No single culture or race has a divine right to occupy a certain area - 'White Flight'

When speaking to a good friend of mine (a white 20-something male) I was shocked to hear his words regarding the state of the UK in the next 30 years…

‘You do realise that the UK will become a white minority nation within the next 30 years don’t you?’

In other words, the ethnic minorities in the UK will take over the white population leading the UK to become over populated by non-whites. Tie that in with Trevor Phillips talking about how the UK will become increasingly mixed race within the next 15 years (and the mixed races will become Britain’s largest ethnic minority population) and we have a backlash from white nationals who fear this outcome.

‘White flight’ where white Britons uproot and move to other areas of the UK to avoid and move away from largely populated ethnic minority areas. Maybe this is partly the reason why integration can be so difficult. Just go to some parts of London, Birmingham, Manchester or Leeds and you can see exactly where white flight has taken place.

All of this at a time where Britain is to be known as a multi-cultural nation – multi-cultural it is but integrated it isn’t. When a young British Asian can cause infinite pain within the country he was born and raised in, we can be certain that integration doesn’t take place in certain areas of the UK. People become segregated, and subject to religious extremism.

Research by Migrationwatch suggests residential movements in Britain are mainly from areas of high ethnic minority population to those with predominantly white populations. I remember many of my Asian town folk expressing their wish to move to a less ‘ethnically populated’ area. It meant that you were climbing the social class ladder to be occupying a space amongst white folk. It was a sign that you were integrated. So when my aunt moved to a white area of Bradford in the 1980’s she was very proud to have integrated – shame the area didn’t stay that way. There is also now an element of ‘ethnic flight’ where those people of ethnic origin who are of a higher social class also move away from deeply and often deprived working class areas. It’s not just a white problem anymore.

Just last month, The Guardian reported that a report published by charity Barrow Cadbury Trust “dismisses tabloid images of a segregated nation at war with itself, concluding that more than two thirds of respondents in Birmingham consider relations between different communities to be good” with rising social mobility among ethnic communities. Almost half of the respondents thought there was “more integration between communities than a generation ago”.

Extremists express a deep concern that the UK is becoming less white – the way it should not be they say. With the ‘go back to where you come from’ debate seemingly coming back into the fore especially in light of the immigration policies currently observed in the UK, it seems the UK is going back to a time when racism was alive and kicking. Only now, racism exists because we have come full circle. The ‘not understanding others’ excuse is now replaced by the influx of immigrants causing economic instability and the Britishness debate – are mixed race people British when they share white genetics with an ethnic race? What does it mean to be British? etc etc.

What’s the moral? It can be argued that the UK is a confused hot bed of racial tension. No-one knows what it means to feel British and Islamism seems to be giving all ethnic communities a bad name. Where do we go from here? As one respondent in the Birmingham study reported in the Guradian pointed out: 'No single culture or race has a divine right to occupy a certain area’ – and this should be extended to the whole of Britain.

The video below portrays a shocking image of the UK as a place where ethnic minorities have had a deep negative effect on the country and all it stands for…

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Mum! Look! An Indian on the TV!

When I was growing up it was not uncommon to cry with excitement when an ethnic person appeared on the box from heaven i.e. the TV. The television has been a primary artery in the body of education I call ‘life’. I don’t think for a second that TV has corrupted me. In fact, TV has helped me to learn more about the cultures, societies and environments that surround me. So when I saw a black person appearing on TV for the first time, I was pretty happy about it. When an Indian person appeared on TV I was very excited. But when a Sikh appeared on TV exemplified by his turban I was ecstatic!
‘Singh, Singh!’ I would scream and jump up and down with joy – I was like a raver on acid. It was so uncommon to see a Singh on the box that if I did see one I would question whether Uncle Malkit had secretly climbed into the TV.

Come to think of it, how many Sikhs who display outward religious symbols do we see today on TV? I can only think of three and I am pushing the boundary in terms of talent. It is late but I am really scraping the ethnic barrel here.

1. Hardeep Singh Kohli (pictured) – clearly a talented individual who appears on the BBC’s One Show. With his extrovert turban often of varying colours (I think the last colour I saw him wearing was purple or maybe it was mauve, lilac or lavender?). He is actually a role model to me. An outward Sikh with an equally outward turban that even my uncle ‘Shipwreck’ would wince at (and they don’t call him shipwreck for nothing I can tell you). A great individual and a brilliant sense of humour.

2. The Sikh with no fashion sense whatsoever who challenged Peggy Mitchell as Walford councillor in Eastenders not too long ago. She subsequently gave an ‘emotional and inspiring’ speech at the councillors session and then collapsed afterwards in the Vic. That awful speech must have really taken it out of her eh? The Singh in question wear a turban that looked like it had been tied by David Blunkett. Religion and politics never mix – lesson learnt.

3. The third Singh I make reference to is also part of the Eastenders faithful. The extra in Eastenders! I never fail to miss him and always point him out to my fellow Eastenders audience whenever he appears. Quite embarrassing really when your grandma who is a devout Sikh watches with you deciphering the cockney dialect when she cannot utter a word of English but still somehow manages to work out that Heather is pregnant, Billy is a twat and Jeneen is an evil schemer and the offspring of Frank Butcher! So when I scream ‘Singh, Singh!’ my grannie shoots me a disapproving glance and continues to listen to Shirley talking crap about how she loves alcoholic Phil Mitchell.

Is Eastenders a representation of multicultural Britain or purely just a realistic and disappointing interpretation of a London suburb or even the UK? I think the latter. How come there isn’t a Singh family anyway when Punjabi Sikhs make up a massive percentage of the ethnic British population? Maybe I should make a case and send them my credentials as a new Sikh character. I can imagine my story line: Sikh lad enters the Queen Vic and sits within shot of Phil’s barmaid not saying a word while Ben wets himself because Phil just downed his 56th vodka and orange. All this while I chat away to the mute that is ‘Singh in Eastenders’. He is so popular that he even has a facebook fan page (and guess what I’m in it).

Another one of my pet hates in Eastenders is the race proofing… filling the ethnic quota by replacing one defunct Asian family (the pesky Ferreiras) with another, the Masoods. And the recent addition of Syeed, the forgotten son who happens to look nothing like either his parents or his younger brother. Why on earth does Zainab still have the most infuriating Pakistani accent that changes constantly? Once she sounded Punjabi and my gran pointed out that ‘her English good’. No it’s not gran.

Lenny Henry recently pointed out that TV when he was growing up was white with only a smattering of black. “America was light years ahead of us when it came to on screen diversity. Unfortunately I wasn’t living in America – I lived in Dudley”. I share his pain, being a fellow West Midlands and Black Country contemporary. Just like Lenny loved to see a black person on TV, I like to see an Asian and more importantly one that is a Sikh – an identifiable Sikh.

I have had my own conflicts with having a turban in the past. I wanted to be like the other cool boys when I was growing up. I told my mum that I was going to cut my hair. The finger prints of my mum’s slap around my face remained for 3 days. Sathnam Sanghera didn’t ask, he just went and cut his hair and then wrote a story about it! ‘The Boy with the Topknot’ was like reading about my own life only my hair stayed where it was.

My serious point is this; on-screen diversity in the UK has come a long way (in my last post I made reference to the many Asian newsreaders I see nowadays!). But as a Sikh, I fear that some stereotypes remain – Sikhs are under-represented by a mile. Does the West still fear the turban? Is the turban threatening and do people liken a turban to Arabian attire? When I have a conversation with somebody and their eyes wander north of my eyes, I sometimes wander what kind of society I live in when I can be judged not by skin colour (the classic) but by an outward religious symbol that now seems to get in the way for some people. It’s fucking annoying. What do you think?

Lenny Henry got it right when he asked TV decision makers how far we had come in the UK TV industry in relation to ethnicity and stereotypes… “And while we’re about it - lets cut the stereotyping right now: when you can cast a Somalian girl in your piece simply because she is the best actor for the job, when you can cast an Asian actress and she’s not the victim of an arranged marriage, when you can cast a Jamaican man with dreadlocks and he’s not a drug dealer… then we will have achieved something”.

Just because there are more and more ethnic faces on TV, it doesn't mean that society is represented appropriately... Just ask a Sikh.

I am a "Racial Foreigner" says the BNP...

According to leader of the British National Party Nick Griffin, black and Asian Britons are ‘racial foreigners’. In recent news of the leaked BNP "Language and Concepts Discipline Manual", all people from ethnic minority groups are “no more British than an Englishman living in Hong Kong is Chinese". The classic line we hear from hardline BNP members is the age old adage that 'a dog born in a stable is not a horse”. In a rather shameful but common sense way it actually makes sense. When I ask the racial foreigners around me – sorry I mean when I ask my fellow British Asian counterparts whether they are British I always get the response “yes but I don’t feel it sometimes”.

I find it extremely amusing that Bradford was named one of the three most "English" places in England. Bradford has a high proportion of Pakistani Muslims as well as one of the country's highest ratios of fish and chip shops to people! Down the road to this very English part of Britain, lies Leeds – home to the 7/7 bombers. It goes to show that being a legal Briton does not mean you are British… and Griffin points out by likening the term British to an ethnic description.

This probably goes some way to explain why young British Asians become guilty of plotting and executing terror attacks in the land that has raised them. Young people who have the right to be as British as anyone else become disenfranchised with their environments to the point where they hail mutiny and cause chaos. I guess Nick Griffin’s point that these people remain “of the stock” where they come from is correct. "We don't subscribe to the politically correct fiction that just because they happen to be born in Britain, a Pakistani is a Briton… they're not; they remain of Pakistani stock." Point taken.

Griffin goes on to suggest that calling all people of colour British resulted in a ‘bloodless genocide’ because indigenous people were denied their identity. What’s wrong with being called a Black Briton or Asian Briton? I am an Asian Briton. I don’t tell other British people what their identities are. I guess I should drop the ‘Asian’ tag because I also feel this segregates me to a certain degree. But essentially I am Asian because my family originates from India. I am also British without question – I was born in the UK which legally grants me the right to call myself British but more importantly I adopt the British culture if that culture can actually be defined.

I am British and I come from Indian “stock” – and a very tasty stock may I add in the culinary sense. Talking of food, Chicken Tikka Masala is one Britain’s national dishes. There is a huge “stockpile” of “racial foreigners” in the UK:

Amir Khan - the UK’s most prolific boxing talent and of Pakistani stock.
Monty Panesar – a British Sikh and an England cricket sensation. Indian stock.
Lenny Henry – a Dudley born black comedian. “I am yam, what I yam” he would say in his deep Black Country accent.

Or funny-man Omid 'Iranian in UK' Djalili?
What about all the pretty “racial foreigners” now presenting on our news channels? Mishal Hussain, Nina Hossain, Susanne Virdi, Samira Ahmed? And not forgetting George Alagiah or Krishnan Guru-Murthy?
What about the activitists and humanitarians such as Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti and Parvin Ali who has fought endlessly for the rights of Muslim women?
What about exceptional UK entrepreneurs like Karan Bilamoria, James Caan, Perween Warsi and Tom Singh? The list goes on and on…..

More importantly, what about the millions of hard working, tax paying, law abiding African-Caribbeans, Pakistanis, Punjabis, Bangladeshis, Chinese, Jewish and countless other community groups who contribute to the wellbeing of Britian today? All of these groups contribute to the United Kingdom but how united must one feel when still regarded as an inferior second class citizen?

There are so many “racial foreigners” in the UK that to take them away (Nick Griffin thinks we don’t exist) is to take away a lot of what Britain has achieved and will achieve in years to come as the UK becomes a further enriched melting pot of varying stocks.

And what of those who are mixed race? Are they ‘semi racial foreigners’ perhaps?
Leona Lewis is one Britain’s brightest singing talents and of mixed race background – Black Caribbean stock.
Craig David – the son of a Jewish mother and a West Indian father.
Lewis Hamilton is mixed race – the youngest ever Formula 1 champion.

So the next time I fill out a form that asks of my credentials in terms of identity, I will do what I usually do… I will draw a box at the end of the list, title it Human Being and tick the box with pride. Or maybe I should not bother, after all I don’t exist…