Samir Shah has written a well thought out article in The Spectator (10 October 2009): ‘Race is not an issue in the UK anymore’. It is not an article that can easily be dismissed. Samir has been the Chairman of the Runnymede Trust for the last ten years. The Runnymede Trust is a think-tank devoted to the study of ethnicity and diversity. Samir is also an experienced media person.
Samir’s argument is that the real problem in the UK now is not so much racism but an underclass of cultural ‘clones’. He acknowledges that there are still problems, for example, some ethnic minority groups have worse educational results, but he also highlights positive changes that have occurred over recent years. For example changes to workplace profiles that are now more diverse; the success stories of black and ethnic minority entrepreneurs, and the range of ethnic groups now on the Sunday Times rich list.
He also points out for example, that studies into gang violence in Britain have shown that, unlike the US, there is no ethnicity factor. The racial make-up of gangs in the UK reflects that of the city where the gang is based: so ‘if a version of the American TV series ‘The Wire’ was based in Britain, then the colour of their skin would not be a factor.’
However, he says he sees the real problem now is in terms of cultural ‘cloning’. No longer is recruitment about race discrimination, but the human tendency to recruit in one’s own image:
‘Recruitment, instead of being about picking the best people, becomes a process of finding people like the ones already there. The overwhelming need for a kind of cultural comfort blanket takes precedence over every other consideration – and rules out those whose backgrounds don’t quite fit. This is what a 21st Century Equalities Commission should have in its sights.. Cultural cloning is, in my opinion, the main source of discrimination in Britain today.’
Such cloning will impact in terms of race, but also a whole range of other areas, including class, your ‘look’, your politics: are you right wing?, and even your style. Samir’s article is food for thought, and moves on this agenda, which has so often been bogged down in old fashioned orthodoxies; dated ideas of social engineering, and stereotypes that belong to the 70s and 80s, not now in 2009. Check out the article in the Spectator.