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To have a genuinely multi-racial society there needs to be genuine economic equality between the races. It's unbelievable that one can talk about a multi-racial Britain or anywhere else unless there is a measure of economic empowerment for all groups within Society. This means making sure that there is genuine equality of opportunity in education for all races. And that the barriers for black and ethnic minority advancement in business and in the profession are taken down. But economic empowerment for minorities is a necessary precondition but not sufficient to bring about a genuinely multi-racial society. Because nationhood and society is as much about ideas as anything else, the role of culture, literature, philosophy and the arts in building a multi-racial society is key. The first step is that the influence of black and ethnic minorities in the culture of a country like Britain is properly acknowledged.
There is no doubt the history of twentieth century popular music is very much the history of African music as it has been mediated through North America. There is almost no sort of pop music that doesn't owe something to black American influence. And in art, the influence of African art has long been acknowledged on modern abstract painters like Picasso. More recently, the literary establishment has been willing to acknowledge the contribution of black and ethnic minority writers like Ben Okri, Alice Walker, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Arundathi Roy, Salman Rushdie and Nobel prize winning Toni Morrison. And at the level of popular culture, different races have enriched British life greatly.
There is no doubt that the presence of ethnic minorities in Britain and much more foreign travel have transformed the British diet for the better. Noticeably fish and chips have been overtaken by curry as the most popular British takeaway. For many years, Britons have got used to seeing black athletes like Linford Christie representing them internationally. And much of the famous "Cool Britannia" that mix of music and fashion, which is admired internationally, derives from different ethnic street styles. We are also seeing an unprecedented level of intermarriage between the races. It is noticeably more common to see mixed race couples in Britain than in the U.S., which has had a larger black population for longer. There can be no doubt that as more and more British either have a black person in their family or at least knows someone that has a black person in their family, ideas about the desirability of racial purity will have to be examined by even the most die hard conservative.
So multi-racialism is easy to talk about but hard to achieve. Yet as we have approached the end of a millennium, Britain is a more open, more multi-racial society than ever before. And one where different races and cultural influences are beginning to be positively acknowledged and given equal respect. British society have come some way but there is still further to go. Martin Luther King dreamed of an America where a man's character would be more important than the colour of their skin. The indication of Britain's becoming a genuinely multi-racial society is when the skin colour of a British MP is no more significant than the colour of their eyes.
While preparing the essay the following publications and resources were used:
Diane Abbott, MP. Multi-racialism in Britain Oxford, 1995.
R. Rees Davies, M.A., D.Phil. The Matter of Britain and the Matter of England, Oxford, 1996
Internet resources:
www.bbc.co.uk/history
www.planet-britain.
Реферат опубликован: 19/05/2007