Subject: My culture, right or wrong?
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 12:27:03 +0200


27th July 2000

Dear Pocolisters,

I think a fact is beginning to emerge, especially from Josna Rege's
thoughtful and informative pieces about Bradford and Manchester Moslems,
etc., about the interplay of cultures with regard to immigrant communities
in Britain. It struck me that what Josna Rege says about "East is East"
shows how crucial the ethnic background factor is as opposed to race and
colour. In other words, culture plays a large role in the acceptance or
otherwise of immigrants.

The fact that there are now several generations of immigrants from South
Asia in Britain today, with some achieving prominence (e.g.  as I believe,
the actress who plays "Milly" in the rather well-produced soap "This Life" -
anyone watch it?) shows that much of what is at stake when countering racial
prejudice is a question of culture, rather than race per se.

By the year 2000, there will be rather a lot of people who are ethnically
South Asian, but cultural very British, bringing a new dimension to the
issue.

If a white saw an "Indian/Pakistani-looking" person on the street in the
1960s, that South Asian would often speak with a foreign accent, dress
differently to the white majority, have different body language, gestures,
etc. Especially white working class people, with few insights into other
people's cultures, would find it burdensome to have to cope with so many
different factors. Skin colour may merely have been a signal for "this
person's going to be difficult to communicate with". Hence their shutting
out South Asians from their lives wherever possible. Plus also the worry
about  "they're taking our jobs". Asians were surely brought over after
World War II when the factories and woollen mills needed filling up, but
once whites had had a few kids who would end up later on the job market,
these people who looked and behaved differently were not so welcome any
more.

But by 2000, their children or grandchildren will, to all intents and
purposes, except for the genetic colour of their skin, have become British.
Not coconuts but say, 80% British with some aspects of their ethnic
background intact. Maybe some religion, food habits, etc. But accent,
gestures, clothing - these have now become all the same as their white mates
and counterparts. They may still look different, but all the rest of, at
least,  their public behaviour is the same. Such people cannot be seen as a
threat by all but the most nutty racialists, since they have "become"
British. When a normal British white person sees a brown person nowadays,
the expectation is that this person speaks and thinks more or less the same
as the white does. So apart from the gangs of racialist thugs and elements
within the Metropolitan Police (London), I would imagine that the average
Briton has had 30-40 years to "get used" to people who look as if they come
from India or Pakistan.

Will people from South Asia on this list, and who live in Britain, please
say whether I am being too optimistic in this. Because obviously as a
British white I am much less sensitive to the everyday dimension of being
singled out as "different".

Best wishes,

Eric Dickens




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