Race in British Society

Race in British Society

This essay will differentiate between ethnicity and race; it will then go on to evaluate the historical and biological basis for the concepts of race and ethnicity within Britain. It will assess and evaluate immigration and race relations in Britain. Finally it will explain the effects of legislation and analyse historical developments in race relations.

Race and ethnicity are often confused and mistaken for meaning the same thing. People categorised others for being a certain race based on their skin colour, the language they speak or by the clothes they wear. Where as in actual fact, race is a biological theory passed on by our parents and is based on physical characteristics. These characteristics can be clearly visible for example the colour of somebody’s skin and hair. Then there is a genetic difference which is not visible to the naked eye which also groups us together.
Steve Jones believes that many attitudes towards ‘race’ and has no scientific basis. He argued that ‘humanity can be divided into groups in many ways: by culture, language and by race which usually means by skin colour. Each division depends to some extent on prejudice and, because they do not overlap, can lead to confusion’. (Jones, S 1991)
A definition found, defines race as a human population that is believed to be distinct in some way from other humans based on real or imagined physical differences. Racial classifications are rooted in the idea of biological classification of humans according to morphological features such as skin colour or facial characteristics. An individual is usually externally classified (meaning someone else makes the classification) into a racial group rather than the individual choosing where they belong as part of their identity.
(www.wikibooks.org)

Ethnicity is a break down from all the races within the world and is another way of grouping people together. Instead of physical characteristics is connects people through social traits and can be shared no matter what race you are. Examples of these traits are religion, culture, nationality and language.
A more in depth definition of what ethnicity is;
An ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or assumed- sharing cultural characteristics. This shared heritage may be based upon putative common ancestry, history, kinship, religion, language, shared territory, nationality or physical appearance. Members of an ethnic group are conscious of belonging to an ethnic group; moreover ethnic identity is further marked by the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness.
According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, who looked into the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently. One is between "primordials" and "instrumentalism". In the primordial’s view, the participant perceives ethnic ties collectively, as an externally given, even coercive, social bond. The instrumentalist approach, on the other hand, treats ethnicity primarily as an ad-hoc element of a political strategy, used as a resource for interest groups for achieving secondary goals such as, for instance, an increase in wealth, power or status. This debate is still an important point of reference in Political science, although most scholars' approaches fall between the two poles. (www.wikipedia.org)
The term race first appeared in English literature in the sixteenth century and was used to define ‘kind’ or ‘type’ for example ‘a race of saints’. It was then it started to get more frequently used as England and neighbouring counties became more diverse in the eighteenth century. Indians and Africans were often exploited by the English and were kept separate from Europeans as they were used purely to make money and were seen as property. European scientists started to place people into categories based on skin colour, habits and other physical traits. During the nineteenth century an antislavery movement promoting the revolutionary era ideology of justice and equality started to threaten the system of American slavery. This started to show certain behaviours which the Europeans linked and started to form an image of Africans which was wild, inferior and not civilised, and were the best type of people to use for slavery. Polygenesis researched into the African culture and resulted by suggesting that black people had been created separately and was a distinct species. This biological assumption had most of the general public believing this was true and social inequality still continued well after the Civil War. Visible physical differences once attributed to geography and climate became markers of social status where prejudice and discrimination was still growing. Charles Darwin produced a theory of evolution and looked into a more natural explanation to why people had different characteristics this led to Europeans discriminating against their own population and grouping them into superior (Nordic) and inferior (Alpine and Mediterranean) groups. Germany was not far behind and started doing the same. Jews and other ethnic minorities were also seen as inferior as the Nazi party gained the all power within Germany.
American psychologists started to undertake IQ tests to see if there were any intellectual differences between races. With advances in the science of genetics, scientists found greater genetic differences within purported ‘racial’ groups than between them. Some scientists’ deny that ‘races’ are exclusive and distinct biogenetic groups and increasingly argue that race has no meaning in the biological world. It is a cultural invention about human differences.
(www.encyclopedia.com)

The Race Relations Act is a great example to show how the effect of legislation has adapted to the rest of society and how it’s always being updated to ensure equality. The Race Relations Act makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person on racial ground, either directly or indirectly in the field of employment or service delivery. ‘Racial grounds’ are grounds of race, colour and nationality including citizenship, or ethnic or national origins. Weather this be using Direct discrimination which consists of treating a person, on racial grounds, less favourably than others are, or would be treated in the same circumstances. Segregating a person from others on racial grounds constitutes less favourable treatment. Or there is Indirect discrimination which consists of applying a requirement or condition which, although applied equally to persons of all racial groups is such that:
The law allows certain positive measures in the specific areas of training, recruitment and membership of organisations such as trade unions and employer’s organisations. These measures are to encourage an increase in representation where there has been under-representation of one racial group in the previous twelve months. These measures may include provision of access to training and/or selective advertisement for the members of that particular group. But discrimination at the point of selection for jobs or promotion is illegal and so are quotas.
Looking at the Macpherson report, though Sir William Macpherson himself calls it the “Lawrence Report,” identified institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police force and other large organisations. This raised concern about prejudiced organisational culture, unwitting racial discrimination, lack of cultural diversity in the workforce of public bodies and agencies, lack of active initiatives in eliminating racial attacks and harassment and lack of effective monitoring systems.
The report’s seventy recommendations, including the definitions of institutional racism and a racist incident, were accepted by the Government and many public services. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 is the Government’s legislative response to the Lawrence Report.
The report of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry defines institutional racism as:
"The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people”. (www.bvsnw.org.uk/glossary).
In the year 2000, The Race Relations Act was amended and strengthens the 1976 Act by extending protection against racial discrimination by public authorities and placing a new, enforceable, positive duty on public authorities. This act is now different from the 1976 one because it now makes it unlawful for any public authority to discriminate on racial grounds when carrying out any of its functions the act also brings forward other important changes.
The Act also introduces other important changes which makes Chief Officers of Police liable for acts of discrimination by officers under their direction or control. It allows complaints of racial discrimination in certain immigration decisions to be heard as part of ‘one-stop’ immigration appeals. It prohibits discrimination by ministers or government departments in recommending or approving public appointments and in the terms or conditions, or termination of such appointments, or in conferring honours, including peerages. The Act will apply to any new arrangements for appointing members of the House of Lords. And lastly it allows complaints of racial discrimination in education to be brought directly before county or sheriff courts without, as now having to be referred first to the Secretary of State for Education.
There has been a huge development in how multicultural and diverse Britain has become. The first people to come to Britain were the Celts shortly followed by the Romans. More recently were Africans who were brought to England as part of the slave trade. Just before World War 2, England made contact with the Empire and Indian and The Chinese started to come to Britain as students, sailors and professionals. Not long after followed a steady pace of Europeans, Belgians and Poles, people came to England for a better education and better rates of pay and a lot shortly returned home after their task was complete. Immigration is the introduction of new people into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, differentiated from emigration and migration. In 1946 there was a shortage in work as Britain had to turn to Commonwealth countries for labour. Mass immigration began with labourers from the West Indies with little restriction place upon them under the British Nationality Act 1948 which enshrined the right of the Commonwealth citizens to enter into the UK, to work and settle and bring their families (Mujagic, I. 2009 Race and Immigration Handout).
The British Nationality Act 1948 established the status of Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKC), the national citizenship of the United Kingdom and those places that were still British colonies on 1 January 1949, when the 1948 Act came into force. However, until the early 1960s there was little difference, if any, in United Kingdom law between the rights of CUKCs and other British subjects, all of whom had the right at any time to enter and live in the United Kingdom. (www.wikipedia.org).
Acts and legislations coming into place shows how the world is becoming more socially accepting towards different religions and races. The slave trade was finally abolished in 1833 but there was still evidence that there was still trade going on in other countries like India but it is on the decrease. In May 2002 the far-right British National Party won three local council seats, a year after racial tensions and was blamed for riots in northern towns. The government's plans for a new nationality and immigration legislation, including a possible citizenship test, sparked new controversy. Fifty years after the start of mass immigration to the UK, questions are still being asked about whether or not the UK can become a multi-ethnic society at ease with itself or whether there is still a long road to be travelled. (www.news.bbc.co.uk)
Barak Obama became the first black president for American and shattered years of history showing that America is becoming more diverse and there isn’t as much racial tension as there used to be. Obama declared “Young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans have sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of red states and blue states,” he said. “We have been and always will be the United States of America. This shows that people are becoming more accepting and that they are ready for change in people’s attitudes. (www.msnbc.msn.com)
Living in a democratic society, everyone should promote equality and cultural diversity in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance. The Race Relations Act provides us with an opportunity to reflect upon the original strategy for the Act, and to examine how the strategy has or has not been implemented. It is an opportunity to look beyond the legislation itself celebrating the great cultural and ethnic diversity of Modern Britain f, acknowledging the importance contributions made by those from ethnic minorities to our society and making some attempt to anticipate the future (Blackstone, T. 1998 Race Relations In Britain).