The invisible Asian people...

This is a totally random post, but recently I wound up checking out the demographics of the UK, partly in response to a conversation online about racism and the differences between the US and the UK.

I discovered that the UK was 90% White, about 4% Asian (of Indian/Pakistani/Nepali/Sinhala origins) and the next largest ethnic group (African or Carribbean origins) made up about 1.5% of the population.

It's slightly skewed in London, but those are the national figures as of 2001.

These were floating through my head as I watched TV.

It was nice that in every ad break there was at least one Black family - normally quite middle class, and not terribly threatening, but they were there, and definitely looked to be of African descent. Only one per ad break, on average, but at least there was some kind of visibility. Then there were lots and lots of White folk.

Guess who didn't exist?

Honestly, over about two nights I saw one Asian guy in any kind of advert, and he was dressed in anglicized style clothes and talking to Bill Oddie in a Post Office ad (which are, by the way, fab). No women in saris. No women in salwar kameez. No men in turbans.

But I see those people in the street every day. There are three times as many of them as there are those of African descent. Am I missing something? Are there ads or TV shows I've just not noticed?

I have a theory, btw, as to why the media carefully puts in lots of Token Black Folk and entirely ignores Asians, and it's this vague suspicion that the UK has mostly let itself be tutored by the US on race relations, where the African American experience has been very influential in terms of shaping the discourse. This is reinforced by the number of people who I've heard refer to Black British folk as 'African American'. Why they want to call anyone Black 'American', I have NO idea!

The other possible theory is that Asians spark British xenophobia more than the average Black guy, by wearing funny clothes and talking weird accents and having dodgy religions, but I'm unsure on this whole subject.

Opinions?

The invisible Asian people...

This is a totally random post, but recently I wound up checking out the demographics of the UK, partly in response to a conversation online about racism and the differences between the US and the UK.

I discovered that the UK was 90% White, about 4% Asian (of Indian/Pakistani/Nepali/Sinhala origins) and the next largest ethnic group (African or Carribbean origins) made up about 1.5% of the population.

It's slightly skewed in London, but those are the national figures as of 2001.

These were floating through my head as I watched TV.

It was nice that in every ad break there was at least one Black family - normally quite middle class, and not terribly threatening, but they were there, and definitely looked to be of African descent. Only one per ad break, on average, but at least there was some kind of visibility. Then there were lots and lots of White folk.

Guess who didn't exist?

Honestly, over about two nights I saw one Asian guy in any kind of advert, and he was dressed in anglicized style clothes and talking to Bill Oddie in a Post Office ad (which are, by the way, fab). No women in saris. No women in salwar kameez. No men in turbans.

But I see those people in the street every day. There are three times as many of them as there are those of African descent. Am I missing something? Are there ads or TV shows I've just not noticed?

I have a theory, btw, as to why the media carefully puts in lots of Token Black Folk and entirely ignores Asians, and it's this vague suspicion that the UK has mostly let itself be tutored by the US on race relations, where the African American experience has been very influential in terms of shaping the discourse. This is reinforced by the number of people who I've heard refer to Black British folk as 'African American'. Why they want to call anyone Black 'American', I have NO idea!

The other possible theory is that Asians spark British xenophobia more than the average Black guy, by wearing funny clothes and talking weird accents and having dodgy religions, but I'm unsure on this whole subject.

Opinions?