Ghetto Britain

Writer: David Rosenberg

Ghettos – myth and reality | Who lives where and why? | Economic deprivation and race relations | White power in the cities | Can we get along?

Economic deprivation and race relations

Britain has a long history of economic deprivation and social grievances exploding into protest and riot on an ethnic basis. In 2001, riots in Oldham, Bradford and Burnley were led by Asian youth. In Birmingham's Lozells district in 2005 local African-Caribbean and Asian communities fought each other.

Arun Kundnani of the Institute of Race Relations, denies that the ghettoisation of Asian communities across Northern England is rooted in separatism. He blames the combination of industrial decline and institutional racism.

As mills and factories closed, the unemployed battled for remaining jobs largely in the service sector. The white working class were more successful at securing these jobs and moving upwards. Simultaneously, Asian communities were discriminated against in public housing. In Bradford, Asian families accessed little council housing. Oldham's local authority was found guilty of operating a segregationist housing policy in the 1990s.

In the relatively more prosperous South East, a resurgent British National Party harnessed white working class votes winning 12 council seats in Barking and Dagenham in 2006. They exploited a deprived community that feels threatened by immigration and ignored by the local and national 'political establishment', and 'race relations industry'. The BNP replaced outmoded ideologies of white British superiority, with opportunistic scapegoating of recent immigrants and asylum seekers. They successfully convinced people to blame their problems on communities even more impoverished and desperate than their own.

White power in the cities >