BBC's White Season
All white in Barking
You can download this with BBC i-player if you live in the Uk.
A film involving talking to some of the local residents of Barking, a town with some of the highest immigration levels in the UK. It was a really provoking film that dealt with a lot of different types of xenophobia / racism.
Featuring:
An old Essex couple who are just clueless about the world outside their doorstep 'I said "You polish" and he said he was from Albania, and I was like "Oh right" but I thought to myself I thought, "Where on Earth's that!?"'
A BNP member who's clear on immigration (no) but having trouble taking a position on race, what with his daughters having a preference for 'sunburned types'
Also a Croatian Jew who has become friends with a Nigerian lady.
Nobody's really comfortable talking about race, or nationality, there is a lot of scurrying away from the camera and the ham fisted interviewer, but it seemed like most of it was fear of the unknown, or ignorance.. with the exeception of an Albanian guy who said he would disown his son before seeing him marry a Serb.
I think the scary thing was seeing their point though, and feeling their fear, even for a moment before you turn on your brain and think. The fear England not being a place I can feel ownership of, of the loss of 'englishness' which is stupid because I don't have ownership of England, and I'm not too happy with the people that do have ownership. As for the loss of Englishness, well thats just an idea we have to tie us together, and unless immigration quadruples everyone's going have time to grow into it anyway...
The funny thing was everyone on the show was racist, and everyone is a bit racist, I'm racist, I am so terribly racist about Americans, and I've got a lot of funny (and overly romantic) ideas about almost every other nationality, but it doesn't affect my interactions on a personal level, but perhaps that is thanks to living in such a practically (where people actually mix) multi-cultural place.
I'm not as racist as my dad who does use his prejudices to form ideas about people, like turks are tight and Israelis are cunts, Americans... well lets not start.
And he's nowhere near his dad, who used to use sick words to describe people who weren't white, or my Gran, who thinks all Asians are ammoral because once in the 60's blah blah blah and she just doesn't like them poles and thinks they should go back where they came from, stealing the housing and jobs like they are doing.
But it all comes round, don't it, cos SHE'S irish, and when she came over, she was stealing the English jobs and getting called a fucking paddy, and my mum and her brothers got in fights cos the Ira were blowing shit up, and the other kids didn't want to know the difference.
Sooner or later we all become English, and we decide, this is our bit, and we're all the same sort really, not like them other lot over there, So lets get ourselves sorted out and show everyone else how it's done, tidy this place up a bit eh, and what about our schools etc etc
Yep, I really do think in the end you gain more than you lose, it IS going to be different, but as long as we make sure it keeps getting better... thats the main thing.
You can download this with BBC i-player if you live in the Uk.
A film involving talking to some of the local residents of Barking, a town with some of the highest immigration levels in the UK. It was a really provoking film that dealt with a lot of different types of xenophobia / racism.
Featuring:
An old Essex couple who are just clueless about the world outside their doorstep 'I said "You polish" and he said he was from Albania, and I was like "Oh right" but I thought to myself I thought, "Where on Earth's that!?"'
A BNP member who's clear on immigration (no) but having trouble taking a position on race, what with his daughters having a preference for 'sunburned types'
Also a Croatian Jew who has become friends with a Nigerian lady.
Nobody's really comfortable talking about race, or nationality, there is a lot of scurrying away from the camera and the ham fisted interviewer, but it seemed like most of it was fear of the unknown, or ignorance.. with the exeception of an Albanian guy who said he would disown his son before seeing him marry a Serb.
I think the scary thing was seeing their point though, and feeling their fear, even for a moment before you turn on your brain and think. The fear England not being a place I can feel ownership of, of the loss of 'englishness' which is stupid because I don't have ownership of England, and I'm not too happy with the people that do have ownership. As for the loss of Englishness, well thats just an idea we have to tie us together, and unless immigration quadruples everyone's going have time to grow into it anyway...
The funny thing was everyone on the show was racist, and everyone is a bit racist, I'm racist, I am so terribly racist about Americans, and I've got a lot of funny (and overly romantic) ideas about almost every other nationality, but it doesn't affect my interactions on a personal level, but perhaps that is thanks to living in such a practically (where people actually mix) multi-cultural place.
I'm not as racist as my dad who does use his prejudices to form ideas about people, like turks are tight and Israelis are cunts, Americans... well lets not start.
And he's nowhere near his dad, who used to use sick words to describe people who weren't white, or my Gran, who thinks all Asians are ammoral because once in the 60's blah blah blah and she just doesn't like them poles and thinks they should go back where they came from, stealing the housing and jobs like they are doing.
But it all comes round, don't it, cos SHE'S irish, and when she came over, she was stealing the English jobs and getting called a fucking paddy, and my mum and her brothers got in fights cos the Ira were blowing shit up, and the other kids didn't want to know the difference.
Sooner or later we all become English, and we decide, this is our bit, and we're all the same sort really, not like them other lot over there, So lets get ourselves sorted out and show everyone else how it's done, tidy this place up a bit eh, and what about our schools etc etc
Yep, I really do think in the end you gain more than you lose, it IS going to be different, but as long as we make sure it keeps getting better... thats the main thing.