Race is not an issue in the UK anymore

10 October 2009

For the past decade Samir Shah has been chair of the Runnymede Trust, devoted to studying ethnicity. Now, he says, the real problem in Britain isn’t so much racism, but "cultural cloning".

I first arrived in this country from Bombay in January 1960. Harold Macmillan had yet to make his Winds of Change blowing through Africa speech. Coronation Street hadn’t appeared on our television screens. As an eight-year-old child, I recall looking up at a huge advertising hoarding in Notting Hill Gate showing an attractive blonde offering very smart chocolates. I loved chocolates and they looked fantastic, but I was depressed. Why? Because I genuinely believed that those chocolates were for white people only.

Fast-forward 27 years and I was appointed head of current affairs at the BBC. Determined to get to know my new department a little better, I decided to see one of my staff — a senior editor — in his office. I walked over to his PA and asked for him. Her response was unhesitating. ‘Ah, are you the minicab driver? The editor’s busy at the moment, I’m afraid. Please wait in the car and he’ll come down when he’s ready.’ No, I replied, I wasn’t the driver. I left my name and asked her to let the editor know that his new boss had come round to see him. You won’t be surprised to hear that he was round in a flash — with his poor secretary with him, apologising profusely.

That was two decades ago. Television is still my business, but I have, for the last ten years, also been the non-executive chair of the Runnymede Trust. A think-tank devoted to studying ethnicity and diversity, born in the white heat of the 1960s, Runnymede has been pretty good at influencing debate about race relations for the last four decades. This week, as I step down as chair, I have a somewhat unbuttoned contribution to make to that debate. What follows is not Runnymede’s official position — but it is mine.

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KindnessofWomen

October 8th, 2009 7:00pm Report this comment

When did "anymore" become a single word?

KindnessofWomen

October 8th, 2009 8:28pm Report this comment

Great article, Samir. What you say about the dangers of cultural cloning echoes Trevor Phillips's warning in September 2005, two months after the 7/7 attacks, that Britain is in danger of sleepwalking its way into racial and religious segregation. Here's the quote:

"We are sleepwalking our way to segregation. We are becoming strangers to each other and leaving communities to be marooned outside the mainstream."

Four years on, his words are as pertinent as ever. For me, there exists a very strong case for abolishing faith schools. But show me the politician with sufficient backbone to push that one through.

Peter From Maidstone

October 9th, 2009 1:34pm Report this comment

Abolishing faith schools is just socialism, its just social engineering. It is not conservative or libertarian. It is just more of the same 'we know best, do it our way, government that has failed us so badly'. There are problems, but the state taking over the bringing up of people's children is not the answer - it has already failed. What next? Ban mosques? Ban anyone who disagrees with you?