Evidence of Ethnic Inequality

Evidence of Ethnic Inequality An overview of writing on ethnicity and inequality http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkAsXwItKmM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k060Q_re0bc

What’s the difference ? • Prejudice • Discrimination • Ethnocentrism • Cultural relativity • Overt Racism • Implicit racism • Institutional racism • Write your ideas on A3 paper

Facts about ‘race’ • 20% 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.

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.

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.

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 <www.cre.gov.uk>. • 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.

In what areas of life are ethnic minorities unequal? • Work • Education • Crime • Health • Poverty/Wealth

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Explanations of ethnic inequality • On the other side of your A3 paper list the following explanations given at the back of your booklets and on the mindmaps I gave you. Include an AO2 evaluation point for each. Marxist • Divide and rule Castles and Kosack • Reserve army of labour Castles and Kosack • Scapegoating • Westergaard and Resler – Unitary class model Weberian • Dual Labour market and underclass– Rex and Tomlinson and Barron and Norris • Low status of ethnic minorities - Weber New Right • Saunders – Welfare dependency of black underclass

Evidence of Ethnic Inequality