Multicultural Britain

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Multicultural Britain

        

  1. Source B is from a programme that was broadcast in 1956 and which set out to expose the ‘colour bar’. The Source is a part of the interview with Mr Davis, a railway manager, and Mr Geary, a leading trade unionist. The interview is conducted by Chris Chataway, a journalist. We know that Chris Chataway is trying to prove there is a colour bar and so the programme is very likely to be biased towards the fact that there is and it will want to get a certain response from the interviewees because if they did not have that response then the programme would not be proving anything. However, it was true that there was a colour bar in England and many employers tended to not hire people because of their colour. This shows us that it could be unreliable as the programme could be biased because they are trying to prove that there is a colour bar and so they would make sure that anyone they were to ask about the ‘colour bar’ was going to help prove that there is one.

The first person to speak in the interview is Chris Chataway as he is asking the questions to Mr Davis and Mr Geary. The first questions, “Now four coloured men came this morning to ask for jobs and they were turned away. Why was that? Officially the policy is that there’s no colour bar”, is a leading question. It is therefore very blunt and deliberate in the fact that it is meant to make the two interviewees give a certain response. The response given is what the interviewer wanted, “Er, well, erm, there is general reluctance by the men to work with these coloured chaps…” Mr Davis is not sure what to say here and is obviously thrown by this question; he also (even if it may not have been on purpose) uses quite an offensive way of talking about the black people that are looking for jobs, “…these coloured chaps…” Mr Davis has discriminated against coloured people without, maybe, not even realising.

After this the next person to speak is again Chris Chataway, he says, “I put much the same questions to a leading member of the Railwaymen’s Union in Smithfield, Mr Geary. Now why is it that there is a prejudice here against coloured men?” The statement here that he says is extremely bold. Mr Geary then replies by saying “Oh there’s no prejudice Mr Chataway” and the interviewer then goes onto say “Why is it they’re not taken on then?”, this is another daring statement, the interviewer is asking the interviewees quite aggressive questions, obviously hoping to get an answer that will help him to prove there is a colour bar and he does. Mr Geary then says, “Also there is much about a coloured man, the staff feel they are to lose their temper and resort to tactics that the average white man would not resort to.” Here Mr Geary is making a blatant discriminating statement and makes all black people sound slow, lazy and violent. He compares black people to white people saying that the white people are not like black people and do not resort to the same tactics that a black person would resort to.

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This Source is not reliable, it is true that many people were racist, prejudice and discriminating towards black people, however, it was not everyone. Not all employers were like this and not everyone felt the same feelings as the two interviewees shown here. It is also unreliable because, even though now we know there was a colour bar, of the fact that Chris Chataway obviously wants to make a certain impression on the public and make them believe there is a colour bar but he does this in a certain way by asking questions that are sure to give a ...

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