Features of Ethnic Diversity in the UK - Essay Example

? Diverse Britain Introduction Ethnic minorities constitute 6.5% or 3.7 million people of the British population as per the last census. UK is dedicated to the ethnic diversity since early nineteenth century when trade brought Indian and Chinese traders to the shore of Great Britain. Jewish also arrived from the fear of persecution in Poland and Russia. Nazi oppression brought many Jews in 1930s during Hitler’s reign. By and by, East African Asian and Vietnamese also arrived. Refugees from erstwhile communist countries such as former Yugoslavia and Romania also arrived during 1980s. A list is long but important thing is that rule and laws gave them equal rights who settled in UK regardless of their ethnicity, race and culture. (Ethnic Diversity) Some of the demographic features of ethnic diversity in UK are worth enumerating. Ethnicity Population Proportion in total UK population Bangladeshi 283,063 0.5% Black (others) &000000000009758500000097,585 0.2% Black African &0000000000485277000000485,277 0.8% Black Caribbean &0000000000565876000000565,876 1.0% Chinese &0000000000247403000000247,403 0.4% Indian &00000000010534110000001,053,411 1.8% Mixed race &0000000000677117000000677,117 1.2% Other &0000000000230615000000230,615 0.4% Other Asian (non-Chinese) &0000000000247644000000247,644 0.4% Pakistani &0000000000747285000000747,285 1.3% White &000000005415389800000054,153,898 92.1% Source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=273 It will be most interesting now to see how media people respond to the notions of ethnic diversity in UK. Reports from Print Media Murrells (2011) in The Guardian reports under the heading ‘Preston's Nathan Ellington claims he was racially abused at Millwall’. Nathan Ellington claimed he had a worst racial humiliation of his life at Millwall. "I've never seen a more racist and abusive crowd as I saw today at Millwall! Disgrace to the human race." Murrells (2011) further writes quoting Ellington, “I didn't bite or report it, it's just sad really that there are still people with so much anger at a football match." (Murrells, 2011) Ellington further said that he was inflicted with a remark of thief and targeted of monkey noises as reported in the paper. It is really surprising that such a celebrity player has to face such hostile remarks particularly, when Nathan is British born. It was simply not a club rivalry but something more than that. “Commercials represent only 5% of TV ads featuring ethnic minorities” (Sweney, 2011) With above title a report published in The Guardian in its issue of 21 April 2011. Subject of the report was that only 5% of the 35,000 ads were involved with the actors from black or other ethnic community. The report prepared by Clearcast mentioned that TV advertising is not proportionately representing blacks in view of the fact that Asian, Black and other ethnic minorities constitute about 13 percent of the UK population. Issue of ethnicity and belonging to black community still prevents one doing significant role in television commercials. Otherwise, how can one explain such a low level of participation in the ad business? It seems that it will take years before any racial discrimination is totally eliminated and participation of the other ethnic community sharply increases. The report further said that only 1130 ads were such that when any actor of ethnic minority group was given a main role. It means that commercials are not appropriately representing the diverse makeup of the UK. (Sweney, 2011) “Your tribe need to behave like proper English children: What BBC's Mishal Husain was told by shopper in supermarket.” (Jarvis, 2011) Above heading appeared in Daily Mail in its issue of 8th May, 2011. The children of BBC news reporter Mishal Husain were told to behave ‘like proper English children’ when she visited a mall in Waitrose for shopping along with her three children and husband. Ms Husain is the upcoming star of BBC News. She is born and brought up in UK though her parents belong to Pakistan. Even BBC1’s evening news presenter revealed how racism spoiled the shopping trip of Ms. Husain. Her husband also said the incident reminded him of seventies and how slowly things change. The paper further reported that once she had rebuked her colleague John Humphrys when he asked her if BBC employed her for her good looks. Later she flew out to Pakistan for news coverage on trappings of Osama Bin Laden. Broadcasting Media BBC news reports “Barnardo's ex-head says race issues threaten adoptions” (BBC, 2011) And here is a news by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on the issue of adoption that how children from ethnic minorities are waiting for long for adoption. BBC reports that it takes typically three times longer to arrange for placement of ethnic minority children. The issue holds an importance as current chief executive Anne-Marrie Carrie has accused local authorities and agencies preventing white couples to adopt children of non-white and other ethnic backgrounds. BBC in his news reports of 22nd January this year stated that law is quite clear that a child should not wait for a long time to get adoption from the same ethnicity. BBC also said quoting children minister of UK that it is better that loving parents adopt a child as quickly as possible rather than waiting for a long time matching child's religion, ethnicity, culture as, at times, it is not practical. “No reason to block mixed-race adoptions in England” (BBC, 2010) is another news report flashed by BBC on the same topic of adoption. The paper writes that social workers usually find and search for child-parent racial matches. The paper quotes children minister Tim Loughton that there is no reason for not allowing white couples adopting Asian or black babies. Minister was categorical in his statement that social workers were pressing too hard in finding a perfect match. Minister suggested local authorities to take help of voluntary local agencies who had 200 families on their roll ready to adopt ‘difficult-to-place’ kind children. The paper also mentions about various organization running its own adoption agency. Hugh Thornbery, director of one of such organization, had view that many of the adoption agencies have been quite obstinate in seeking matches. He opined that society now had become more diverse and so the backgrounds of children having linkages to two or more different ethnic backgrounds. The crux of the thing is to secure best of the family for a child to provide them the best of the future. The news agency did invite the views from its website readers which were also published and given a due importance. Film ‘East is East’ was the movie produced in 1999 in UK. The movie was directed by Declan O' Donnell. The film raised many issues in 1971 settings. The film had won the BAFTA award as the best British film produced in 1999. It did receive an OCIC award too in the panorama of Buenos Aires film festival held in 1999. The film depicted mixed feelings of Muslim and Catholic traditions. The film was the good blend of comic and tragic scenes. Father was a Muslim and mother being from Catholic background and their children having born and brought up in UK consider themselves more as British rather than Muslim or Pakistani refuses to follow their father’s traditions on dressing, religion and food. The film was a good plot in depicting the traditional mindset full of ethnicity versus modern free societal values garnered by new generation. (East is east) ‘Small Island’ was the movie based on the novel by Andrea Levy, which was aired in two-part on PBS last year. The story line goes to World War II period when Hortense from Jamaican heritage moved to Britain and how he faced colour prejudice as his Jamaican qualification was not recognised in England and how he was harassed at work. Movie though made in 2009 takes us 60 years back and reminds us of racial discrimination of that era in its true sense. (Andrea Levy…) Conclusion Time and again issues of ethnicity, race and religion have surfaced in the Britain. Print or broadcast Media and film industry have taken a plunge to cast their opinions. Though, UK boasts of a society free of any prejudice and partiality but age old mentality is hard to break into very basic mind set of masses. State laws are there to provide equal rights and opportunity for its citizens but still it will take time for society to completely come out from the shackles of race, religion and ethnic considerations. References 1. Ethnic Diversity. Retrieved on May 13 2011 from http://www.amren.com/illustrativeArticles/ar-news/EthnicDiversityInUK.pdf 2. Murrells, Katy (2011). Preston's Nathan Ellington claims he was racially abused at Millwall. Retrieved on May 13 2011 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/apr/25/nathan-ellington-claims-racially-abused 3. Sweney, Mark (2011). Only 5% of TV ads feature ethnic minorities. Retrieved on May 13 2011 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/apr/21/tv-ads-ethnic-minorities 4. Jarvis, David (2011), My Children racially abused. Retrieved on May 13 2011 from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384665/My-children-racially-abused-supermarket-says-BBCs-Mishal-Husain.html 5. BBC, (2011). Barnardo's ex-head says race issues threaten adoptions. Retrieved on May 13 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12258379 6. BBC, (2010). No reason to block mixed-race adoptions in England. Retrieved on May 13 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11672674 7. East is east. (1999). Retrieved on May 13 2011 from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166175/plotsummary 8. Andrea Levy on ‘The Long Song’ and the ‘Small Island’ Movie (2010). Retrieved on May 13 2011 from http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/04/25/andrea-levy-on-the-long-song-and-the-small-island-movie/ Read More