studies found that
ethnic diversity is harmful to community
cohesion, because it lowers trust in
others. Other research says that it
promotes better relationships between
people of different ethnicities, because
it provides more opportunities for
everyday contact with people who are
different from us.
But whatever the impacts of ethnic
diversity, the issue remains that
the “actual” ethnic diversity of our
neighbourhoods – calculated using
census or other data such as immigration
statistics – can be very different fromour
individual perceptions of it.
Perception vs reality
The research I took part in – Living with
Difference in Europe – surveyed the
attitudes of white British residents in
Leeds and Polish residents in Warsaw
toward ethnic minorities. Our analysis
was based on responses fromover 1,000
people in each city.
We asked them to assess the
proportion of people “who are of
Young white men have the worst reputation
British attitudes to 48 different ethnic, age and gender groups. Numbers show the average net
percentage who say each group has five positive qualities minus is
likely to do five negative activities.
Most praised
Most derided
White woman in her 60s
White man in his 60s
Chinese woman in her 40s
Chinese woman in her 60s
Jewish woman in her 60s
Jewish man in his 60s
White man in his 20s
Black caribbean man in his 20s
White woman in her 20s
White Australian man in his 20s
Pakistani-born man in his 20s
Polish-born man in his 20s
67%
64%
61%
60%
59%
59%
8%
19%
23%
27%
28%
28%
Source: YouGov, December 2015
