Are ethnic minorities fairly represented on UK television?
According to independent producer and BBC non-executive director Samir Shah, broadcasters in the UK have made up for a lack of ethnic minority executives by putting too many black and Asian faces on the small screen.
In a speech made to the RTS last night, he claimed that a "tick box" approach to equal opportunities had led to "inauthentic representation" of ethnic minorities. He claimed that black and Asian faces often appear in fictional drama regardless of whether they are culturally relevant to a storyline.
The TV Show would like to know what you think. Do the people and the stories you see on television reflect your view of the country? Do you agree that broadcasters are guilty of over-representing the non-white community on screen?
It's possible that The TV Show may feature a debate on this issue during the next live programme -Saturday 5 July. Please visit the Take Part section of the website for more info on contributing to the show.
He claimed that black and Asian faces often appear in fictional drama regardless of whether they are culturally relevant to a storyline.
What do you mean by "culturally relevent"?
Are you meaning that unless there is a story line specifically about those ethnic minorities, then they should not be in the programme at all?
Don`t know about you, but I had relatives living in the east end of London, and black and asian people were not in the minority. So that means Eastenders has the wrong percenatge minority wise.
Like wise, I drove through Sheffield a few years ago, and I didn`t see anyone other than asian people. This makes me think that Coronation Street aslo have the wrong percentage of minorities.
But I do think you`re asking for trouble by wording the comment as "culturally relevent".
I`m sure that comes under the heading of "naughty" using the R word.
******************************** John Smith: So what am I then? Nothing. I`m just a story.
Doctor: You`re an echo. That`s all. A TimeLord is so much more. A sum of knowledge; a code. A shared history. A shared suffering. Only it`s gone now, all of it. Gone forever.
in relation to eastenders i personally as an east ender myself feel that there are not enough black and asian people to truley represent the east end! In reality there should be more black and asian ppl than white people in eastenders
He claimed that black and Asian faces often appear in fictional drama regardless of whether they are culturally relevant to a storyline.
What do you mean by "culturally relevent"?
Are you meaning that unless there is a story line specifically about those ethnic minorities, then they should not be in the programme at all?
Don`t know about you, but I had relatives living in the east end of London, and black and asian people were not in the minority. So that means Eastenders has the wrong percenatge minority wise.
Like wise, I drove through Sheffield a few years ago, and I didn`t see anyone other than asian people. This makes me think that Coronation Street aslo have the wrong percentage of minorities.
But I do think you`re asking for trouble by wording the comment as "culturally relevent".
I`m sure that comes under the heading of "naughty" using the R word.
Corrie is set in Weatherfield (outside Manchester) not Sheffeild
I think Corrie have the right amount - Dev, Finlay, Lloyd and Kelly
I dont think their is too little or too many on TV, after all it isnt about skin colour
Some nic pickers might point out that 'every scene must have a mix of races' because they want to make it 'fairer'. Relevant to the story or not. Yes, I do think ethnic minorities are represented fairly on some shows. But of course not all
Watched Jesus Christ Superstar (1970's?) a week or so back. Was amused to see Judas Iscariot played by a - erm - gentlemen of non - white persuasion. Those were the days.
What time is it, Mr Woolf? Time to mend your ways, for the end is nigh.
If we want to acheive better representation we have started looking more to eastern Europeans as many have settled accros the UK and are now part our society, it may help both them to feel accepted and help everybody else to accept them.
I think that we need more overtly homosexual guys playing characters with macho occupations such as firemen or rat catchers. And just to make it fair, some of these gay guys need to be Muslims.
How long do we think it would be before these characters were consigned to history?
What time is it, Mr Woolf? Time to mend your ways, for the end is nigh.
I worry sometimes that non white "performers" are disproptionatly used on childrens television. Perhaps to make up for shortcomings else where. But this does mean that my Child is seeing possative imajes of all races from an early age. And I do like that.
Personally, I think it's an agenda. And a quite insidious one, where arrogant, proselytising multiculturalist producers (who are usually white middle class dimwits btw) try to mislead young children into thinking that white people are some kind of minority. It's all about revising a few thousand years of European heritage and the fact of mass non-European immigration being just from the 50s. And it's still only 10%!
Even the producer of Doctor Who has made bonkers statements (that the black cast have not surprisingly disassociated themselves from) about Primeval being shamefully white - just because 5 main characters are! So it's no surprise there are pivotal, positive, non-white characters in every episode of Doctor Who that exceed any statistical likelihood - as happens in most programmes made these days, come to think about it.
On the other hand, the TV show "Spooks", which, judging from the title, you might imagine, would be full of racial minorities, had only one, as I recall, and even he got killed!
What time is it, Mr Woolf? Time to mend your ways, for the end is nigh.
Originally posted by coldpizza: I worry sometimes that non white "performers" are disproptionatly used on childrens television. Perhaps to make up for shortcomings else where. But this does mean that my Child is seeing possative imajes of all races from an early age. And I do like that.
I don't think it is about acheiving a perfect ratio of representation across each strata, I think it is more about people being able to turn on the tv and feel included, when they see people that look like themselves alongside people who don't it helps them to feel integrated.
I think when we start to get to a point when really don't notice what people look like, then everybody can begin to fit in.
The question that has yet to be answered is do minorities want to be seen as different?, or would they rather begin to blend in so as we get to the point where it is not even noticed that they may look different?
I personally think it is good for children to see as much diversity side by side as possible, in this way it will help them to see all people as the same.
But take one minority group - "black" (Afro-Carribean) as an example. They are only about 1 in 50 of the population. If 'seeing people like themselves' means every children's programme with 4 or more people must include a black face, then that's a ridiculous over-representation and distortion of reality, and an unfair discrimination against whites and others. Why not just chose the best people instead of looking for quotas to "fix" things that aren't the result of institutional discrimination anyway? Standards have now been compromised; there are black announcers, narrators and presenters with really bad diction.
Re, wanting to be seen as different or the same: well, they generally want it both ways. If it's "Music Of Black Origin" (a misnomer anyway) for example, then they want to be seen as different. But if it's the crime figures in London - where most muggers and (I believe) every teenage murderer this year has been committed by a black person, then they complain about even being mentioned (apparently it's OK for others to be blamed and potential witnesses not to know who's sought by the police). And so we get euphemisms like "it's being investigated by 'Operation Trident'" when it's black on black gun crime.
Fact is, if you're a minority (and we all are in some respect) then you will feel under-represented in a democracy. And you are less likely to get your own way too. Why do we count votes if it isn't to give the majority their way?! It's inevitable that if 90% of the population are white, and most white writers know more about white people than (say) asians, then there will be even less asian characters than an exact statistical representation.
Originally posted by Bed_Socks: But take one minority group - "black" (Afro-Carribean) as an example. They are only about 1 in 50 of the population. If 'seeing people like themselves' means every children's programme with 4 or more people must include a black face, then that's a ridiculous over-representation and distortion of reality, and an unfair discrimination against whites and others. Why not just chose the best people instead of looking for quotas to "fix" things that aren't the result of institutional discrimination anyway? Standards have now been compromised; there are black announcers, narrators and presenters with really bad diction.
Re, wanting to be seen as different or the same: well, they generally want it both ways. If it's "Music Of Black Origin" (a misnomer anyway) for example, then they want to be seen as different. But if it's the crime figures in London - where most muggers and (I believe) every teenage murderer this year has been committed by a black person, then they complain about even being mentioned (apparently it's OK for others to be blamed and potential witnesses not to know who's sought by the police). And so we get euphemisms like "it's being investigated by 'Operation Trident'" when it's black on black gun crime.
Fact is, if you're a minority (and we all are in some respect) then you will feel under-represented in a democracy. And you are less likely to get your own way too. Why do we count votes if it isn't to give the majority their way?! It's inevitable that if 90% of the population are white, and most white writers know more about white people than (say) asians, then there will be even less asian characters than an exact statistical representation.
It seems to me that it doesn't matter if people are over or under represented in any particular stata. To me representation is not about trying to acheive a perfect balance, life doesn't work that way, it's about equality and inclusion. To me it's about people feeling that their group has a place in our society and that there arn't any barriers to them, that they can acheive anything that anyone else can. It's about them feeling as valued as everyone else. But yes I take your point about it being the best person for the job, but I ask if sometimes it is the case that someone from a minority group is the best person for the job because they can help people feel included and valued.
Once we can get to the stage where people don't notice who is on the tv or from which part of our society they have come, then I can think that we'll have got to a stage where everyone feels included and this becomes a non issue.
However in order to be truly part of our society and fit in people from minority groups have got to stop seeing themselves as different and only part of a small group, once they have managed to make this monumentous step then and only then can the rest of society stop thinking of them as a minority group and just accept them like they would accept everyone else, basically not noticing any difference.
If through having enough represenation on the tv we can help speed up this process then we should do everything we can to make this happen.
quote: Originally posted by N.O.P.F: Oh hereeeeeeeeeee we go! What ARE we allowed to say these days?!?!
We are allowed to say anything we like, as long as we believe it won't cause valid offence to others, and if we do cause unintentional offence we should apolagise.
How often do we ever see Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians or Roma on the tv? I can't remember the last time I saw one on tv. I have often seen Afro-Carribeans and Asians on tv, but never any Eastern Europeans.
Since millions of Eastern Europeans have now come to settle here I think we need to have a long look at how they could be better represented. We can't just ignore huge sections of our population.
Originally posted by Bed_Socks: But take one minority group - "black" (Afro-Carribean) as an example. They are only about 1 in 50 of the population. If 'seeing people like themselves' means every children's programme with 4 or more people must include a black face, then that's a ridiculous over-representation and distortion of reality, and an unfair discrimination against whites and others. Why not just chose the best people instead of looking for quotas to "fix" things that aren't the result of institutional discrimination anyway? Standards have now been compromised; there are black announcers, narrators and presenters with really bad diction.
Re, wanting to be seen as different or the same: well, they generally want it both ways. If it's "Music Of Black Origin" (a misnomer anyway) for example, then they want to be seen as different. But if it's the crime figures in London - where most muggers and (I believe) every teenage murderer this year has been committed by a black person, then they complain about even being mentioned (apparently it's OK for others to be blamed and potential witnesses not to know who's sought by the police). And so we get euphemisms like "it's being investigated by 'Operation Trident'" when it's black on black gun crime.
Fact is, if you're a minority (and we all are in some respect) then you will feel under-represented in a democracy. And you are less likely to get your own way too. Why do we count votes if it isn't to give the majority their way?! It's inevitable that if 90% of the population are white, and most white writers know more about white people than (say) asians, then there will be even less asian characters than an exact statistical representation.
90% of the population are white? do u have any stats to back this up from eg the government websight because i think this is a massive over estimation! i would say 60% of the population are white british
Originally posted by rebsy: 90% of the population are white? do u have any stats to back this up from eg the government websight because i think this is a massive over estimation! i would say 60% of the population are white british
92.1% Identify themselves as white according to Wiki.
Originally posted by rebsy: 90% of the population are white? do u have any stats to back this up from eg the government websight because i think this is a massive over estimation! i would say 60% of the population are white british
92.1% Identify themselves as white according to Wiki.
This is the link to the office of national statistics
URL=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=764&Pos=4&ColRank=1&Rank=176]Office of National Statistics[/URL]
There are far too many non-whites on the telly. I can remember during the 80's people would tot up what amount of " black faces\" on the box. Those people seem to have lost the ability to count. I'm sick of the double standards of broadcasters that will NEVER cast a non-white person in a bad light ( with the noteable excep
So it's no surprise there are pivotal, positive, non-white characters in every episode of Doctor Who that exceed any statistical likelihood - as happens in most programmes made these days, come to think about it.
