How many is enough?

I was quite surprised to hear Lenny Henry complaining recently about a lack of ethnic diversity on television. He said:

“When I started, I was surrounded by a predominantly white workforce, and 32 years later, not a lot has changed,”

I am not sure what he really expects to see in his workplace, but with 90% of people in the UK being white, almost all workforces are likely to be predominately white. The laws of probability states that for every 100 people in the television industry, just 2 will be black and 90 will be white.

When I was a boy, the only time that I would see a black man on TV was when my father walked over to turn the set on and I caught sight of his reflection. These days television is positively brimming with black people, and other ethnic minorities for that matter. Certainly a marked change from a few decades ago. Indeed, Lenny Henry claims that nothing has changed since he started his career, but that isn’t true. Lenny Henry was unique, because he was the only black comic on TV at that time. I remember seeing him for the first time on New Faces.

Black Heritage and Culture

Nottingham has in recent years become almost as famous for its crime rate than for its legendary son, Robin Hood. Nicknames such as Assasination City and Shootingham say it all really, so I wasn’t too surprised to hear of boys from a Nottingham school being excluded for bringing in a knife.

That was until I read that they were primary school children.

Three boys have been excluded for seven days and a 10-year-old boy they allegedly threatened has been told to stay away for three days.

A vegetable knife was found in the bag of the 10-year-old who attends St Ann’s Well Junior School, Nottingham.

Split Personality?

Well it seems that no sooner was my ban lifted on the prejudiced blog of Stefania Harris, than it was reimposed. I did however manage to make one comment that was retained, pointing out the errors with the original post, comment number 85 is mine.

Again Steph, who at this point had assumed the persona of an 18 girl called Amie, changed my name to ‘Gareth’ but rather than troll, this time I was labelled ‘retard’. Ha Ha, such hilarity! It never grows old! My name isn’t Gareth yet she continuously addresses me as such, ha ha!

‘Amie’ went on to answer my comment stating:

@ Gareth

You’re so stupid.

I admit, I was dumbfounded by such a witty retort, but I read on.

No one ever said that interracial relationships were uncommon in the black community. Steph said it wasn’t common for white women to date black men and the number interracial marriages is 2% of the total.

Females are over 50% of the population. White females are 92% of the female population. Black men are less than 1% of the male population. And you want to look at the percentage of black men dating white women to make a statement about interracial dating in the UK?

*roll eyes*

‘Amie’ I don’t see your point. The original post clearly implied that Britain, and white people in general, were racist and had negative attitudes towards black people. The primary focus was that white women do not date black men.

This is completely untrue; you then roll out a lot of percentages that only prove one thing, it is impossible for more than 600,000 women (1% of the population) to be dating black men, as there is only 600,000 black men in the UK!

Furthermore you ignore that fact that mixed race children (those born of black and white parents) will soon outnumber black people in Britain, proving categorically that white people and black people not only date, but also have sex and therefore children!

Your view of a racist Britain is a complete fallacy and entirely based on a childish and ignorant grasp of maths and percentages!

*Slaps Head*

I don’t mind black people – just not in my area

Bizarre as it may seem, there are still those among the white community that believe that black people are some type of leper…

It’s not at all racist Errol, there a big difference between disapproving of your daughter having an interracial relationships and being opposed to them in general.

This from Stefania Harris over at Steph’s Blog. Of course it is racist Steph, you’re stopping your daughter from dating a negro purely on the basis of race. You are not interested in him as a person, nor what he can offer, you are pre judging him based on the fact that he is a negro. That Stefania, is the very definition of racism.

Saying it is OK to discriminate against people based on race is naive and offensive. Especially from a lawyer.

Stefania Harris backtracking?

Further affirmation that Ms Harris is conceding that she was fallacious:

In the UK inter-ethnic relationships are set to rise but not black-white relationships. The continuation of the black population at is current levels is very unlikely because although interracial relationship are extremely rare per percentage of the population, they are common in the black population.

Pardon? Kindly repeat that last part…

because although interracial relationship are extremely rare per percentage of the population, they are common in the black population.

Naturally, and the black population is the only one of consequence when discussing interracial relationships within the black community, isn’t it Stefania? Obviously the number of white women dating black men is going to be low because, as Jake pointed out in the comments, there are 25+ million white women and only 600,000 black men, so it is the number of black men that are dating white women that is important and the best indicator of interracial relationships.

With around 50% of black men currently dating a white woman, you could say that it is clear that interracial relationships are the norm.

Stefania Harris admitting her error?

I tried to post this, as usual on Steph’s blog, but as usual it was deleted. It was in response to this comment by Stefania Harris:

0.4% of white women in England and Wales are in mixed-ethnic marriages, which is 1% of the 9,900,000 married white women in England and Wales. Less than 1-2,500 is married to a black Caribbean man. The number of black males over 16 is less than 1% of the population of England and Wales.

Hmm interesting, so Steph, what you are basically saying is that 17% of black Caribbean men in Britain are married to white women? Well that is good, especially as only 50% of black men are married, which means that a third of married black men, are married to white women!

The Negro Seed is Strong Ms Harris

It is good to see that there are still people confronting Stefania Harris over her views of blacks and racism in the UK. Darryl makes some interesting points, but he, like most of the readers of that blog perhaps, are missing the big point about the statistics that Steph uses.

Those statistics don’t mean anything.

What is working class?

So what? I’m working class, I was raised in a working class household and I’m paid a proportionate wage for my labour, expertise and education.

That little pearl of wisdom was from Steph over at Steph’s blog. Apparently she is a lawyer, yet she is labouring under the misapprehension that being a lawyer makes her working class!

Free Speech

I have never agreed with censorship in any form, indeed if there had been censorship then Ignatius Sancho would never have been able to do what he did to aid the abolitionists. This of course then begs the question of what we do about those that are spreading malicious, hateful or dangerous lies? For me, the only option is to confront them, challenge them and disprove their claims.