Are Orientals fairly represented in the UK media?

Editor · Site Admin Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 215

Paul - actually we can't allow anyone to post/ vote anonymously as the forum would be inundated with spam (which is what happened to our comments section for articles), and this would be a nightmare to admin...not really much to do with tracing users etc...so don't worry about that!

Paul Courtenay Hyu · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 16

Fair enough about the spam, but some subscribers/users do seem unable to retrieve their passwords and have been sent emails saying their forgotten passwords are "******" with actual asterisks and not the actual password!

What has occurred to me is that the most contentious part of my proposal, that there should be some form of positive discrimination for orientals, provokes no comment whatsoever! With Labour planing to discriminate towards women for their parliamentary shortlists, why can't we orientals start demanding some "affirmative action" to redress the imbalance in UK? Let us not forget that blacks and Asians benefited from these very policies in the past and now they are actually at the stage where these communities wilfully lobby against the practice. This however leaves the orientals with zero gains, because, they failed to get involved and benefit when it was happening.

It is time to address the issue head on, not be coy about it (nor Chinese), and get some support for the issue and aim to become a valued and respected lobby among the ethnic minority community in UK.

It would be a good start if we could agree what term we should use to describe ourselves. "Oriental" is the only thing that does the business - but can't be used, really because of the strength of the US-Asian lobby. "Asian" is OBVIOUSLY no good here in UK. BEA?! Come on! If you asked 100 British people what BEA stood for, I estimate zero would say British East Asian.

I think its time to re-claim "Asian". Redefine it. Make those other Asians share their benefits and name!! If we had done this already, we would not have got the "BBC Asian Network" radio station broadcasting 24 hours a day to only 4 Asian communities, none of which were oriental ! They have the power and the voice: we have none. Let's grab it off them!

Edwina Lee · Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Posts: 1281 Location: High Wycombe, UK

Paul,

You are choosing the wrong issue to devote your energy.

Within a single political power structure like the Labour Party or even Parliament, you can have special treatment for subgroups.

Women is after all a rather big subgroup. About 50% of the total population of UK and of the world.

Asians is a very diverse group of people and a rather small minority in the UK. Just count the number of countries,the number of languages they speak, & the national & political diversities in there.

Asians cannot possibly be a single political entity like women. Women have a lot of common issues that they can agree on. Not Asians as a group.

Take for example, hypothetically, if a body has the power to control how many actors should be asians, then how would it decide how many japanese, mainland chinese, Hong Kong chinese, . . . how many mandrin speaking roles, how any urdu speaking roles, . . .?

Impossible isn't it?

This is why it is pointless to tackle this problem with a 'discrimination' banner.

The easy simple solution is just go and create a market. The time is ripe to do so, so just do it. Or Nike it as they say in America Very Happy

Paul Courtenay Hyu · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 16

Because it is impossible to achieve, it does not mean you should give up. I for one, do not think so nor do I think we should accept the discrimination and the unfairness which I have outlined.

If there were to be a coordinated outcry whenever orientals are negatively depicted in the UK media, that would be a good start.

I disagree, incidentally, with your statement that Asians cannot become a political entity. All sorts of disparate groups can and are doing this. From women to Gurkhas. In fact it is solely the orientals who fail in this. By banding together, orientals can also become a political group. This happened with our transatlantic counterparts. US Asians are a political group because they look for what is common to them, not for what makes them different, which is what people here seem to focus on. In the US, they all banded together when Vincent Chin was murdered in 1981( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Vincent_Chin ). Last year in Scotland a similar attach happened and it was hardly even reported in the media ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/23/police-admit-failures-murder- racist ). You are wrong, but your analysis of the situation as being impossible may be right as long as the apathy continues to thrive.

Edwina Lee · Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Posts: 1281 Location: High Wycombe, UK

People who bang their heads against walls just gets knocked off without achieving anything.

The key to achiving anything is doing it the right way, and you have not convinced me you understand the problems, nor have you got a workable solution.

Tell me. What are your achievements to date?

pensggs · Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 359

You do not have to bang your head against the wall. You can use a chisel to chip off bits of the wall.

Positive discrimination only confirms to the host community that Orientals are inferior. Besides, I cannot recall that at anytime there was positive discrimination to favour the other minority. There were in the past, governmental and public bodies had to ensure that there were fair recruitment policies within their organisation. Once upon a time, I too benefit from this policy, as the token ethnic minority to make the statistic looked right. Thereafter, it was up to me to prove that I was the best candidate anyway. This I achieved when the whole section went on strike because I was promoted from a bottom of the rank to second in command within eight months. The whole section was white and mostly female.

The governmental and public bodies had always group all ethnic minorities together. This does not work as the larger ethnic minorities discriminate against smaller ethnic minorities, depriving them of equal representation. Just audit the organisations that were given public monies to represent ethnic minorities. You will not find equal representation of orientals within these organisations. The survival theory exists here too. The big fish eats the small fish.

To achieve equal representation, then orientals have to start to insist for equal representation in all public ethnic minority organisations. Without this first step, orientals will ocntinue to exist at the margins of UK society. A united voice must be heard from orientals, not attacking the host community but at insisting on equal representation in all ethnic minority organisations funded by governmental and public bodies.

Learn from nature. A single duck is easy to pick off. A tiny swallow is vulnerable. Fly together as a unit, which can take the formation of a larger beast, then we are likely to be noticed. However, we are then visible, therefore, more will be sacrificed in the process. This strategy will allow some of us to get to the goal. Singly we do not stand a chance of reaching our destination.

It is not what one person like Paul can achieve or have achieved. It is the whole as a group, that we can achieve. Discrimination comes in many guise, and often it is hidden or dressed in illusionary armours of righteousness. The most important feeling one needs to retain is not to 'hate' the person who is using the system to discriminate against you but to take away 'his/her mask' and use the tools existing in our environment to flush him/her out and expose him/her. This is not written without much experience.

So Paul, once again, I am with you. It is better to fight then to accept 'death'. As long as one has breath, life exists to continue the next fight/challenge, even if it is to draw your last breath. Good luck

Edwina Lee · Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Posts: 1281 Location: High Wycombe, UK

Use the EU, or the United Kingdom as a unification example. What happened?

The politics is devious indeed.

pensggs · Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 359

Unification of persons with differing agendas is not true unification. This is the reason when all ethnic minorities are grouped together and classified as one. The bigger group's interest will always be on the agenda.

Edwina, you have just answered your own question.

Paul Courtenay Hyu · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 16

Edwina is the sort of person that sits there, carping on the sidelines, denigrating the efforts of others, concentrating on what divides us and not what unites us. It is typically Chinese trait and this has got us as a community not very far at all.

It is this inability to rally together that is ultimately responsible for the poor representation of Chinese and orientals in general in the UK.

We need to address this issue before we can expect others to take us seriously as a lobby.

Newsfeeds

Latest Posts

	Dimsum Forum Index -> Viewpoints	All times are GMT + 1 Hour Goto page Previous 1, 2
Page 2 of 2