Many communities are now segregated, and personally i think there is an underclass prevalent in many. Lack of opporunities, bad housing, unemployment, crime and drug use are characteristics which have taken hold in many of these areas. The government seem to then leave these areas alone to continue going downhill.

There are white ghettos also, but there is a disproportionate number of blacks and asians in ghettos in comparison to whites.

This goes way beyond segragation, ghettos by definition mean disenfranchised and separate from society. Disenfranchised, and excluded youth, ie people who think they are not a part of British society which can be applied to Pakistani communites in Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Middlesbrough are much more likely to be radicalised and be more open to the ideals of Al Qaeda. It’s a utopian ideal but everybody regardless of class, ethnicity and geographical location should receive the same opporutnities in education, and life. Then perhaps these ghettoes which we all know exist, and that includes the white working class ghettoes also, will evolve and improve.

As for Leon’s point about intergration, mixed race families are rising very fast for Asians too, and that’s a fact. In America there’s a term for it ‘ethnically ambiguous’, and hopefully more mixed relationships and families will encourage more integration. But whether it will trickle down into these ghettoes is another matter.

Like I say it’s not perfect but i’m hopeful that the good examples that do exist can inspire more in this area.

What an interesting analysis. Great big melting pot and ll that stuff. Can you point me to the statistics? It is frankly the cheeriest thing I’ve read on the web for ages.

douglas

In my view in the UK mixed race kids are one of the fastest growing BME groups (projected by the CRE to become the biggest in most UK cities within a generation). This, to me, shows that integration is happening and can work on that level. I know it’s different for the Asian community (due to some entrenched cultural differences and frankly racism not to say that there isn’t any in both Afro-Caribbean or white communities) but it can happen and it can work (despite the power dynamic at work in the wider parts of society both parents are a part of).

I’m not sure i understand what you’re getting at, care to offer up some insight? My point is that mixed race kids exist which is progress of a type (contrasting with not many mixing between various Asian groups).

Racism is also a result of people believing others are beneath them. They can’t continue to believe that if that group is doing really well for themselves.

Yet, black kids under-perform at school, the community remains poorer than average, and is frequently villified in certain media campaigns – violence in black music and ritual killing of babies to cite two examples.

You can start initiatives but it always ends up with people working at grassroots with tied hands by paper rules!

Anyway I think the statistics from the Yougov don’t really surprise me but greater circulation of such figures would shock more people.

You can’t force people to get on, but you can break down misconceptions, prejudice and stereotypes. I’m not a lady with all the answers but I find the media extremely biased and scare-mongering at times and it’s what lets us all down.

By saying all this about integration, he gives the impression that all our problems will be solved just by having more mixing between the races. History however is not so clear-cut.

Taking an example of India, for arguments sake. Firstly, people of different castes have lived side by side for centuries yet they remain very segregated in reality and in society. There is also much animosity between the lower castes (Dalits) and the upper castes.

The same goes for Muslims and Hindus living in India. Virtually indistinguishable from each other – they nevertheless sometimes erupt into communal fighting given who is grinding what axe.

I find Gary Younge’s analysis of power-relationships much more relevant. You can have people live next to each other, but they won’t necessarily get along if there are imbalances that lead to resentment.

Those power imbalances, as a result of institutional racism, biased coverage in the media etc must also be dealt with.

For example, no amount of religious evangelising in India (mostly by the Arya Samaj) has led to equality between castes.

But now, with money being the great leveller, and lower caste people earning more than upper caste people, suddenly you’ve had more equality (certainly in the cities) than ever before.

I was in the States when the atrocity of hurricane Katrina hit and I saw the fallout as depicted by US media. It was not pretty and to think that New Orleans and the rest of the effected region was being treated as a separate Nation by its own people. It was quite shocking.

It’s inevitable that we would draw parallels to this type of potential scenario with our own country. The Natural Disaster that hit America has been elevated in light of following colossal human error.

This country has its blinders on and I think 7/7 shocked us all to the core, the fact that the enemy is within is evidence enough that somewhere along the line we have lost touch with each other.

The article states:

“He will suggest new measures that he admits critics will regard as social engineering. These could include forcing “white” schools to take larger numbers of ethnic minorities to help to encourage integration.”

I like the term social engineering however I think it is dangerous to force communities to mix, as the article goes on to state,

“The study by Bristol University found that children are slightly more segregated in the playground than they are in their neighbourhoods. That means that not only aren’t the children meeting — nor are their parents,”

Integration needs to work on all levels current research shows that it’s harder in practice than it seems in theory.