10:30
insight seventyeight
a bit of a different account today -
i wrote a report on racism and material deprivation and how it influences the education of ethnic minorities.
i thought it pretty good, and interesting. enjoy :))
Rights or racism?
Are we subconsciously excluding
ethnic minorities?
Well the
answer is simply yes! All research points to the mind-set of a discriminative
society that segregates ethnic minorities potentially without even realising
it. But is it a shock? Not necessarily. Seeing political battles and hate
crimes on the news each day makes us immune and almost blind to the severity of
worldwide racism and negative judgement that disrupts ethnic minorities’ lives
on a daily basis.
A shocking
unseen divide between races in society is uncovered within the accommodation
and living conditions of these ethnic minorities. According to Guy Palmer
(2012), almost ½ of all ethnic minority children live in low income households,
as against ¼ of white children. These lower income households are more likely
to experience poorer living standards and issues within the home – for example
space or sufficient appliances/furniture to house the family itself. A research
study completed by The Think Tank found that a typical black African family
earned £5,600 less than that of a white household, showing a significant
difference in financial provisions for the home. Further proof into this clear
divide in society is within John Rex’s study in 1986 which showed in housing,
ethnic minorities are more likely to be forced into substandard housing than
white people of the same class. Granted this research was slightly before my
time, it still has relevance as ethnic minority households are also said (Guy
Palmer 2012) to be three times more likely to become homeless. This lower
standard housing or no housing at all shows the ‘pushed aside’ treatment of
those in ethnic minorities, even against the same class of white people, and
this is happening right as you read this.
Homelessness
in England has definitively increased from 2010 to 2017, showing that there is
not a region in the country that does not have an amount of people sleeping
rough; this will, of course, include ethnic minorities. In 2017, Homeless Link
found there was 4751 people sleeping rough throughout England, which is a 15%
increase from 2016. The Shadow housing
minister says homelessness rose 54% overall among black and Asian households,
respectively, compared with 7% in general population. The clear race divide in
housing situations is growing. The families affected by poor housing and
homelessness will experience further issues due to inadequate sanitation and
lack of substantial source of nutrition. The increase in risk for ethnic
minorities being excluded to substandard housing or no housing at all shows the
constant battle they share in fear of not having a roof over their heads.
However, this fear may be decreased as more affordable housing and homeless
shelters are being built by various charities such as The Big Issue Foundation
and Depaul UK. However this may not and isn’t enough to tackle the growing
issue of homelessness in England. Furthermore, this housing crisis will most
likely include families with a child or children, and this will impact their
younger life and the parents’ responsibilities to care for more than
themselves. These children living in these conditions may also be at a
disadvantage as they may not have the funding for school equipment or the space
to do the work set from school; this infers that poverty and low income
families are put at an instant disadvantage in education as they do not have
the resources to support their child’s/children’s learning. This inability to
afford the goods needed for education, which are otherwise known as a necessity,
is known as material deprivation and this affects any low income household –
showing the breadth of this issue. However, it isn’t going entirely unnoticed.
In early 2011, The Secretary of State announced a £180 million scheme – the
Bursary – to help the most disadvantaged 16 to 19 year olds in schools,
providing funding for travel, equipment and meals to help fulfil their
educational needs and aid them in achieving the best grades they can, even when
supposedly at a disadvantage in society due to their household income. This
scheme provides for those who request the help, this may leave children who are
too nervous or do not know about the system unable to access the financial
support they may need. The lack of a fully experienced education may leave these
students at a loss in later life within career finding and job applying.
Housing
standards and accessibility isn’t the only discriminative sector of society,
the job industry has shown aspects of racial and cultural discrimination,
leaving some of the ethnic minority unemployed. Guy Palmer (2012) found that
almost ½ of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earned under £7 per hour,
compared to ¼ of white British workers. In 2012, the minimum wage was £6.19,
meaning that a vast majority of those ethnic minorities were working for no
more than minimum wage, which, compared to white British workers, wasn’t as
much of an issue as the majority of them were getting paid more than enough.
This starts to show a glimpse of racism and segregation in the work place. Furthermore
a study from Wood et al (2010) showed employers may be picking white British
workers on purpose or by the natural gravitation towards them. The experiment
included sending 3 closely matched job applications to almost 1000 job
vacancies. For each job, one application was a ‘white person’ and the two
others were given names associated with particular ethnic groups. They found
that only 1 in 16 ethnic minority applications were offered an interview
compared to 1 in 9 white applicants. This supports the research by Guy Palmer
in which states ethnic minorities are almost twice as likely to be unemployed
compared with white people and suggests that it may not only be by chance that
ethnic minorities are more likely to unemployed. This may make you think about
why this occurs, and why white employers are more likely to choose white
employees over the ethnic minority, even if both individuals had the same
qualifications. The factor of unemployment may link to the low income of
families, which then has a knock on effect to the children and their funding
for educational needs, thus circling back to material deprivation and the
effect on their future. The high risk of unemployment in the ethnic minorities
creates an unavoidable danger of homelessness and being unable to provide for
any significant others they may have in their lives. But why are the ethnic
minorities more at risk of unemployment? There are several suspected reasons
for why ethnic minorities are at a greater risk of unemployment, which all entail
separate issues within themselves. Many individuals from ethnic minorities live
in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wage rates,
which means they may have to travel a great distance to work or will not earn
enough to cover living costs. Economically depressed places many be remote or
too overcrowded so either way the minorities are competing for jobs that aren’t
necessarily well paid but jobs that they may need desperately to support their
families and themselves through everyday life. Cultural factors such as the
tradition of purdah in some Muslim households prevents women from working
outside the home which creates an issue of unemployment for the female side of
the family, leaving the male as the sole earner or the ‘breadwinner’. This
female unemployment is proven by a BBC news report from August 2017 that stated
in white households, 72% of women were employed but in Pakistani and
Bangladeshi households the rate was almost half this at 37% and 35%. This could
either down the decision within their religion or the factor of the female
caring for children, which then puts pressure on the male to earn even though
the income may not be sufficient to provide for everyone. The unemployment of
around 64% of women in ethnic minorities shows a concerning difference between
those of the white individuals being unemployed – 28%. This female unemployment
will contribute to the low income family sector and, again, rotate back round
to the children’s lives being affected. Another reason why unemployment is so
high in the ethnic minorities is that asylum seekers may not be allowed to work
in the UK, which creates a severe issue for them even though they have left
their home country due to war or politics, hoping to find a better life
elsewhere. This is seconded by the unrecognised foreign qualifications of
refugees who want to work in the UK. These reasons both suggest that even
though these individuals may have experienced a tough life before reaching the
UK, they will still not be able to manage alone within the employment sector,
which will affect where they will live, what they may eat and how they provide
for family members too young to work for themselves. This isn’t necessarily the
UK employers fault as if they cannot understand their language nor their
qualifications, they may not be suitable for the job they have applied for, but
there should be a wider variety of jobs available for people who have come to
the UK seeking protection and safety from issues in their own country. Overall,
the difference in wages, unemployment and employer’s employees shows there is a
crack in the job sector of the UK and that racism exists beyond the words
spoken in public or actions committed to offend another ethnic group. The
discrimination and segregation lies beneath the economical side of life,
affecting people in more ways than one. Providing for yourself and your family
is a necessity to living, yet some of these people may be unable to do so
through the fact they are discarded or simply ignored by employers.
In the
wider perspective of society as a whole, racism is a subtle part of everyday
life, even though we may not notice it. Our immediate views of that specific
person on the bus or a person wearing a different type of clothing is shaped by
the way we have been socialised in society and the world around us. As we
develop opinion of our own at around a very young age, we will grow to make
judgements and certain views that centre on the ethnic minorities in our
society and the different cultures we may encounter. David mason stated in 2000
that “discrimination is a continuing and persistent feature of the experience
of Britain’s citizens of minority ethnic origin”. This suggests that racism is
a constant struggle for the ethnic minority as it is integrated into our
everyday lives. However it may not necessarily be our fault that we subtly act
a certain way towards ethnic minorities or that we have certain opinions on
them. Specific factors influence our opinions and conversations on certain
groups or cultures, such as the media, news and television. But can the media
subconsciously induce racism? One research written about by Kat Saxon in 2010
studied how viewers were affected by nonverbal behaviour in 11 popular
television shows, such as CSI: Miami. Some characters on these shows displayed
more negative nonverbal acts toward African-American characters than toward
white characters. Exposure to pro-white nonverbal behaviour increased racial
bias among viewers, as determined by a test that measures unconscious biases,
even though viewers did not report noticing patterns of biased behaviour on TV.
This study suggests that subtle nonverbal behaviour on TV can influence racial
bias in the real world and that the viewing population do not realise the
change in their own actions due to these TV shows. Interestingly, this could
suggest as the younger generation watch more television than ever before, they
are introduced to racist actions from a young age, creating a growth of
discriminative behaviour. Oppositely, it could be noticed as a racial bias and
argued against by the more aware and open-minded young audience. It is not only
television shows that may influence our opinions on different cultures,
newspaper articles, just like this one, have those big bold letters that state
the day’s news and what it is all about. However the potential of a racially
insulting headline is a possible risk in today’s society. The Daily Express has
produced some papers with extreme racially bias headlines printed on the front
such as “One in five Britons will be ethnics” in 2010” and “Muslim schools ban
our culture” in 2009. These headlines may cause a foundation of discussion in
people who may read these reports, and mould their views into a certain sense
that may become negative upon the minorities. There is a broad spectrum of
opinions upon the ethnic minorities in Britain, and you would hope the majority
are positive and welcoming. However this is not the case as the older
generations are known to have strictly negative opposing views of the ethnic
minorities living in the UK and this has been backed up with various studies.
This factor can be generalised as generational racism. One study written about
by Charles Kenny in May 2017 found that young people overall are significantly
less likely to say they did not want to live next to people of another race
than old people in the last World Values Survey with 14% of those under thirty
compared to 31% of those above the age of fifty saying they would feel
uncomfortable in that situation. This entirely suggests that the younger
generations are becoming more welcoming and less bothered about the movement of
ethnic minorities into their communities. It also shows that older people are
still more susceptible to a racially discriminative view of specific cultures.
Furthermore Dr Steve Taylor stated his theory as being “When you think of death
it creates a fear, and one way of reacting to that anxiety is to cling to
identity, to try and gain a sense of belonging, or even a sense of protection. There's
just a general feeling of anxiety in the air that creates this need for
identity and belonging, and this need to demonise other groups.” This infers
that due to the age of the older people, they wish to keep a sense of identity
by hating a certain group of people. Their prejudices’ can also be shared with
others, creating a mass base for negative racist views. Psychologist’s claim
that with old ages comes insecurities and self-hatred, and this self-loathing
is then projected onto minority groups (for example, homosexuals, people of
different religions or cultures) as a way of coping with the emotions. This
would explain why the older generations are more notorious for being more prone
to racism. These opinions, views and thoughts moulded by age, media and our
upbringing all influence the way we treat others in our society. If racial
discrimination is brought into schools by children with extreme negative views,
there may be a violent outcome or a bullying instance that may result in the
ethnic minorities being at the receiving end. This will greatly impact their
education as they may not want to face the upsetting, isolating social times or
the comments that may be spoken by other students. If they do not enjoy
attending school, there will be a repercussion on their grades, suffering from
low motivation and lack of worth ethic. This negative outlook on ethnic
minorities is gradually deteriorating, however it cannot be reintroduced
through the media or television as within a technologically centred society,
which is all the younger generations will know.
Overlooking
the abomination of discrimination produced by the nation and us within the
public shows that it isn’t necessarily intentional in some circumstances,
however it can always be prevented and stopped within the firing line of racism
and separation from the supposed “norms” of individuals in society. The real
question to be asked is why is the derogatory phrase ‘ethnic minorities’ used
so commonly (even multiple times within this article), yet it describes a
segregated group different to main population, supposedly inferring that the
difference in race has a negative isolating impact. But what do we use instead
of this expression? The phrase shows subgroups being labelled or identified by
their origins and categorised as the ‘other’ in a predominantly white society. Have
you ever used this term? If so, why did you not think of what it really
means?
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