Racism exists in U.K., admits Minister

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, OCT. 16. The controversy over racism in Britain has taken an embarrassing turn for the Blair Government with one of its Ministers admitting that ``there's still far too much racism and there is no point denying it.''

The comment by the Foreign Office Minister, Mr. Peter Hain, an anti-apartheid campaigner, coincides with the Bhikhu Parekh Commission's report last week saying that the term `British' had racial connotations and that much still needed to be done to make Britain a racially more cohesive society. The Government was still trying to play down the report when Mr. Hain stepped in.

Mr. Hain, who is incidentally due to visit India shortly, said in an interview that racism was deeply embedded in British society ``from the pub joke to the fire bomb that goes through the British Asian family's door on a council estate.'' He was concerned that Britain could end up creating a black `underclass' with a vast gulf separating them on the one hand from other ethnic groups which were doing well, and on the other from the better off sections within the African community.

Mr. Hain's views in today's Independent were confirmed by Sir Herman Ouseley, former head of the Commission for Racial Equality. He said there was a danger that sections of certain ethnic groups including Pakistanis and Bangladeshis could be cut off from the mainstream.

A report by the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations at the University of Warwick too vindicated the Minister's concern. It found `alarming disparities' within ethnic minority groups with Indians and Chinese generally doing better than Afro-Caribbeans, Africans and Pakistanis among others. While race relations campaigners are likely to seize upon Mr. Hain's remarks to support their own arguments on the issue several blacks, reacting to Mr. Hain's statement, did not agree with him.

The disadvantages which blacks suffered were not necessarily or entirely due to racial discrimination, according to them, though there was no doubt that they were at the wrong end of the racial spectrum.

In another development, meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church England and Wales was accused of discriminating against ethnic minorities. The Director of the church's Association for Racial Justice, Mr. Stephen Corriette, who is of Caribbean origin, has documented incidents of discrimination which he said was `driving minorities away'. He has called for an inquiry.

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