In one of my subjects I'm currently studying race and ethnicity in UK, it's mostly about immigration, the history, the consequences and a couple of polish plumbers thrown in. At first it seemed like an interesting topic which it is but as it moved on I couldn't help but realise the negative slant and connotations in the content.
The first troubling sign is the race classifications as much the governments fault as the exam boards for choosing to go ahead with it. There's 3 classifications of race; black, white and Asian, in a multicultural society like the UK this is it. This means a Chinese person and an Arab person are the same race, even Stevie wonder could see something isn't right. I mean say if someone's Moroccan, they're not Asian and they're not black either, try explaining that one to me.
Then we got the obligatory dribble about how black and Asians suffer from bad education, poverty and low status and the government’s actions to prevent racism and promote racial equality. Judging from the riots in Brixton, Burnley, Handsworth and Lozells, Oldham and Handsworth again 20 years after the first one the governments doing a superb job, NOT!
The area that really got to me though was immigration and the perceptions that it gives students about immigrants. My class is majority white British and they're experiences are very limited when it comes to such topics, I myself and many of you reading this may have more experience with such things, maybe your parents were immigrants. So you realise that immigrants aren't here for the hell of it or dole money, unfortunately not everyone gets this and the content does not seem to correct them and a teacher can only try so hard to change someone's mind. In one lesson someone said "I saw an immigrant at the coach station" and now I'm thinking what the fcuk does an immigrant look like, was he wearing an armband, maybe even a number tattooed on his arm or perhaps cause he wasn't white?
Should we really be teaching something so complex that the people who run the country can't work out to17 year olds in such a simplistic manner? Is Edexcel seriously this stupid? It merely seems to enforce the notions that they hold before they enter the room. All this talk from the government about integration and communities not isolating themselves seems lost even more when you allow "children" to learn this.
Get the Picture?
March 28. 07
You think its bad in the UK mate you should try living in Spain or the US (both of which I have done)
ReplyDeleteWe are a million times more multicultural then those coutries. Maybe because of our colonial history and the influx of immigrants from the sub continent and the Caribbean added to the fact that we are such a small nation with a dense population which lives on top of each other we dont have as much of the intolerance and race hate as exists in other countries.
Be thankful.