NEWS: Renaming ethnic minorities in the UK

In the awake of the London terrorist bombings, measures have been suggested to make the UK safer and for Muslims to be more part of the UK. "Rebranding" ethnic minorities to strengthen ties to the UK was a plan dismissed by Downing Street today.



Is is a good idea to copy off a US style system? Although this isn't going to make the UK safe, it is a way to steer Muslims away from extremism. I can't really think how successful this method would be but I'm with it anyway.

This isn't going to stop the major increase in racists attacks and I don't think this should be a priority. Innocent people with asian origin looks are suffering whether they are muslim or not and the UK should be more concerned about that.

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[edit on 8/8/2005 by Channy]

I personally think it's a bad idea and would not accomplish much anyways. Take it from a bi-racial American, who had a 10 year old girl in London laugh at him when he said he was black. Hell I reember for the first six months I lived there I did not meet a native Britain. Which is where I learned the joke-Why are there no brits on the streets of London? Because they are all in the pubs.

Here though we have an endless supply of labels for others, that does not change the fact that they are still considered "other" though, and that should really be where this debate should focus.

I have actually lived in the U.K, and I can honestly say that there was less racial tension there than the USA. Why this is, I can't really say, many have their theories, including me, but without the familiarity of the society in general it would be hard for me to give an adequate explanation.

Changing your labels will do a few things for sure.
It will-Annoy nationalist', and racist
It will-Confuse the old and infirm
It will complicate ethnic relations between natives and non-natives, leading to ever more exclusive categories and classifications, that are the primary step in keeping people seperated.

The one thing I liked about the UK was that I have never been to a country where so many different kinds of peoples were integrated into the society. Going to the shop, or bank, or post, I could easily come across someone who I with my preconceived notions, expected a certain speach and manneurism. Oh how I was surprised time and time again to find Paki (is that derrogatory?)Chinese, Indian, Arab, all speaking english, with a british accent none the less! Come to California my fried and see what lack of integration leads to.

Believe me this is not the case in the USA, at least not to the extent I saw in the U.K. Being from California I was especially surprised to find the people, and environment in general to be way more liberal and inclusive than anywhere in say, Hollywood.

Anyways doesn't sound like a good idea to me, but hey what do I know?..... I am just a half German, half-African-american christian American. (see it starts to sound assenine after a while doesn't it?)

Good post phoenixhasrisin

Im a British citizen and call myself British. Every other British citizen IS British. Being British is not about your race, its about your nationality and whether or not you are a citizen. That is the inclusive way to treat "minorities". In fact, if we want to be more inclusive we should drop the term "minority". Does it really matter if an ethic group numbers in their dozens or millions within this country? It might to marketeers but it shouldnt matter to the government or public.

Ive also spent the majority of my life in Australia. I would say that Australia is vastly more inclusive of races than even Britain is. Some British can bare hatred from different English cities! Manchester, Birmingham, London, Liverpool etc. They can even bare hatred to people from England, Scotland and Wales. There is no hatred between people from different states in Australia and the majority of people accept multiculturalism and embrace it.

Devising more terms to separate and differentiate could never increase ethnic inclusiveness. The government was right to reject it.

Perhaps we should try to not label people for a change. If you live in Britain, your British, in America, American and so forth. Your nationality, race and ethnic origin are all separate enitities that make you who you are. I think too many countries, especially us here in the States tend to lump all three together and try and make up names. People need to just learn to discuss them individually.

anniej says

Perhaps we should try to not label people for a change. If you live in Britain, your British, in America, American and so forth. Your nationality, race and ethnic origin are all separate enitities that make you who you are. I think too many countries, especially us here in the States tend to lump all three together and try and make up names. People need to just learn to discuss them individually.

Tell that to the minorities Anniej, they are the ones who want the distinct names not your average Americans. How many Germans in the US want to be called German Americans, or how many Polish, then Italian etc none of those I know want to be called Polish Americans or Italian Americans etc, however when you get to the minorities it is a whole new story. African American, Spanish American, Native American, you get my drift. Myself I am with you we are all Americans so use only one label, but they meaning the minorities will not stand for it.

Hell they will not even allow us to use words like warriors or braves to name a sports team since they think it offensive, yet those words warrior and braves were in use in Europe long before we arrived and no one there found the use offensive in Europe. Again I am sure you get my drift. I call it being overly politicaly correct.

I would truly love to be able to call them.........people..
and completely drop the whole labeling thing..
It's another way to divide..as if there aren't enough ways already..


Lets dehyphenate the planet..








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[edit on 8-8-2005 by spacedoubt]

Originally posted by shots
Tell that to the minorities Anniej, they are the ones who want the distinct names not your average Americans. How many Germans in the US want to be called German Americans, or how many Polish, then Italian etc none of those I know want to be called Polish Americans or Italian Americans etc, however when you get to the minorities it is a whole new story. African American, Spanish American, Native American, you get my drift. Myself I am with you we are all Americans so use only one label, but they meaning the minorities will not stand for it.

I think you misunderstand the term "minorities". German, Polish and Italian Americans are minorities as much as African/Spanish/Native Americans are. Its the numbers which define a minority, not the fact that they are a different race.

Also ive heard the term Irish-American God knows how many times as well as Italian-American.

Some might be proud of their heritage and others might want to be seen as 100% American. Saying "tell that to the minorities" is a generalisation and calling African/Spanish/Native Americans minorities and German/Polish/Italian Americans not, is also innacurate.

Subz says

Some might be proud of their heritage and others might want to be seen as 100% American. Saying "tell that to the minorities" is a generalisation and calling African/Spanish/Native Americans minorities and German/Polish/Italian Americans not, is also innacurate.

Since I live in a multi cultural town made up of Germans, French, Italians, Slovaks, Jews etc none of them that I know want to be addressed that way, it is only Hispanics, African and Native Americans that really push it around here, that is what I based my comments on. I was not generalizing them as you put it since most if not all I know want to be called Americans when it comes to caucasians that is, the line gets drawn by the hispanics, blacks, native americans not the caucasians. Hell if what you said was true I would have to call myself an Irish, French, Italian, Slovkain, German, native American and perhaps a few more I do not know about. However I prefer to call myself an American just for that reason, since I have many cultures in my blood line not just one or two.

Why don't we just call them British instead of British south east aisian with a hint of Iranian and the skin of an african? I have loads of brown skined friends. Do you know how they like to be referd to? As human beings.

Can we please just stop this stupid steriotyping. Why do we have to stick these people into a category? What difference does it make. As long as they speak the language, are tolerant, work and pay their taxes, they can in my opinion do whatever they want. This is a free country.

British multiculturalim is great. I enjoy it. I live in Manchester and you don't get cities that are any more diverse than Manchetser. We have people of all creeds, religions, sexual orientations and everyone gets along just fine. The minute the politicians stick their heads in is when things start to go wrong because the British political class are so stupidly out of touch with the public.

If you want my advice toimproove race relations, invest huge ammounts of cash in areas which have a high concentration of "ethnic minorities". Give them language schools, places to get qualifications, good housing and stick businesses there so that they can have the same oppertunities as everyone else. This is what they are doing in Moss Side in Manchester and it is improoving.

Great post pheonixhasrisin, good to remind us to that, as grim as we sometimes fear things are, it's not as bad compared to other places.

Just call anyone in the UK British, they can supply the trimmings if they feel the need.