This graph shows how many black people admitted to committing crimes and out of those how many had parents separated. More then 50% of those people asked had working class jobs. This would mean that they needed more money and to achieve more money they turned to crime.
Here are some recent newspaper articles which prove that police forces still discriminate against ethnic minorities:
Both of these articles show that black people are eight times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police-even though they’ve done nothing wrong. Britain has a population of 59,755,700 people. Out of this less then 2% are black which is less then 1,195,114 people. Ethnic minority groups make up less then 7% of Britain’s population which is around 4,182,899 people. That leaves 55,572,801 white people in Britain. Out of the 714,000 people stopped and searched in England and Wales, 12% were Black which means approximately 85,680 Black people were stopped and searched out of 1,195,114 people-so about 7% of the Black population were stopped and searched. These facts are very negative to Britain’s multicultural society. It shows how much subtle racism actually goes on. It proves that it not only Blacks who the police discriminate against but all of the ethnic minority groups in Britain are, Asians are the second most discriminated against. If I was to compare these two articles, I would say that they were very accurate because they show the same facts and figures.
It was still a surprise to the Afro-Caribbean’s as to why they were being racially discriminated against by the British people. Afro-Caribbean’s and the British had so much in common. They both spoke English, both absolutely loved sports, both were very committed Christians and important of all, they both fought on the same side in the Second World War. These facts should've brought the two cultures closer together, not further apart!
This evil racism carried on until still 1965. The government soon realised that something had to be done about race relations. In 1965 a new law was introduced, 'DISCRIMINATION against black people in public places such as hotels and cinemas is now ILLEGAL.' Another law was passed in 1976, 'It is now ILLEGAL to encourage racial hatred. A commission for racial equality will be set up. It has the power to investigate complaints and go to court.' Both of these laws meant that you could go to prison if you were being racist in any way - subtly or directly. (Subtle racism means when it is indirect, not clear that you are being racist e.g. not giving a job to a black person but letting them down gently. Direct racism means when it is clear to the person that you are being racist.) People who were very violent and racist would’ve continued to discriminate against black people, but in a more quiet and less local area. So these laws didn't mean anything to them unless they were caught. People who weren’t very violent and had something to loose if they were arrested would've taken these new laws into consideration. So these laws didn't completely stop racism. Lord Scarman who was a senior judge made some very good recommendations to stop racial violence. He suggested that schools should help educate about different cultures to help understand each others history, background and culture. He also recommended that positive action should be taken to help ethnic minorities get housing and jobs and racial prejudice should stop in police services. Lord Scarman's recommendations helped people realise that racial discrimination was a very serious problem in Britain.
Problems and issues still didn't disappear even until 1990. In 1993 the murder inquiry of a Black teenager, Stephen Lawrence created havoc and led to a big campaign of justice. The metropolitan police were accused of failing to carry out a proper investigation and professional misconduct. The government then promised a drastic change in the laws to fight racism. The media took a big role in the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, which helped get the message across about racism still occurring in policing. Many efforts were being made during the 1980's and the 1990's to encourage people from ethnic backgrounds to take on professional jobs. Again the media took a big role in this. Job advertisements were released, some looking for 'Black lawyers' or 'Ethnic minority business development.' These were positive changes towards racial discrimination because; black people were now receiving chances and opportunities that they'd never been offered before. Despite these positive changes, unfortunately there were still negative facts and figures. Unemployment was a key figure that proved racism still existed even in 1992 across Britain. In 1992 there were new unemployment figures. It showed that in total, 56% of Britain were living unemployed and 15% of Afro-Caribbean’s were unemployed. This is a very high percentage for Afro-Caribbean’s, considering that there are less then 2% of black people who make up Britain’s population. There was also data from 1998 which showed that in London alone a staggering 60% of black people were unemployed and black people are twice as likely to be unemployed then white people. It also showed that 87% of black people had been unemployed for longer then two months.
Racial conflicts still occur today in Britain. People are still prejudice and take action. People hold grudges and have racial views for a number of reasons. Some of them are because:
- They feel insecure of themselves.
- Upbringing - their parents might have influenced them.
- Bad experiences - they might have known someone or themselves been racially abused.
- Fear of the unknown - they don't know anything about another race and just judge them by the colour of their skin.
- Arrogance - they think they are or their race is better then everyone else's.
- Intolerance - to have only one view of someone (stereotype).
- Environment and friends - the environment they live in might be where there are hardly any ethnic minority groups and their friends might have influenced them.
Many people also hold strong racial views because of the media. They might have heard about one ethnic group terrorising another. An example of this is in a recent event, the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, on September 11th 2001. People behind the attack are believed to be Muslims. Even though this attack was held in America it has affected the whole world financially and one's opinions and views. Soon after the attacks many people were racist towards Muslims and attacked Muslims family's homes and holy places. So the media influenced people into thinking that all Muslims are terrorists, which is stereotyping - It is an opinion of some, but definitely not a fact. Wars also effect hoe people think of other cultures. The first and second world wars events still cause racial discrimination today. For example, whenever England and Germany play a sporting match - mainly football, there are bounds to be riots. This is because they fought in the first and second world war.
Britain is a multicultural society. Ethnic minority groups are seen by some people to be a negative thing for Britain. There are many positive cultural influences that have taken place on the British society as a result of Afro-Caribbean’s. Examples of this are: music, sport, T.V, dress and language. Music and entertainment is one of the major impacts that Afro-Caribbean’s have brought into Britain. Reggae, gospel, blues, jazz and ska are types of songs which all root back to Africa. The lyrics in Reggae music tell people how the black people struggled throughout generations such as slavery and racism. Reggae music creates a positive atmosphere and gives a situation of awareness of black people’s living conditions. It also changed many people attitudes towards black people. Bob Marley was the first Reggae superstar and is still well heard about today. Many debates have been cast about the issue of underground, urban and soul music taking over pop music. Underground, urban and soul music is nearly 100% of the time by black artists. Whereas pop music is usually by white artists. This is a very positive aspect of the black music industry. It is not only black people who listen to black music but so too do white people and other ethnic minority groups. In poetry Benjamen Zephaniah was known as the best Rastafarian poet. He brought back the pride, culture, dignity and honour of the black culture. Black people are known to do very well in sporting activities. One of the most famous and fastest sprinters is Linford Christie. Another recent hero is Colin Jackson who is one of the top hurdlers around. In food and T.V ready steady cook is presented by a popular black man, Ainsley Harriot. It is probably the best cooking and food related television programme around. For fashion and dress the black community have had a big influence on the British society. Everyone had probably heard of Naomi Campbell. She is a top black model. Young people all across the world look up to these famous people. Some people may have been tormented and been told that they’d never make a success of themselves because of the colour of their skin. These people would start to look up to their famous role models and learn that they can be successful too.
Living in a multicultural society had its advantages as well as disadvantages. There are many ‘disturbing’ aspects of living in a multicultural society, I find this intensively worrying. Black people are said to commit much more crimes then any other communities in Britain. There may be reasons for this. When ethnic minority groups arrive in Britain, many don’t have the high qualifications needed for Britain which often leads to them committing high-crime because of unemployment. What I find most disturbing is that is there wasn’t racial discrimination in Britain and people would give ethnic minorities a chance they’d no longer feel unwelcome and commit crime to survive. Another issue that I find very disturbing is that there was and still is a lot of violence coming from racial discrimination. If we weren’t living in a multicultural society then there would be less cultures and this would mean less culture clashes on our streets. Overall I think that everybody should respect each others culture and nobody should prejudge someone.
Some positive aspects which I find ‘hopeful’ about living in a multicultural society is that different cultures and upbringing mean that people could learn more about how other people live and what their beliefs are. They could also discover new findings of each others religions. If we only had one culture n Britain, everyone would be classed the same and nobody is the same, we are all unique. No one would be then able to learn anything about anyone else. Although everybody’s unique, we should still be considered as equal. As a multicultural society, it should really bring the community closer together rather then discriminating against each other. Looking back at my hypothesis I think that, the fact we live in a multicultural society has slightly led to a more tolerant and harmonious society but mostly led to more violence, crime and discrimination. I think that Britain is gradually developing into a more tolerant and harmonious society. If you look back in the 1950’s when the Afro-Caribbean’s first entered Britain, everyone was directly racist and black people never had a chance of a decent life then. Now black people can be and are a success because they’ve been given the opportunity. The negative aspects outweigh the positive aspects of living in a multicultural society. In my opinion, racial discrimination will never ever stop anywhere in the world, but it will slowly decrease.
Bibliography
Books:
Title: Modern Minds – The Twentieth Century World
Publisher: Longman
Authors: Jamie Byrom
Christine Counsell
Michael Goreman
Derek Peaple
Michael Riley
Websites:
http://www.observer.co.uk
http://www.britishcouncil.org
http://www.studentcentral.co.uk
