Are you a Minority?

[diablodelmar]

I would consider myself to be normal here in England

 

[The Last Conformist]

A Swede living in Sweden, I'm about as non-minority as it gets.

 

[Gabryel Karolin]

Half-Finnish, quarter Swede/Norwegian living in Sweden. Lived here all my life and got a Swedish name so although I'm officially part of a minority (one parent born outside Sweden) I feel part of the overwhelming white/scandinavian majority.

 

[Rambuchan]

Mental minority. Aren't we all?

Speak for yourself mate

 

[classical_hero]

Considering that I am a white male living in Australia, I would consider myself to part of the majority, but being in a mutli-ethinic society, it is a majority that is slowly be warn away, an that is neither good nor bad, just a statement of fact. Considering that I am a WHM, soon I shall be a minority.

 

[ComradeDavo]

I'm a white Brit living in an area of country where most people are white Brits. So in the 'majority'.

There is much to say about this topic, so here's a long post for those who are not lazy at the monitor.

I am a British-Indian. Both parents are of Indian origin, one grew up there as an Indian (Indian passport till leaving for England) and one growing up in Africa as an East African Indian (British passport).

Cute as the term is, British Indian is fairly accurate of my identity, or as close as any equal opportunites form will get. I'm 'more British' than say Silver with his dual nationality but certainly 'less British' / 'more Indian' than my native friends. Whatever you want to call it, I am part of both a ethnic minority in England and a religious one too, as a supposed Catholic. This Catholicism (being from Goa area) and Britishness actually puts me in a minority when I go to India too. It's a lose lose situation.


Some experiences:

Seeing as I don't buy into Catholicism much at all I'll share some experiences about being an ethnic minority in England.

Although, unlike many other ethnic minorities in the UK, I refuse to live my life playing the racism card I have been well aware of racist sentiment directed against me and my family whilst living here. There have been many times that family members and myself have been made to feel like outsiders. This is despite the fact we speak English as our first language, don't do arranged marriages, wear 'western clothes' and have generally assimilated into British culture.

Here are some of the cold truths about what really goes on, and has gone on, for minorities in this allegedly tolerant country (I'm fiegning indignation for the sake of the topic, I do believe England is more tolerant than many other countries):

- The 50s: Grandmother arrives from Uganda. She gets on the phone for job interviews, she's well qualified and has good experience from days in British East Africa. Plenty of interviews come from these calls for she speaks with a received pronounciation, the Queen's English no less. When she arrives at the interviews it's as if there has been some misunderstanding over the phone. Why? Because she's dressed in a sari. This is a garment that is modest and can be formal and was considered perfectly fit for work in British East Africa. Well this garment turns out to be the deciding factor in potential employers' decision making. She doesn't get the jobs. Not because of her attire but because it's clear she's Indian and 'won't fit in'. Who does she end up working for in the end? A Gujarati legal firm (and people wonder why immigrants bunch together!). Grandfather was ok as he had been transfered from Uganda into England anway.

- The 60s: My Dad starts looking for work as an accountant. Again, fully qualified. He faces less blunt discrimination but still fails to get a job with an English firm. Who does he end up getting a job with? A Jewish accountancy firm in London.

- The 70s: My uncle goes to university and gets the crap beaten out of him on a regular basis. Why? Because he's 'a Paki'. The large populatin of people from what is now Pakistan in the north of England seems to earn everyone with brown skin this title, even if they hail from an area some 1500 miles away from Pakistan. His life was made a proper misery and his high marks are probably due to him staying in and studying rather than risking a thick lip again. This is in Warwick, a supposedly notable university. It should be noted that he's a bit of a wuss anyway.

- The 80s: Family members have been living in Birmingham for a while now, at least 15 years. Well they start getting all kinds of grief from skinheads and neo-nazis. The medley of graces includes verbal insults, some deckings (and counter deckings), regular intimidation at the workplace with verbal insults and pesky harassment. Friends have such further hospitalities as human excrement through the letterbox, hoax filth calls and in some extreme cases bricks through windows.

I start going to school in England in this decade and am one of just 3 Indian boys at my school. I lose count of the times a parent comes up to me and calls me by one of the other Indian boys' names. I wonder why it seems so easy to confuse us - one is a Sikh boy and wears a little turban, the other is actually Sri Lankan and then there's me. The other children (under 10yrs old) treat me more with curiosity than malice. An English teacher goes gaga over my Indianess and immediately demands me to start teaching him Sanskrit!

- The 90s: My sister faces regular racist abuse at her school and gets in trouble for fighting with other girls over it. I start experiencing more open racist malice at school as kids get older. It's only verbal, stereotypical, predictable abuse but it's there nonetheless. Certain catchphrases that begin getting associated with Indians get used at me: "tickets please", "here's your change" and "jarrrly good sir". It amuses me that they can't apply more imagination.

- The 00s: I leave university and start looking for a job, initially within advertising and PR, which are well populated by 'the old boy network'. I get jobs fine (it's not the 60s anymore and I ain't wearing a sari) but some interviews have undertones. One notable one is for a PR firm. I have lots of writing credits and experience on my CV but, out of all of them, the interviewer focuses in on some sketch work I did for 'Goodness Gracious Me' (they never used it). He comments that I seem very much like the Kapoor characters in that programme (they go around pretending to be British and calling themselves the Coopers). I ask him what this has to do with anything and he replies 'oh nothing it's just amusing to meet a Kapoor / Cooper in the flesh'. Well I'm pleased I could offer some entertainment and exoticism in his day and that he doesn't want to give me the job.


And so is the situation of Indians in Britain. Regardless of where you are actually from in India or the world, there was the common perception that we were all Pakis (from Pakistan). Nowadays, owing to the fame of Goodness Gracious Me (a Punjabi TV show), it's assumed that all Indians in the UK are Sikh Punjabis and listen to bhangra music in their spare time. We're no longer in the situation of being looked down upon as in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Nowadays there is a respect there but also a curiosity and expectation of exoticism still. We also have new and quite sweeping associations these days with terrorists, working in finance or IT, being a business man of some sort, being a potential 'honour killer', a male chauvanist or a downpressed female and so on. There are also many unspoken understandings that certain fields are still not welcoming of outsiders and that they are still largely the domain of the white male - politics, law, high levels of big business for example. Those who make it in these fields do so because they don't take no for an answer, apply themselves with diligence and don't keep thinking about that race card. Some of them it may be argued are tokens to multiculturalism. Those that don't go this route find work without many problems, or put up with problems / being a novelty, or they just start their own businesses up and employ each other to avoid the headache.

Excellent post Ram, made very intresting reading!

 

[thetrooper]

Speak for yourself mate

Maybe I should, which one of them?

Echo what CD said about your post btw.

 

[JoeM]

In Belgium, Walloons are the minority ( Flemish being the majority ), so I voted yes.

But with the federalism, and as I live in Wallonia, it has only few consequences.

Since I discussed this with you in November 2004 I still can't get anyone to believe that Walloons exist...

 

[mrtn]

Since I discussed this with you in November 2004 I still can't get anyone to believe that Walloons exist...

Actually, Walloon is one of the few ethnicities it's quite "hip" to have in Sweden. Quite a bunch of them came here 300 years ago, to build up our iron working cities.

@Ram: Interesting post there. You're a fine guy, even if you're a foreigner.

 

[nonconformist]

Nope, unless you count the odd "when was the last time you won a war?" type thing

@Ram: interesting post.

I have to say that I am surprised at the lack of integration experienced in England.
England, America, and other Western nations have a surprisingly ghettoised society.
For example, there is not a single black person in my year.
A couple in the year below.
It's stunning how you have to go to Brixton, or other suchb "ghettoes" to find these ethnic minorioties in any number, and I have to say, it is somewhat surprising to see ethnic minorities in the street.
Britiain remains a very "white" culture, where you won't see ethnic minorities for weeks at a time, because they've all been forced by social mechanisms to residing in ghettoes.

 

[Rambuchan]

I have to say that I am surprised at the lack of integration experienced in England.
England, America, and other Western nations have a surprisingly ghettoised society.
For example, there is not a single black person in my year.
A couple in the year below.
It's stunning how you have to go to Brixton, or other suchb "ghettoes" to find these ethnic minorioties in any number, and I have to say, it is somewhat surprising to see ethnic minorities in the street.
Britiain remains a very "white" culture, where you won't see ethnic minorities for weeks at a time, because they've all been forced by social mechanisms to residing in ghettoes.

As I've indicated with those little anecdotes about my grandmother and father's job hunting, what is often thrown at minorities as a lack of willingness to integrate is actually just a survivial mechanism. If the mainstream culture that wants you to integrate is too bigotted and narrowminded to give you a job - then you have to turn to other minorities who know what it's like for that job / home / whatever. Result? Ghettos.

 

[nonconformist]

It's a viscious circle.

 

[Rambuchan]

But one that can be (and is) broken with more awareness and education. Those are the two factors more than anything else.

 

[Mathilda]

Living in England I found that these days Indians and Pakistanis are regarded highly for their hard working, law abiding attitudes. They also seemed to have a reputation for putting a lot of emphasis to education for their children.
I didn't mix with top poiliticians though, so maybe this is a somewhat limited view of things

 

[Legend Killer]

I'm white and male, I'm 3 quarters Welsh and a quarter Irish, I'm slightly paler than usual people and I'm also quite tall for others my age in my region.

But no, I am not a minority. (I'm also one of the more poular guys in the area, which is possibly why I'm one of the only kids around my area that can be kinda cheeky to the local thugs and just get a laugh and a ruffle of the hair out of it )

 

[Bartleby]

I'm an Englishman living in Cork City. Mostly I don't feel like a minority.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

Well, there are many schools in Calgary where white kids were a minority (largely to Asians/South Asians/etc.), but my school was about as dull and homogenous as it gets (in Calgary), with me being in the majority.

 

[luiz]

Nope, unless you count the odd "when was the last time you won a war?" type thing

@Ram: interesting post.

I have to say that I am surprised at the lack of integration experienced in England.
England, America, and other Western nations have a surprisingly ghettoised society.
For example, there is not a single black person in my year.
A couple in the year below.
It's stunning how you have to go to Brixton, or other suchb "ghettoes" to find these ethnic minorioties in any number, and I have to say, it is somewhat surprising to see ethnic minorities in the street.
Britiain remains a very "white" culture, where you won't see ethnic minorities for weeks at a time, because they've all been forced by social mechanisms to residing in ghettoes.

In England I' ve only been to London, but I must say that my short experience there was very different from what you' re saying. I saw as many blacks and other minorities as I see in Rio.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

White, middle class, male. Maybe not a minority, but certainly oppressed.

Wow, you read my mind. Well the white part is soon to be minority (I'm not trying to be racist at all, I'm just stating a trend I've noticed).

In my small town I am a minority, as I was born in a local city of 20,000+, and this town has less than 1000. Most of whom are farmers, almost the exact opposite of my family and myself. The closest thing we are to farmers is casual gardeners, a vegetable garden about 20'x10', and a small flower garden (basically just as a landscaping feature, we're not hardcore or anything).

As for ethnicity, I am in a vast majority. Nearly everyone in this town is either Polish, German, or Norwegian (i.e. lots of beer, yea!!! But you could have assumed that considering we have 16 bars for around 700 people).

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

I have to say that I am surprised at the lack of integration experienced in England.
England, America, and other Western nations have a surprisingly ghettoised society.
For example, there is not a single black person in my year.
A couple in the year below.
It's stunning how you have to go to Brixton, or other suchb "ghettoes" to find these ethnic minorioties in any number, and I have to say, it is somewhat surprising to see ethnic minorities in the street.
Britiain remains a very "white" culture, where you won't see ethnic minorities for weeks at a time, because they've all been forced by social mechanisms to residing in ghettoes.

I have read from some study, that races in America, after fighting soooooooo hard to desegregate, are inadvertently (or not) doing it again.

Though I have only read the first 20 lines or so, this sounds similar to what I am talking about (like the previous article where my statements are gathered).

Link:
http://slate.com/id/2098387

Evil Tyrant: don't you mean an evil, tyrannical, white male?