My Britain 1

My Britain

Sunday November 25, 2001 The Obseryer

Lorna Ciarkę, 39

Head of daytime programmes at Radio 1 London. Black

I grew up in the inner-city so I was never an 'ethnic minority' at school. It was a predominantly Asian and black area, but we all loved the fact we were from London, and British. We could be captain of the rounders team in the afternoon and then go home to eat akee and saltfish for dinner. We knew the 'English' kids couldn’t do that - they'd be having fishfingers. I only started feeling 'different' when I began work as a junior reporter in places like Newcastle or Hull. One time I was doing voxpops in Cornwall and no one would speak into the microphone. They behaved like I was from another pianet. I had long braids and one man kept touching them. If it had been a 20-year-old white girl doing the job. he would never have touched her hair.

What l've found irritating recently, especially at the BBC, are those se!f-perceived liberals who are so patronising, who think they know morę about your culture than you do. Or they are disappointed because you aren't morę radical. They mention South Africa and are surprised when you don't start jumping with ragę. I always fight against the idea that we're all the same, or can be easily categorised. At Radio 1 we now have one of the highest proportions of non-white employees in the BBC, and I think this has resulted in morę releyant programming. When I was younger, Radio 1 was so out of touch. While acid-house was exploding, they were arguing about how much Status Quo to play.

Mrs Neena Agarwal, 52

Edinburgh. British-lndian

When I came to this country in 1971, life was much better. There wasn't much crime or vandalism or racism then. Now life is getting very fast. People have less money and morę responsibilities. Their lifestyle is different to that of the host community. Businesses pass from father to son. They work very hard and are settled, with good houses and cars, and that makes young people of the host community think They are taking our jobs. Why don't we have these things?'.

It is hard to balance my Indian identity with my British identity, but at the end of the day, you want to be Indian, to be seen as Indian and to remain Indian. If you lose that identity, you are lost because we will never be accepted here. People in the community are concerned because children do not always accept responsibility for looking after their parents anymore. They are morę westernised.

Jacqui Grant, 38

British-Jamaican. Brighton

Recently I was driving and I cut someone up. She wound down her window and called me a 'black bastard'. Things that are directly racist and could not be construed in any other way happen to me about twice a year. But racism is usually much morę subtle than that, and you’re sometimes aware when youTe in the pub or out that people are looking at you, and ifs not because they fancy you or anything else. I feel British, and I feel entitled to everything here, but I also feel alienated at times. I have my Jamaican identity, which' l've held on to, and I think a lot of minorities do because they aren’t well represented by mainstream culture.

My mother came over in her early twenties. My family came from a poor background and saw it as hugely beneficial to come here. Racism has not really been discussed in my family, because my parents felt so lucky to have come here. But they had it worse than I did. They were openly scorned, and weren't allowed to go to certain places. They are still humble around white people in a way in which I would never be.