Mixed messages on multiculturalism

By Cindi John
BBC News community affairs reporter


Most people polled supported multiculturalism
Last week Prime Minister Tony Blair said he did not know what people meant when they referred to 'multiculturalism' but a BBC poll appears to show a high level of acceptance of multicultural Britain.


Of the 1000 people questioned, 62% said multiculturalism made Britain "a better place to live", however, almost the same proportion said people "should adopt the values and traditions of British culture."


The response in the BBC poll seems to suggest that although ethnic minorities are generally thought to enhance life in Britain, adopting the British way of life is a prerequisite to their acceptance by society at large.

That would seem to suggest a shift in the general public's perception of what multiculturalism is all about.


I never know, although I use the term myself occasionally, quite what people mean when they talk about multiculturalism

Tony BlairIn the 1980s and 1990s it was promoted enthusiastically as a means of enabling minority communities to retain their own culture and traditions while taking part in the life of mainstream society.
But in recent years concern has been expressed that multiculturalism is leading to segregation of some of Britain's ethnic minority communities.
Among those calling for the policy to be scrapped was the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), an organisation which was formerly a long-time champion of multiculturalism.


Last year Trevor Phillips said the term was no longer useful as it suggested "separateness" and called for all citizens to "assert a core of Britishness."
Former CRE chairman Herman Ouseley says after Mr Phillips remarks, the confusion about what multiculturalism means is not surprising.
"If you say multiculturalism has created an environment in which people from different minorities have come here and won't integrate then I think clearly what you're doing is putting in people's mind the fact they should believe people should integrate," Lord Ouseley said.


Irish heritage
And he admitted he no longer understood himself what multiculturalism meant.
"It's like racism, it's an overused word that's applied in so many ways it loses its value. Or it's misunderstood and people then become afraid to talk about it or they use it as a means of beating somebody over the head."

Race activist and diversity consultant Linda Bellos agrees multiculturalism is a word that's hard to define.


Multiculturalism: The policy or process whereby the distinctive identities of the cultural groups within such a society are maintained or supported

Oxford English Dictionary



What is multiculturalism?
"I've never personally used the word "multicultural" because I think it's very imprecise and so open to misinterpretation. My general feeling is that it's a portmanteau word which means anything to anyone who wants to define it," Ms Bellos said.


The implication that multicultural issues only concerned ethnic minorities was also wrong, she added. "We have millions of people of Irish heritage in Britain who are actually rather proud of their Irish heritage, they could and should be part of the debate but it has become polarised as a black and white issue and that's part of the problem," Ms Bellos said.


According to Rhian Beynon of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, multiculturalism has fallen victim to a negative press.
"I think "multiculturalism" is like "asylum seeker", it's become tainted because of the way some individuals have used it and I think there is a school of thought that lumps multiculturalism in with political correctness and would jeer at it."
But Rob Berkeley of the race think tank the Runnymede Trust says whatever the debate about the meaning of the word, the policy remains sound.
"The key things are that we do pursue a shared national identity and some shared common values based on our shared humanity.


"And we need also to ensure people are treated fairly and their identities are not denigrated or subsumed into some sort of non-identity because that gets rid of all the benefits of diversity."

Ok I couldn't resist.....I heard this discusserd briefly on the radio and I thought I'd revisit this issue again here...

So here's the question (tongue firmly in cheek), What aspect of British culture should we adopt to blend in more with the BRITISH culture....here are my suggestions:

1.Go out and buy myself a Burberry item of clothing to give myself that 'CHAV' feel..

2. Go out every friday night get legless and then vomit in the middle of the street or better still on the feet of the nerest police officer..

3. Walk around singing 'you'll never walk alone' in an off key pitch with three other perfect strangers..

4. Punctuate my senstences with the word 'innit' or 'gwarning'...

Any others i might of missed?

This won't end well.confused3

How could you forget the perfect ending to a night

snog ......sorry i mean slobber over an equally drunk *becky*

eat pork scratching

eat what tastes like plastic * asda 99p ready made lasgne*



do nothave a bath.

do not brush teeth for two days.

Speak proper english like * fakin hell mate, tha bird hs big knockers* at every opportunity......or *maaaaaaaam were is me socks maaaaaaaam*

contiune

kissing dogs

sharing the dogs food whilst its in the dogs mouth ewwwww lol

call the police pigs instead of babylon (or whtever the latest terms are)

mother never gets to see girlfriend until the engagement/wedding day ("nuffink to do with them innit!?")

call everything with a dash of spice, curry

There has been some press coverage recently regarding 'branding' ethnic minorities which I find most interesting.

I myself have tried to hold onto certain cultural traditions and moral values instilled from my parents. However, I find it difficult to pass this on to my son or nieces, they think I live on a different planet. I believe my parent's culture(for me)has been fused some what with 'English' therefore, I cannot sit comfortably with 'English' culture at all.

My point is this, if you know your culture is from the Caribbean, or Africa and you give that up, i.e. Don't check for the food, push up your face when someone talks in a non-English language etc, can you in your heart say you are nothing more than an English man/woman in a black skin which in my view = Assimilation!

My parents - Jamaican - Not assimilated

Me, Second generation- English Jamaican - semi- Assimilated

Son, third generation - English - Assimilated, hopefully with some integrity.

Have you assimilated and more to the point do you think your children will be?

If this topic has been rinsed then moderators lock it off!

Good point there. I have to say i feel the same way. My parents are Nigerian, I was born in Nigeria but lived over here most of my life... I feel Nigerian first, british secondbut my children won't. They will be English and my worst nightmare is that they won't care about their father's distant, dusty, poor country. lol

@True to yourself you will never know how timely this is. Yes and no. Assimilation first depends on what we are talking about like segments of an orange. So obviously we have to assimilate to a particular degree simply to exist. A jamaican for example who leave JA a year ago to live here is going to be diffferent in ways than one who has not. I always say I like pizza for example and my father probably think it is something to clean your shoes with.

So yes but it is not assimilation that is uniformed or has to be. In other words you do not have to assimilate everything and in fact many ethnic racial groups do not while others simply abandon their culture and try to grab on to anything that is forieign. That is about leadership communal intelligenec and sophistication about what you take on and what you don't and requires serious discrimination .

Sorry to say the Afrian-Caribbean community are more assimilated and open to assimilation and throgh its women in particular in very very dangerous way more than any other group in this country to the point its own survival is seriouslly threatened. So when we talk abot cultural identty most people would not have a clue and will assume it to be about skin colour not about ethnic cultural norms. Hence why people feel comfortable with black which means nothing and not an substitte for cultural identity and hate the word ethnicty.

So great subject.

FBniceone.gif

Go home feeling let down because a British team/person lost again at a sport, any sport..in fact just all sports.

Shop at Topman.

Read the Sun.

Fart and then laugh.

Text people constantly.

Wax the car.

- After a night out (i've seen it girl piss in an alley way whilst holding a bag of chips in hand)

- Go to clubs and snog as many people as possible

- Go to Ibiza every year and shag as many people as possible

- Go paki and wog bashing even if your black or asian because it's the culture

- Call black people apes or monkeys ("look at that one love looks like he just dropped out the tree")whilst driving even if it'sblacks to other blacksbecause it's culture

- When your briefs get dirty turn them inside out

- Walk on the street drunk singing England songs

- Yellow teet ("how you nu see me teet")

- In the pubs sing "we will drinka drinka drinka till we turn pinka pinka pinka" even if your black

Fedblack/Stick-upkid

I know this is not indicative to assimilation, however, as an example: A women friend i know had a conversation about food and what is our favourite. I said stew chicken with Rice and Peas. don't get me wrong, I eat Thai, Italian etc, but my favourite is as above. she tried to ridicule me,saying I was old fashioned. She liked Thai, she can cook the food i like at home. When asked when last you cook/eat that type of food, well errm, the longest while. Do your children eat it, hmm, they don't like it. Not F.. suprised when you don't give it to them!

You know what, don't blame the youth, blame the parents (second generation).

Sorry about my rant, but it burns me when youth love Chicken nuggets and such delights and the parents just say thats okay. Back in the day my dinner would have been Liver and boiled banana, but i'm old fashioned!