“From your reading, give an account of your understanding of notions of “ethnicity” and discuss how (in literature) they are applied to the study of social policy and social issues.”

“The human species is genetically diverse. We are all born with an observable set of characteristics that

we share-albeit in different measures-with our immediate forebears, but which may differentiate us from other members of our species.” (Baldock, J. 2003: 204)

When we talk of ethnicity, we indicate that groups and identities have developed in mutual contact rather than in isolation. But what is the nature of such groups? And how has ethnicity been applied to social policy and social issues?

This essay will outline certain social issues which I believe are of most importance at the moment in UK and other countries too. They will be part of my three chosen topics from the list of topics I have studied so far in my lecture, they are: Multiculturalism, Education and Law. I believe that the term “ethnicity” is widely used and contradictive debates have surrounded these three topics. I will first begin with a brief history on the term “ethnicity”.

History Of The Term “Ethnicity”

The term “ethnicity” first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972. An American Sociologist named David Riesman was the first to use this term back in 1953. When it first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary, Glazer and Moynihan stated that, “Ethnicity seems to be a new term” (Glazer, N. and Moynihan, D. 1975: 1) However, the word “ethnic” is much older as it derived from the Greek ethnos, which originally meant pagan (William, R. 1976: 119). It was used in this way in English from the mid-14th century until the mid-19th century, when it gradually began to refer to “racial” characteristics.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, there are many academic publications on ethnicity, especially in political science, history, sociology and social anthropology. Words like “ethnic groups”, “ethnicity” and “ethnic conflict” have started to become common in the English language, and they keep cropping up in the press, in TV news, in political programs and in casual conversations. However, many of us admit that the meaning of these terms frequently seems ambiguous and vague.

In the early 20th century, many social theorists had predicted and believed that ethnicity would decrease in importance and would eventually disappear as a result of modernization, industrialization and individualism. This never happened. In fact, ethnicity still holds some importance and has grown in political importance in the world, especially since the Second World War (Eriksen (1993)). I will refer back to this later on in my essay.

Multiculturalism

I have never been sure exactly what multiculturalism means. Of course, I have my own definition of that term which is – a mixture of race, ethnicity and culture within a society. However, when politicians and media present and put forward their views, it makes me wonder if multiculturalism really is what I think. And most importantly, does it even exist in Britain?

Racial discrimination is a fact, and without taking in to consideration the reality of racial and cultural differences, it is possible not to measure the extent of discrimination people face, and not to combat it. Multiculturalists argue that, policy must respond to people’s real needs and the most important need is sustaining an identity and a culture which receives public recognition. But the problem is how do you manage a diverse society while maintaining a sense of common identity? This created many debates; however, it was in more focus when in autumn 2005 France and Britain were in riots. Many French cities were alight in the two weeks of violent mayhem. This was mainly caused by North African youths living in the poorer areas. In Britain, a weekend of rioting between African Caribbean and Asians took place in Birmingham, which resulted in a young Black man murdered by an Asian gang.

In Britain, this shows that something has gone wrong with multiculturalism. On the other hand it is a sign to France that it is now time to do what Britain did the late 70s. Riots forcing the policy makers to do something, and take racism seriously to adopt a multiculturalists approach. However, this may be difficult because France has never faced racism because it does not recognize the concept of ethnic differences.

“[…] commission’s call for tolerance for different cultures fared less well […]” (Cornwell, G.H. 2001: 89)

The obvious evidence showing that the French Commission’s call for tolerance didn’t work was due to the 1989 incident.

In 1989, three young Muslim girls were expelled from a secondary school in Creil because they refused to stop wearing their head scarves to school. This then started to become the Nationals favorite debate where the girls were portrayed as “an infiltration of Islamic terrorists and proof of the dangers that threatened to destroy the “true” France” (Cornwell, G.H. 2001: 89)

The principle expelled them because he wanted too defend the republican values for the girls as well as for the whole society. Event he church and state were separated in order to uphold those values and the opportunity for integration they represented. I still cannot work out how dividing people and institution would actually create integration. Wouldn’t you need everyone to understand all the different cultures, religions and people around you in order to “integrate”?

When South Africa had a racist apartheid regime which existed before Nelson Mandela came to power, it used to be referred to as a “multicultural” society. This puzzles me as I don’t understand how a racist apartheid can be known to be so multicultural.

In my point of view, although I did mention before how I am not sure what the term multiculturalism means, I can say for definite that Britain has always been, in one way or another, a “multicultural society”. I can say this because throughout my generation, that “ism” word has been mentioned quite a bit. However, it was not used because we have suddenly become more concerned about the opportunities available to Black youth, but because within Islam, there grew a minor but dangerous cult known as the terrorists. Due to this minor cult, every Muslim in Britain has to suffer the terrorist’s consequences. A good example would be the issue on Muslim women wearing the hijab. Once there was a terrorist who used the hijab to disguise himself in order to plant a bomb, now every woman in a hijab is under watchful eyes which isn’t just intimidating, but also humiliating for those who are religious and live their life according to God’s true words written page by page in the holy Quran.

Surely keeping a close watch on one minority is not going to create a multicultural society is it? It definitely doesn’t according to me because, these women in a hijab are known as anti-social who does not want to integrate in this society. If they do integrate in this society that means doing everything that is done in the Western culture, but that is just a way of killing multicultural society as there will be one less culture/religion in Britain! However, it does make me wonder whether this will affect many British Asians out there who have integrated themselves into the Western culture. An example can be Madood’s study of the second generation conducted in 1997. He found that the second generation likes to think of themselves as British but not entirely culturally and socially.

They were not comfortable with being British more of a title then a legal title, and found it difficult to call themselves “British” because they felt that majority of the White people did not “[…] accept them as British because of their race or cultural background, through hurtful “jokes”, harassment, discrimination and violence […]” (Madood 1997a: 330) and tend to find that people denied to class them as British. I think Madood’s study demonstrates great complexity in the construction of identity and sources of ethnic identification because, he describes ideal types that are usually found in mixed form.

I think, minority groups in society often have strong family and religious identities. To put them aside in order to further the cause of integration is not going to be easy. It seems like Britain has failed to find a civilized way of talking about our diverse multicultural society. Let us see if they failed on the educational side too.

Education

“Education is seen as a means of instilling the disciplines and values that the workforce and

administrators of society need.” (Abercrombie, N. and Warde, A. 1988: 254)

The educational area is a reproduction ground for highly debatable topics and areas of interest. One of the most controversial is the role of diversity in schools and its effect on the students. There are of course many different types of diversities that could occur within education which include socioeconomic status, culture, gender, and ethnicity and so on. I will be concentrating on race and ethnicity and the influence it has on students and schools.

Education is most probably the most important means by which members of the ethnic minority communities can become more integrated in to the mainstream of White British life. As children go through education they do not only learn to speak English, but also gain qualifications which will allow them to get jobs in Britain and acquire familiarity with broader British cultural practices. This may help them go higher up in the occupational and class hierarchy. However, there are still many children from ethnic minority groups, especially those coming from another country, that face disadvantages in education which then affect their educational achievements.

There are many factors that intervene on particular levels of achievements. However, I think this is because educational achievement is not the product of a single phenomenon but represents an interaction between students and the institutional environment. The kind of institutional factors that may create problems in achievements can relate to teachers, the courses, exams, the teacher-student interaction, the characteristics of a school, the peer groups and so on. It seems to me that educational achievement in general could fall in any of these two categories: educational achievement through institutional variables (school, teachers, courses etc.) or educational achievement through individual variables. I will explain these through two studies, one by Rutter (1979) and the other by Taylor (1976).

Rutter (1979) explained in his research “Fifteen Thousand Hours” that his research was done upon educational achievement that was examined through institutional variables. Five measures were selected to assess the relative achievements of the twelve secondary schools in London which took part in the study: the students’ attendance record, behavior, examination success, post-school employment and criminal behavior. The whole point of this was that the school with the best record on those measures was most likely to be successful in achieving the aims of that school. “The research also showed which school variables were associated with good behavior and attainment and which were not.” (Rutter 1979).

Although this research may have shown that secondary schools do have an important influence on their students behavior and achievements, I would argue that these good behavior and great achievements came from the individual’s hard work and determination. For instance, if a school sets guidelines for you such as achieving a B in your next essay or not getting in to any trouble for a whole month, then it is basic common sense that you take on board these “rules” set out for you and put in all the effort you can to reach these goals. Like my doctor once said to me, “fulfil your dreams my child, because it only depends on YOU”. To back my point of view is the research done by Taylor (1976) in “The Half-way Generation”.

Taylor’s study was conducted in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The approach here was different compared to Rutter’s because Taylor assessed educational achievement in terms of individual performance. The samples included South Asians’ and their White peers. Here the criteria selected to measure individual’s achievements were the number and level of public examination passes, length of stay in full-time education and higher education entry. The assumptions behind this use of criteria was that students’ who performed well on them were more likely to be educationally successful then those who did not.

Although both Rutter’s and Taylor’s studies made sense, I think they failed to mention practical and scientific problems, especially those ones related to the standardization of measurements. Such standardization is important if comparisons are to be made between institutions and individuals. I think Rutter would need to find ways of controlling the variations in the twelve schools and from what I had read from Taylor’s study, he would be facing the same problem as Rutter, just that he would need to control the variables that affect the educational outcomes of individual South Asian and White pupils. For instance, some students’ may be receiving more help from school teachers and from family and friends compared to other students’, hence those receiving a lot of help are likely to do well in exams and so on. Also another factor to take in to consideration is parental achievements and how they may be influencing the students. For example, if a student comes from a well-educated family where the father is an environmental engineer and mother is a doctor, then the child is more likely to get that extra help and pressure to do well in education in order reach higher up in the occupational/class hierarchy where their parents are.

Referring back to the educational achievement of children in ethnic minorities, I would like to stress that from the available evidence of different researches and statistical evidence from the ofsted, it shows that although ethnic minority students may have had problems with achievements in the past, 2007 shows a brighter future for those children. The ofsted statistics show how the ethnic minority children are doing well then their White counterparts in all parts of England.

“Children from Chinese, Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi and black African backgrounds have, in virtually every local authority and in most schools, better “value-added” scores for secondary education than white youngsters.”

All other Black minorities were of a mixed result. But this evidence makes me question, why is the White population of students now underachieving? The answer, according to the ofsted lies in different family’s’ aspiration. Does this mean every White family had the same aspiration before? Did they not have any different goals and ambitions back in the days? I don’t think different family aspiration is the answer to my first question on why White students are underachieving. There can be many factors that may be causing this such as, gender, lack of motivation, status and so on. However, I think more research must be done on this new finding which is bewildering me as much as my White friends! After all, wouldn’t people agree that White could be ANY White person in Britain? The ethnic term “White” is very broad, and needs to be split in to categories so we can see exactly what TYPE of White population are doing poor.

Law

Laws and social policies play a big part in our lives as they teach us the right morals, principles and so on. There is of course, much legislation which I could mention; however, because my essay is mainly based on ethnicity within multiculturalism and education, this section will only outline those legislations which concern my two focused areas of my essay.

There is no doubt that racial discrimination is experienced by ethnic minority groups. There is evidence from a variety of sources as well as the ones above that, often in the past ethnic minorities have been receiving unfavorable treatments. In my view, even today they are treated unfairly because I still see many ethnic minority children stereotyped by teachers (i.e. Black boys are troublemakers) and of course, since the 9/11 attack religions are being attacked too which in return is creating a non-multicultural society. And where determination lies to hold up multiculturalism, people are being forced to change themselves (i.e. the hijab issue for Muslim women) in order to make them integrate within the British culture.

This then creates more problems because people are starting to lose their human rights and the freedom to live life the way they want to. So what is done to put these problems right? Legislations are made.

As I had mentioned before, many legislations have been made in the last 50 years or so. However, I find that the following legislations created have been the best so far in connection with multiculturalism and education.

British Nationality Act (1948) gave right to the Commonwealth citizens to enter UK in order to work, settle down and they can bring families. To me, this was a start to creating a multicultural society. Allowing people from other countries allows British people to see what other types of people exist in this world. It was a chance for the British to integrate with these new fresh faces and find out what life is like back in other countries. Have the British lost that opportunity? I don’t think they have. There are still many people you see from different cultures and countries. Take Loughborough University for instance, so many international students, yet it is so rare to see a group of mixed British and internationals!

Race Relations Act (1976) established the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). Although it did a good job by making discrimination illegal in places, it completely excluded the police. In fact, due to this exclusion, according to my lecture notes from one of my modules, there were many more stop and searches done on Blacks and Asians. The police started bribing each other to do certain “tasks” which are illegal, and altogether, this RRA created a big issue of what is commonly known as the “canteen culture”.

Another of my favorite, which is linked to my education and ethnicity topic discussed above, is the Swann Report titled “Education for all” (March 1985). It is concerned with inequality of educational achievement between different groups and brings in the notion of multicultural society. It was debated in the 1980’s as not everyone supported the Swann Report. Nowadays, I can say that there are many 2nd and 3rd generations who don’t have much knowledge and interest in going back to their roots, mainly because they were born in Britain. This brings us back to question whether the British people have lost the opportunity to integrate in to other cultures? And have those people from different cultures started to lose their own culture and identity by living in Western society?

It can be argued that people from other countries have not lost their culture or identity because if anything is spoken against them then they would stand up for their own minority group. An example can be the Pakistani welfare groups that exist in many localities, each joined to a different local political party – Labour, Liberal

Democrat or Conservative – and often displaying intense rivalries based on ethnic and political divisions in the country of origin.

From I can see, it seems to me that racism seems to be a major problem in Britain which is depriving children of ethnic minorities a decent education and denying ethnic minorities the right to freedom of religion and identity, hence all these legislations that have been created. However, critics of policies have suggested that they need little more than what we call a “coat of paint” solutions (Gilroy 1987) that fall short of addressing the true nature of racism in British society. The inquiry into the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence (Macpherson 1999) and, for example, a report by the Runnymead Trust on the future of multi-ethnic Britain (Parekh 2000), have clearly commanded the attention of both the public and the government, and may just help to change certain “[…] critical dimensions of the relationship between “race” and British public culture […]” (Clarke 2001: 16).

In my opinion, I think policies addressing issues of racial inequality and ethnic disadvantages can only be understood in the context of Britain’s Immigration and Asylum legislation. I think it is about time people take in to consideration the new legislation of the European Union who do not accept the word “race and ethnicity” and just sees everyone as human. I reckon it may just make issues a little less complicated.