3a - Contemporary patterns and trends of inequality and difference in relation to ethnicity, in particular in the workplace.

Question 1

Disadvantage & discrimination in Britain today - crime

Answer 1

Bowling demonstrated through self-report studies that ethnic minorities are no more criminal than the ethnic majority suggesting higher ‘crime rates’, prosecution rates and prison populations in the ethnic minority population are subject to social constructionism.
 African Caribbean’s are 7X more likely to be stopped and searched.
 35% of black people believe they will receive worse treatment than others from the Police.
 Ethnic minorities are over-represented throughout the criminal justice system from ‘stop and search’ to prison.
 89% of young black prisoners were sentenced for over 12 months compared to 75% of young white and 77% of Asian prisoners.

Question 2

Disadvantage & discrimination in Britain today - education

Answer 2

 Bangladeshi, Pakistani and black pupils achieve less than other pupils at all stages of compulsory education. Black Caribbean children have equal, if not higher, ability than white children on entrance to school. But black Caribbean boys do least well at school. In 2003 only 41% of Pakistani pupils, 37% of black pupils, and 45% of Bangladeshi pupils achieved 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*-C, compared with 51% of white pupils and 65% of Indian pupils.
 African Caribbean pupils are over four to six times more likely to be excluded than white pupils, and three times more likely to be permanently excluded. Many of those excluded are of higher or average ability although the schools see them as underachieving.
Over half of children from Asian and Bangladeshi groups were eligible for free school meals, which is an indicator for low income- these children were far less likely to achieve

Question 3

Disadvantage & discrimination in Britain today - health

Answer 3

 Infant mortality is 100% higher for the children of African Caribbean or Pakistani mothers than white mothers.
 Pakistani and Bangladeshi people are five times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes and 50% more likely to have coronary heart disease than white people.

Question 4

Disadvantage & discrimination in Britain today - media

Answer 4

 Sewell argues black inner city boys are unduly influenced by rap stars, who socialize them into problematic values such misogyny, mega consumerism, violence and gun culture.
 Use Hall et. al’s study of the moral panic about ‘black mugging’

Question 5

Disadvantage & discrimination in Britain today - work

Answer 5

 Brown and Gay carried out experiments to see who got job interviews. They sent applications with identical qualifications and experiences, yet gave each candidate a ‘white name’ and ‘Asian name’ and a ‘black name’. The ‘white’ candidate got twice as many offers for interview
 Ethnic minority men are over-represented in the service sector. The distribution industry (including restaurants and retail businesses) is the largest single source of service sector jobs for men from ethnic minority groups, employing 70 per cent of Bangladeshi and 58 per cent of Chinese men. In contrast, only 17 per cent of White and 19 per cent of Black men work in this industry. (Labour Market trends, 2000)
An African Caribbean graduate is more than twice and an Africa seven times as likely to be unemployed as a white graduate

Question 6

eval

Answer 6

It would be misleading to regard ethnic minorities as perpetual ‘losers’ in the job market. Data gathered from the Census and Labour Force Surveys provide clear signs of absolute and even relative progress by most ethnic minority groups over the past decade or so. The 4th PSI Survey (Modood et al, 1997) concluded that economic differences between minority groups have become more important than the black-white divide. This has led researchers to reject the ‘racial dualism’ model which depicted a simple division between all ethnic minorities (‘’blacks’) on the one hand, and the white majority on the other. As the Cabinet Office report (2003) declares, the old picture of white success and ethnic minority under-performance is now out of date.