Posted on 07/18/2004 6:43:10 PM PDT by O.C. - Old Cracker
More than nine out of 10 white Britons have no or hardly any ethnic minority friends, according to a poll that reveals the continuing gulf between races and religions more than 40 years after the UK became a multicultural society. The Guardian has seen details of the survey, to be released this week by the Commission for Racial Equality.
It shows that a majority of white people do not share the bonds of close friendship with their fellow black, Asian or Muslim Britons, meaning they may lack the empathy that close contact can bring. The CRE warns this leaves swaths of the population open to believing the worst of different ethnic and religious groups.
The poll found that 94% of white people say most or all their friends are of the same race, while 47% of ethnic minorities say white people form all or most of their friends. More than half of white people, 54%, said they did not have a single black or Asian person they considered a close friend.
More than eight out of 10 white people have no friends who are practising Muslims, and only one in 10 white people was close to a Hindu or Sikh. Pollsters YouGov asked 2,065 white and 808 ethnic minority people aged over 18 for details of their closest 10 to 20 friends in an internet survey.
Peter Kellner of YouGov said: "It is unusual for white Britons to have any close friends who are from the ethnic minorities. He said this had an effect on the knowledge the majority white community had of their ethnic minority fellow citizens. "There is an empathy born of experience. With a great number of white people there is not that empathy born of experience."
Around two-thirds of all ethnic groups believe that ethnic minority Britons too often live apart from the rest of society, but they diverge over whether tackling inequality or achieving integration is more important.
The poll found that 54% of white people have no friends at all from the ethnic minorities, with 46% saying they have at least one. Three in 10 of ethnic minority people surveyed said all or most of their friends were Asian or black.
The CRE chair, Trevor Phillips, said: "It surprised me the extent to which the majority community still does not really know minority communities." He said the lack of close knowledge could lead white people to believe lurid tabloid headlines and racist propaganda. "When it comes to race and religion this clearly demonstrates we are dealing with a difference of which most people in this country have no first-hand experience, and therefore it is not surprising that they can be misled about blacks, Gypsies and Muslims, and it's not surprising that for no apparent reason they can become hostile and racist."
Mr Phillips said integration could not be left to chance. He believed the government should fund US-style summer camp places for 16-year-olds where they can take part in activities with teenagers they would otherwise not meet: "In Britain we still don't know each other. We are not like Americans who do know each other but have made an active choice to live in a segregated society."
The survey indicates the situation may be worsening. While younger whites mix more than older ones, the reverse is true of some ethnic minority communities.
The friends of 60% of white people over 50 are of the same race as them, compared with 43% for white people under 30. But while 19% of ethnic minority Britons over 50 have friends who are almost exclusively from ethnic minority communities, that rises to 39% for those aged 30 or under.
YouGov says: "We cannot tell from a single survey whether this is mainly a cohort effect [as people get older, their circle of friends widens] or whether this reflects an enduring generational difference, with some younger non-whites less willing than their parents' generation to mix with white friends."
In January, a Mori poll found that 41% of white people and 26% of ethnic minority people surveyed wanted the races to live separately.
Did anyone poll the other races? Or is this just more Euroweenie white guilt nonsense?
It is a universal fact of humanity that people tend to prefer people who are like them. That's what defines "community." If people aren't mixing as much as we would like, we have only the multiculturalists to thank.
I betcha LESS than 999 out of a 1000 Muslim Britons don't have a Jewish friend
All those British TV shows always show blacks and whites nobbing around together. Would the BBC fabricate and maintain an elaborate fiction? Say it isn't so!
Explains why they listen to George Michael and Robbie Williams.
Just how liberal and progressive are those 90% of whites? hmmmmm....
Then I would also venture to say that 90% of blacks don't have whites as acquintances either
Whomever I meet along the way is just that.
P.S. When we got married, we invited the lovely black girl whom I worked with at a mostly white factory. In fact, she was the only person from work that I invited. That was in 1962.
I've met a few blacks that I really liked, though none ever really turned into a friendship. The problem is that there is a definate f**k-you attitude that is often directed at whites by blacks (at least where I live). I've always had pretty good business relationships with most blacks I've worked with, and found many to have an excellent sense of humor. Then again, since I work in the computer/high-tech field, most of the blacks I've worked with have shed the attitudes, worked hard, and taken responsibility for themselves. I've always respected any black with an 'I'm too proud for handouts' mentality, and actually find myself respecting a black in a given position more highly than a white guy in the same position since the fact that they've survived and prospered after all the BS the left throws at them is impressive.
My only real bias is against islamist radicals, and idiots.
So I wonder now if I were to poll the Muslims in a country like say Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, how many of them would say they had any friends outside their religion? Ooops, my bad, in those countries anyone who speaks favorably of a religion other than the religion-o-peace could easilly lose his head. Why is it ALWAYS up to westerners to accomodate everyone else's culture, no matter how barbaric, but no other culture makes the same effort?
I don't.
I have many imaginary black friends, doesn't that count?!
That doesn't seem to be true.
while 47% of ethnic minorities say white people form all or most of their friends.
This surprises me. I would guess that most of these people are living in mainly white communities, and in jobs with mainly whites. Isn't that where most people find their friends?
Yep. One of the things that always confounded my coworkers at my old jobs was that I, an avowed and unapologetic conservative, got along much better, and was liked and respected much more, by blacks and lations I worked with.
It seemed horribly incongruent to them that I could be friends or friendly with minorities. Strange.
One of my casual friends, in fact, called me up the other day - he and his posse and in Las Vegas next week for the Delta Convention, a convention of about 30,000 african-american women from a sorority. He figured I would love to accompany them and try to meet some of the lovelier, younger ladies.
Yep, I do appear to be a hateful, bigoted, conservative, don't I?
"...More than eight out of 10 white people have no friends who are practising Muslims,..."
And this is a bad thing? I would not care to be friends with people who do not even condemn, or for the most part support those who are trying to kill me.
The biggest problem with this statistic, however, is that blacks are the ones who tend to attend their own churches, etc. and don't really try to mingle in with white people. They are stereotyping themselves.
Being a Guardian article, they could not resist taking a shot at the U.S.
Clearly this is a situation that requires the govenment to intervene! I mean, all those people choosing with whom they associate! And making choices that are so un-PC.
Let's see if the socilaists (our friends, but still socialists) get involved with THIS.
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