Britain

Sleepwalking into segregation

Lead us on, Kenny.

Britons warned over 'segregation'

The UK must enforce "equality, participation and interaction" to avoid US-style segregation, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality says.

Failing to do so could lead to people living in a New Orleans-style Britain of passively co-existing communities, Trevor Phillips warned.


It was a worrying fact that "younger Britons appear to be integrating less well than their parents", he said ...

"Residentially, some [UK] districts are on their way to becoming fully fledged ghettos - black holes into which no-one goes without fear and trepidation, and from which no-one ever escapes undamaged," he said.

"If we allow this to continue, we could end up in 2048, a hundred years on from the Windrush, living in a New Orleans-style Britain of passively co-existing ethnic and religious communities, eyeing each other uneasily over the fences of our differences."

Sing us a lullaby, Hoff.
"Looking for Freedom" would do it for me.

'American nightmare'

Mr Phillips said America's "segregated society" had been caused by a "failure to act until they were in too deep to get out of the state they are now in.

"That is why, for all of us who care about racial equality and integration, America is not our dream but out nightmare."

Mr Phillips also warned that communities were being left "marooned outside the mainstream".

These would "steadily drift away from the rest of us evolving their own lifestyles, playing by their own rules and increasingly regarding the codes of behaviour, loyalty and respect that the rest of us take for granted as outdated behaviour that no longer applies to them".

And he warned that levels of racial segregation in Britain could create a "fertile breeding ground for extremists".

"It also remains true that younger Britons are more exclusive than older Britons," he said.

zzzzzzzzzz ...... I've been looking for freedom
zzzzzzzzz ..... I've been looking so long

Oh, we're done.

So, who's up for some enforced "participation and interaction" then?

I didn't think so.

So, maybe this grand experiment of diversity is just a dream? Maybe it's just human nature to prefer our own kind? Who would have guessed? Who was to know? What a wild idea to prefer your own kind. I mean it's not like it's a pervasive natural phenomenon or anything, no, of course not.

"Younger Britons appear to be integrating less well than their parents". What? How can that be when immigration and birthrates make ethnic communities grow ever larger? Surely more insular communities would increase the cultural exchange? No? Well I'm sure glad there's a Commission for Racial Equality to figure that one out, 'cause not even the Kenny G and the Hoff could stop me losing sleep over that conundrum. Sure.

So, now that we have expensive committee-level recognition of common sense, and know that segregation is inevitable, how will Australia react?

Keep up the record levels of diverse immigration and surrender our country into fractured states?

Start up another committee: how about The Commission for Enforced Participation and Interaction?

Or return to compatible immigration?

References

Britons warned over 'segregation' - BBC


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