Prejudice

Racial facts and racial myths

Gillian Athisayan

One of the more harmful myths prevalent among social workers, teachers, and others who should know better is that there's something inherently evil in race consciousness. A consequence of this is that if anyone, child or adult, ventures to talk in terms of racial awareness, consciousness or whatever it may be called, condemnation comes loud and fast.

It isn't generally accepted that an awareness of racial difference can exist without prejudice, hence a great deal of rubbish spouted in weaker moments by, in particular, teachers in primary 'schools. "Oh no!" they will exclaim, "The children in my school don't have any prejudice against coloured children. Why, they ,never even notice colour!" There are only three possible conclusions to be drawn from such a protest; the teacher is a fool; or he's a liar; or else all the children in his school are blind.

It's to some extent understandable that teachers should defend their schools in this way — any criticism of the children is nearly always seen as criticism of the staff, and of the head in particular, but ducking the issue and blurring the edges of the debate is no way out. Teachers ought, first of all, to work out where they themselves stand and, having done that, should apply their critical and analytical faculties to the question.

First, there is the undoubted fact that prejudice does exist in most schools. Colour prejudice is what is most common but it's often forgotten that other minorities also have problems when it comes to acceptance, Jews, Catholics, Italians. . . the only difference is that coloured skins are more immediately noticeable. There is also a strong indication both in schools and in the community at large that actual violent prejudice against some sections of the immigrant population is on the decrease. The host community is far more selective in accepting or rejecting coloured immigrants. For example, in an area such as Walsall, where there are fewer West Indians, they tend to be more easily accepted by the white community than the Asian immigrants. This is an improvement on the situation fifteen or twenty years ago when it was rare for the white neighbours of coloured immigrants to be able to say whether the newcomers were Indian, Pakistani, or West Indian.

Now, the majority of those living in areas with high concentrations of immigrants seem well able to differentiate and this in itself is an indication of how far education of the total community has progressed—blind prejudice against every coloured person has now slipped and there is likely to be a more reasoned assessment of individuals.

By far the greatest step forward, paradoxical as it may seem, is that if one were to measure prejudice— and this can only be done subjectively — we've gone from Fahrenheit to Centigrade. The terms are changed. At one time it was accepted by London bus conductors that you could tell the degree of prejudice in the passenger by the height from which the coin was dropped into your hand, and the blacker you happened to be, the greater the height. This, apparently, is no longer the case. The criterion of 'colour' is less relevant. The public at large, in the big towns, but not in rural or semi-rural areas, now divides the immigrants into Asian and non-Asian and prejudice is now far stronger against the Asian.

To arrive at the reasons for this swing against the Asian in favour of the West Indian is not difficult. Partly the cause lies in temperament — the West Indian may not be the joyous, relaxed fellow of legend, but in general he is more akin to the English in mood and attitudes than the Asian is. The old myths of exceptional sexual prowess have faded into the English mists and the alleged 'promiscuity' is more or less the same as that of the contemporary English; if anything, the West Indian parent takes a dimmer view of his children's sexual freedom than English parents do. Language, again, is far less of a problem with West Indians than it is with Asians, and the Creolisation of the language has largely by passed the latest generation of West Indian children born here. But the most important factor in this is that the West Indians have always regarded themselves as English-speaking British. There is still, in spite of Black Power and the general disillusionment with the situation in this country, a quite widespread feeling that acceptance and integration are not only desirable, but possible.

It's this fundamental willingness to become integrated with the white community, by language, education, religion, marriage and the sharing of culture that has made this degree of acceptance possible. Add to this the fact that West Indians don't deliberately set themselves apart but have from the first been eager for integration. Not that there is no tension anywhere — schools in the London areas where there are large numbers of West Indians have special problems if there is already a history of violent or otherwise anti-social behaviour in the area, but it is almost always in districts of this sort — the twilight zones between law-abiding, 'respectable' areas and those where the mores are, at best, different and, at worst, criminal, that these problems arise. It is in these areas that the primary schools in particular could do much more to assist the process of integration. However the first step is to educate the educators.

So far as racial awareness in children goes (and this is 'a field in which there are many misconceptions) it should be clear by now that any child who reaches school age has already become conscious of his own race and — to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the area in which he lives and the information vouchsafed to him by his family — of the race of others in his immediate neighbourhood. He will almost certainly have in his mind an idea of the pecking order, i.e., where he is expected to stand in relation to other children of different race. Whether he subscribes to the accepted view of his position is, again, likely to depend on his family's views but there is evidence that both Asian and West Indian children react strongly against acceptance of "inferiority" by the time they are in their teens.

This kicking against the order of things as supposed, takes a different form in the two communities. The West Indian, particularly the child of above average intelligence tends to turn away from competition at the academic level when he observes, or has pointed out to'him, sometimes by well-meaning but misguided teachers, that his prospects are limited by the "prejudice" of employers. What happens to him then is largely a matter for speculation since there are no clear statistics on this type of drop-out rate, but it would seem that, far from beating his head against the wall, the West Indian lad who should have gone on for further education, settles for highly paid but relatively unskilled work and concentrates where possible on achieving a higher standard of living than his parents. The Asian, on the other hand, embittered, but supported by a family which values high qualifications as a. form of insurance, will quite often be pushed into trying to achieve an almost impossible goal in the way of multiple degrees, but even if he succeeds in that aim, he finds, very often, that his chances of employment are no better. This is the crux of the matter and it is on the question of employment that the whole future of race relations in England will hang:

Already it has been observed that in some areas the number of West Indian youths unemployed is twice as great as that of white youths and that there is a marked correlation between this and the incidence of crime. The irony is that just as prejudice against the West Indian community was showing a marked decrease, circumstances have arisen in which it could very easily be whipped up again. Unless some action is taken, we are likely to have on our hands a situation far worse than anyone might have anticipated at the time of the Notting Hill race riots. The first place to tackle the problem is obviously in the field of employment. There might be a case for classifying every person of 'immigrant descent' as disabled or handicapped since it would then be possible to include them in the number of disabled dealt with under the laws governing employment of the disabled. More realistically, government and unions should get together and work out a quota system so that at least some policy would come into existence. This would be in the interest of the community as a whole and if the immigrant section of the community pressed for this rather than for some vague, intangible form of 'equality' it would be a better use of energy and initiative and would dispel the commonly held view that all immigrants are only too happy to live on the dole.

, At the same time, an educational policy which reflects the facts, rather than the myths of race would be far more constructive. It is necessary, first of all, to accept that there is no way back — this country is now a multi-racial community, with a wide variety of colours and cultures but over and above the differences, there has to be one language and one loyalty. To pay lip-service to other cultures but not to insist on sharing that of the indigenous population is likely to do more harm than good; to encourage non-Christian children to explain about their religion but to forbid any form of reciprocity lest it seem like 'putting pressure on immigrant children' as one teacher put it, is a typical example of a one sided view held in many schools and when some of the ideas of educationists confronted with children bora in this country who cannot speak any English are considered, despair is the only reaction. There has to be some firmer action taken over this question of language if we are not to meet the same difficulties for three or four more generations.

It has to be remembered that in this context some of the difficulties in finding employment result from the experience of employers who in the past found that immigrant labour was virtually useless because of the difficulty of communication. Since language is one of the few aspects that can be tackled fairly easily and would show very marked benefits within the space of one generation, it is obvious that action on this front should be considered. How, then, could this be done? First, since the home is the place where the child first learns to speak, it is in the home that the answer lies — with Spectator February 22, 1975 the mothers. This is not the place to debate the question of qualifications for the franchise but one can at least mention the point that since a large part of political campaigning is carried out through the mass media, and on television in particular, a working knowledge of English is necessary for understanding of the issues that come up.

If voluntary efforts to improve the standard of English of the immigrant fail, as they have in the past, there is a case for imposing sanctions of some sort, possibly on the lines of 'No English, No Vote.' The psychological effect of such a measure would be to reassure the host community that its own identity is not threatened, and to compel the sometimes reluctant immigrant to face up to the reality of his situation, which is that if he and his family intend to remain here, certain minimal adjustments are required. Already it has been Observed that the legal and financial problems which confront the Moslem who wishes to have more than one wife have made the Practise of polygamy almost impossible in this country. There is no logical reason why other adaptations should not be made.

Most of the publicity about race relations in this country has given a one-sided view of affairs. It shows, more often than not, a rigid, intolerant host community denying rights to an under-privileged racial/coloured minority. It depicts the British as prejudiced against all foreigners and coloured foreigners in Particular and this legend is Perpetuated by the media. How far is it correct? How far is it false? How prejudiced are some of the immigrant communities? These questions are seldom debated publicly, least of all in the schools, but the time has come when they Should be. It is no longer feasible, let alone sensible, to pretend that the only problem lies with the host community. This is where the schools could be used. Current affairs and civics classes could bring such matters into the open; parentteacher associations and adult discussion groups could and should be encouraged to consider such questions and teachers themselves could be educated, on refresher courses etc, into a realistic approach to the whole question of race relations. If, in the one field of education, there could come an acceptance of 'difference' but an acknowledgement that beyond such difference of colour and culture there has to be the aim of making one, undivided nation, we'd have gone a long way towards establishing peaceful relationships between the races. Unless we begin to tackle the divisions now, they are likely to widen and, with the economic situation introducing

ven further pressures, the split only communities will be not lasting but quite possibly violent.

Gillian Athisa yam, a freelance lournalist with fifteen

years experience in social and welfare work, is married to an Indian and has an opted family of children of mixed race