Origination: The Race Debate

Multiculturalism in Britain today: Has it worked?
Anila Baig, feature writer for 'The Sun', April 2007.

In the old days it was Paki-bashing that was the norm, now it's "multiculturalism" that's being stalked and beaten over the head.

Several recent reports have blamed it for society's woes saying this policy, to allow people to celebrate their own cultures, is at the root of all today's troubles. I couldn't agree less.

As a child growing up in Bradford in the 70s and 80s, multiculturalism may have been the rage but the menace of the Far Right was strong too. Racism was in-yer-face – along with a fist if you were really unlucky. Television programmes featured lovable racist characters and it was a bit of a laugh. A thousand apologies?

We were bussed to a faraway school where we were the only children with brown faces. When we got called names the teachers would say: "Oh just call them something back like milky." Some insult – the Milky Bar Kid was strong and tough. At lunchtime, we had to finish up whatever was on our plates, whether it was chicken pie or pork sausages. I was asked if I was a vegetarian but I didn't know what that was. "Do you eat meat?" the dinner lady enunciated loudly. Well, yes I did at home. "Eat it up then, chop chop."

Desperate to fit in we were, but at the same time our parents, desperate to cling to their roots, tried to ensure that we didn't forget where they came from. Frequent trips to Pakistan, lessons at mosque, spoken Urdu at home, then later perhaps even a marriage "back home."

Somehow we found our feet, knew when to be Yorkshire, when to be Asian but the two couldn't sit side by side. In the 90s it started again – prove your allegiance, which side are you on, who do you cheer for? Citizenship tests became de rigeur.

Now we are told that it was our parents who made all the effort. That it is the second generation that is turning its back on Britishness with girls adopting the headscarf, and boys wearing shalwar kameez and multiculturalism is deemed to have failed. Maybe they just got sick of being pulled in two directions. At times it has felt like we've been in the middle of a bitter divorce.

But it isn't the fault of multiculturalism. Respecting one another and each other's differences isn't a bad thing. It is one of the endearing qualities of this country.

I love its quirkiness – the fact that a girl in a headscarf can get a job on a paper which has Page Three, that reality TV can spark a huge debate about race, that the underdog is always supported. This is the essential aspect of being British and multiculturalism is a part of that.

To me, it always will be.