ethnicity and inequality

8/13/2019 Ethnicity and Inequality

1/16

Evidence of EthnicInequality

An overview of writing on ethnicity

and inequality


2/16

Facts about race

7.1% of the population belongs to an ethnic minority Most of these people live in urban areas The ethnic minority population is growing faster than the whole

society because they are generally younger in age. The largest single group of ethnic minority people are Indians,

followed by Pakistani and then Black Caribbeans. Most of those who consider themselves to belong to an ethnic

minority community are in fact, British because they were bornin Britain.

They are claimed to have hybrid culture which is a mix of theirhome culture and British culture.


3/16

1965 Race Relations Act This banned discrimination on the grounds of race, colour or

ethnic or national origin in public places.

It made it illegal to incite racial hatred in writing.

It set up the Race Relations Board to respond to complaints.

These laws were clearly ineffective:

Racism is not illegal in private and racism still occurs. The onus is on the victim to prove that racism occurred.


4/16

The 1968 Race Relations Act

This extended the previous Act to include: employment, housingand the provision of services.

There was very little discrimination ever proved, few cases werewon, and most were related to advertising!

The Police were exempt from this Act and investigatedthemselves in cases of complaints.

It was generally seen as an expensive and toothless waste oftime.


5/16

The 1976 Race Relations Act

This introduced the idea of indirect discrimination which meanthat employers could not set up blinds to cover blatantly racistpolicies.

It set up the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). See theirWebsite at .

There are limited resources and few prosecutions. It is difficult toprove that people are motivated by racism.

Race relations legislation is controversial and generally notespecially helpful except in changing attitudes.


6/16

Immigration control

Many writers claim that immigration controls have been usedunfairly to discriminate against non-white immigrants whereasthose from Australia and European countries have been

accepted into the UK without control. In 1993 the Asylum and Immigration Appeals Act was actuallydesigned to limit immigration and reduce the number of asylumseekers.

It acted to remove the right of appeal against the decision to

deport people. Asylum seekers also lost their right to housing. There were a number of incidents which embarrassed the

government over the implementation of the laws.


7/16

The Cantle Report

Race riots occurred in British cities in 2001. The main rioting was in the North and associated with Asian

communities in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley.

The Cantle Report was produced in December in that year. It claims that there is racial segregation between the

communities and increasing distance between the groups. It argues for increased integration between groups. The Home Secretary, David Blunkett suggested:

Immigrants should learn English They should take a loyalty oath to the UK


8/16

Unemployment

Official figures for January 2001 show that unemployment ratesfor ethnic minority men is twice that for white men.

The ethnic minority groups which are most likely to be

unemployed are Black Caribbeans and Black Africans at nearlyfour times the average rate . The group least likely to suffer unemployment is Indian men.

Possibly because these are likely to be middle class in terms ofeducation.

The trends are exaggerated in the case of women.Bangladeshis and Pakistanis are unemployed at a rate of 23.9%which is five times the average for all women.


9/16

Crime and Criminality

Black males are more likely to go to prison than all males.

This does not apply to all ethnic minorities but it does to

African Caribbeans.

Only 0.3 judges come from ethnic minority backgrounds and0.1% of senior barristers are black.

The rates of execution in the USA for non-white people aretwice what could be expected from their rates of representationin the community.


10/16

Black crime and sociology Demography blacks are younger in age distribution than the

general population and rates of crime are also much higher thanamong young people.

Racism the police are racist. This is supported by theScarman Report and the McPherson Report into the StephenLawrence case.

Resistance to imperialism criminality is a form of resistanceand a political stance. This is a Marxist view and the evidence tosupport it is poor.

Marginalisation Black people are marginal to mainstreamsociety and cannot achieve their aspirations to wealth via thenormal channels because of the racism of society. They turn,therefore, to crime.


11/16

Michael E Brown

There are three types of ethnic conflict: Systemic conflict occurs when groups live close to one

another. Groups may launch attacks to gain advantage.

Domestic conflict relates to groups who feel vulnerable andthey attempt to break away from the more powerful peoplewho will submerge their culture.

Perceptual explanations relate to how groups are trained torelate to each other.


12/16

John Rex

Rex believes racism to be based on belief systems.

Rex suggests that people justify their racist beliefswith dubious logic. The hate comes first, then therationalisation .


13/16

David Mason Institutional racism as a term has been used in five different

ways:

Conspiracy where people are seen to deliberately set out to

discriminate. Structural Marxist where the racism is a consequence of

state policy. Unintended racism results from badly designed or

ethnocentric policies. Colonial racism where minority groups take on low status

work. Political opportunism where racism policies are seen as

popular.


14/16

Paul Gilroy Establishing a separate cultural identity is a significant form of

resistance to capitalism and to racism in imperial societies. This was once done by African Caribbeans through dance,

music, art and sport. However, in post modern society, many people are adapting

and adopting black cultural styles as a form of fashion. It offers people a variable identity but disenfranchises black

people from ownership of their own culture hence the drive tokeep developing new styles that black people can own as their

styles become adopted by the fashionable.


15/16

John Beynon 1986 There are eight possible causes of Inner City ethnic rioting:

Unemployment Deprivation

Racial disadvantage Racial discrimination Political exclusion Powerlessness Distrust of police

Hostility to police

It is these which cause race rioting in cities, though often a singleevent may trigger the actual riot.


16/16

Heidi Safia Mirza

Black women experience inequalities of gender and race. Females work hard in school and have values of achievement. This is because families are matriarchal and girls accept that

they will be primary carers for their children. Black girls are very high achievers but books on ethnicity do not

acknowledge that male and female patterns of achievement aredifferent.

ethnicity and inequality

Documents