Evidence of Ethnic Inequality

1
Evidence of Ethnic Inequality

• An overview of writing on ethnicity and inequality

2
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 born in Britain.
• They are claimed to have hybrid culture which
  is a mix of their home culture and British
  culture.

3
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
The 1968 Race Relations Act

• This extended the previous Act to include
  employment, housing and the provision of
  services.
• There was very little discrimination ever proved,
  few cases were won, and most were related to
  advertising!
• The Police were exempt from this Act and
  investigated themselves in cases of complaints.
• It was generally seen as an expensive and
  toothless waste of time.

5
The 1976 Race Relations Act

• This introduced the idea of indirect
  discrimination which mean that employers could
  not set up blinds to cover blatantly racist
  policies.
• It set up the Commission for Racial Equality
  (CRE). See their Website at ltwww.cre.gov.ukgt.
• There are limited resources and few prosecutions.
  It is difficult to prove that people are
  motivated by racism.
• Race relations legislation is controversial and
  generally not especially helpful except in
  changing attitudes.

6
Immigration control

• Many writers claim that immigration controls have
  been used unfairly to discriminate against
  non-white immigrants whereas those from Australia
  and European countries have been accepted into
  the UK without control.
• In 1993 the Asylum and Immigration Appeals Act
  was actually designed to limit immigration and
  reduce the number of asylum seekers.
• 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
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
Unemployment

• Official figures for January 2001 show that
  unemployment rates for 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 nearly four 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 of education.
• 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
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 and 0.1 of senior barristers are
  black.
• The rates of execution in the USA for non-white
  people are twice what could be expected from
  their rates of representation in the community.

10
Black crime and sociology

• Demography blacks are younger in age
  distribution than the general population and
  rates of crime are also much higher than among
  young people.
• Racism the police are racist. This is supported
  by the Scarman Report and the McPherson Report
  into the Stephen Lawrence case.
• Resistance to imperialism criminality is a form
  of resistance and a political stance. This is a
  Marxist view and the evidence to support it is
  poor.
• Marginalisation Black people are marginal to
  mainstream society and cannot achieve their
  aspirations to wealth via the normal channels
  because of the racism of society. They turn,
  therefore, to crime.

11
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 and they attempt to break away from
  the more powerful people who will submerge their
  culture.
• Perceptual explanations relate to how groups are
  trained to relate to each other.

12
John Rex

• Rex believes racism to be based on belief
  systems.
• Rex suggests that people justify their racist
  beliefs with dubious logic. The hate comes first,
  then the rationalisation.

13
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
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 to keep
  developing new styles that black people can own
  as their styles become adopted by the fashionable.

15
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 single event may trigger the
  actual riot.

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 are different.