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9 September 2000
By Jack Tan
Conjecture is something that all of us do from time to time. From childhood
we play with ideas of what the world will be like in the future. There
is no harm in such visions and in fact it is actually important mental
stimulation. However, publishing racialized conjecture on the front page
in today's xenophobic climate is clearly irresponsible.
On Sunday the Observer published some research claiming that white people
would be a minority in the UK by 2100. It further claimed that in London
this would happen as early as 2010. These calculations were made based
on the high reproductive rates of ethnic minorities and high levels of
immigration of non-white people. The statistician asked to remain anonymous
for fear of being branded a racist. Although the article itself was balanced
and neutral in tone, it betrayed unwittingly racist assumptions on the
part of the newspaper.
There is an assumption that a Britain that is non-white is extraordinary,
not normal. Naturally, Britain is white and any evidence to the contrary
is worthy of front page prominence.
But this assumption of whites being a homogeneous "indigenous"
population has to be challenged. What we think of as indigenous white
Brits is actually a product of waves upon waves of immigration since the
dark ages. Celts, Angles, Danes, Saxons, French (Normans), Jews, Germans,
Spanish, Romans, Gypsies. These are what make up the native population
of Britain and today's cultural mosaic also includes the Chinese,
Afro-Caribbeans, South Asians and many more. Britain is an island of immigrants.
There is no indigenous, 'born of the soil' white population
to speak of. Like all others, the British 'race' is a carefully
constructed myth.
Of course there may be some people reading the article who are open-minded
enough to embrace the idea of a multicultural Britain, but such enlightened
minds are rare. More likely people will feel threatened by such statistics
and in a climate where feelings of xenophobia are at a steady simmer,
it takes very little stoking for anger and hostility to boil over.
Britain's obsession with patrolling the white cultural border comes
from fear. Fear of finally relinquishing power altogether. Fear of difference.
Ethnic minorities are already under-represented in positions of power
and influence in the UK. If it does come true that ethnic minorities eventually
become a majority, then fear will continue to keep them out of power.
Read The Observer's article 'UK
whites will be minority by 2100'
A
matter of arithmetic - or racist scaremongering? 'Be warned: we intend
to out-birth white Britons, who will end up as rare as red squirrels'
By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown at The Independent
Maybe
baby - Yes ethnic minorities are growing faster than whites in Britain.
But with affluence that will probably change. (And who's white anyway?)
David Walker from The Guardian argues back. |
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