White people in the United Kingdom are a racial and multi-ethnic group of UK residents who identify as and are perceived to be white people. White people constitute the historical and current majority of the people living in the United Kingdom, with 87.2% of the population identifying as white in the 2011 United Kingdom census. This represented a national white demographic decline from a 92.1% share of the UK's population in 2001. of which The Office for National Statistics designates white people into several subgroups, with small terminology variations between the administrative jurisdictions of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These are indigenous: White British, White Irish, White Gypsy or Irish Traveller, and non-indigenous Other White, and in Scotland; White Polish. In Northern Ireland ethnic group data is collected differently, where only the term 'White' is used, and with National Identity ('British', 'Irish', 'Northern Irish', or combinations) collected separately. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, and can influence who may be defined, whether informally, in media and academia, or UK Government statistics, as white Britons or white British people. Millions of white people in the United Kingdom, who hold British citizenship, do not identify with the White British ethnicity classification (or its subgroups, such as 'White English', 'White Welsh' or 'White Scottish') at censuses. Outside of the census, white people in Great Britain are the subject of academic research, public discourse in international and British media, and are widely identified as a broad racial or social class within the country. White people in the United Kingdom are studied, polled, and analyzed as a demographic, anthropological, economic, and social grouping. The scope of the definition often exceeds categorisation by the Office for National Statistics, and its ethnicity or nation-defined subcategories, such as White British or White Polish. Within the Census in the United Kingdom, the Office for National Statistics collects information on white people who are resident in the United Kingdom, regardless of citizenship status. As censuses have progressed each decade, further categories have been included to accommodate subgroupings of white people in the country. As of the 2011 census, these subgroups are White British, White Irish, White Gypsy or Irish Traveller, White Polish (in Scotland), and Other White. There are small variations between the phrasing or terminology of these categories across the administrative regions of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. A multitude of scholars, academics, statisticians, and scientists, as well as government departments, think tanks, trade unions, and charities, have identified white people in the United Kingdom as an observable demographic, historical, anthropological, economic, social and racial grouping. In governmental terms, the UK Government uses the category of white people to help define and understand demography in the country. The Office for National Statistics collects census information on white people. Devolved administrations, such as the Scottish Government and Welsh Government make use of the racial category for social and equality impacts. Ministerial departments such as the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, non-ministerial, such as the Cabinet Office and office for Mayor of London, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, and public bodies such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and UK Statistics Authority, have produced research and analysis on, what they have defined as, white persons within the country. Academic, research and statistical organisations, such as British Election Study, NatCen Social Research and ICM Research, Savanta ComRes, define and categorise whites living in the UK, in order to study and poll respondents of all backgrounds. Think tanks, including the Policy Studies Institute, Resolution Foundation, Smith Institute and Social Issues Research Centre, utilise the grouping of white people in the United Kingdom, along with Stroke Association and Trades Union Congress. Sociologists, social scientists, and academics of race and ethnicity, such as Peter J. Aspinall, Richard Dyer and Mary J. Hickman identify whites in Britain as an intersecting social and racial category. Anthropologists Jeanette Edwards, Gillian Evans and Katherine Smith published in 2012: Anthropological studies that have focused on white people in Britain have, however, undermined the imagined homogeneity of white Britishness, particularly with respect to differences of class and territorial affiliation. For example, Ronnie Frankenberg’s (1957) ethnography of a mining village in North Wales in the 1950s showed sharp divisions, made locally, between insiders and outsiders, and this division is repeated over again in subsequent ethnographic examples from Britain (e.g., Edwards 2000; Rapport 1993; Strathern 1981). University of the West of Scotland's Chris Gilligan argues that; "The idea that White people in the United Kingdom constitute a race or ethnic group is based on racialised thinking. It works with the logic of the race relations framework, it does not challenge it." In her 2015 research, University of Southampton fellow Rosalind Willis studied the intersection of the White Irish category in England, where there have been examples of distinctions made against the White British which are culturally rejected or ignored. In this regard, professor Mary J. Hickman has written how a combination of othering the ethnic Irish, and a presupposition of the positivity of integration, has provided "tacit support for the 'myth of homogeneity' of white people in Britain". White people are the current and historical majority of the United Kingdom's population. The 2011 United Kingdom census recorded 51,736,290 of White British, 585,087 of White Irish, 63,193 of White Gypsy or Irish Traveller, 61,201 of White Polish (in Scotland only), and 2,107,195 of Other White ethnicity, making a total white population of 55,073,552 or 87.2 per cent of the total population. These figures did not include self-reported people of mixed ethnicity. The 2011 population represented a 919,654 increase on the 2001 United Kingdom census figures. Two of the three subcategories (White British and White Irish), which had existed in 2001, rose in their own right, representing outright population growth for those ethnic groups. The Other White population fell by 508,227. The overall share of the population constituted a national white demographic decline, with a falling share of the UK's white populace from 92.1% to 87.2%. The 2001 census showed a minor numerical difference in the white male and white female population. In the 1991 census, white people were recorded as the most likely group to have tertiary education. By the 2001 census, this had changed, with British African-Caribbean females, and British Indian men and women, becoming more likely to be qualified to that level. Based on the 1994 Policy Studies Institute's NSEM survey, an International Migration Review-published study determined a factor of this shift, finding that between the ages of 21–64, 13.8% of British Hindus held a higher education, versus what the study defined as 11.3% of "White Christians" in Britain. The Welsh Government's 2007 Minority Ethnic Youth Forum Report found that, based on 2005 ONS data; "Interestingly, Chinese, Black African, Indian and Other Asian groups are more likely to have degrees than white people in the UK." The history of the racial classification of white people has its roots in the establishment of European colonies in Asia, Africa and the Americas, where they encountered and lived alongside people of colour. The United Kingdom Historian Marika Sherwood writes that while there is no implication that "all whites in Britain were or became imbued with racism"; the classification of the "white race" rose in the nineteenth century due in part to the increasing rice of the eugenics and scientific racism movements of thought, with anthropologists classifying whites as distinct and separate race from other races such as Africans and Asians. After physician John Fothergill disparagingly referred to them as "nabobs"; in 1767, the Daily Gazetteer, within the context of their return to England, made the accusation that West Indian planters (such as those involved with the East India Company) were corrupting Britain's political system, and who "being bred the tyrants of their slavish blacks, may endeavour to reduce the white [in Britain] to the same condition by an aristocracy". Social scientist Peter J. Aspinall has analyzed how interracial marriage in the UK, as a phenomenon, caused societal reactions from whites in the interwar, and post-World War II periods. These included violence and racism against African-American GIs, Chinese seamen, and towards children from their relationships with white women. Aspinall, an expert in ethnicity, wrote: Such experiences were shared by interracial people, couples and families throughout the twentieth century with their mere presence provoking or exacerbating the violence of white people in Britain, as evidenced during the numerous ‘race riots’, disturbances and attacks that occurred throughout the period. This post-war period of history was recognised by Mill Hill School's marking of Black History Month, when the London school published a short history of the Windrush generation, including the abuse received by arrivals such as Floella Benjamin, exploring how; "Unfortunately, many white people in Britain did not welcome the new arrivals and Floella, and many like her were faced with hatred and cruelty." Politician Enoch Powell, who became known for his anti-immigrant Rivers of Blood speech, has been identified by some media as an early source of defining white people as a racial interest group within Britain. In 1971, Powell had argued that “whites are being held back to accommodate the Asiatics and blacks". According to the ONS's quarterly Labour Force Survey, in 1993-1994 white people undertook more employer‐funded training per capita than minority groups in the UK. Analysis by economists, Michael Shields and Stephen Wheatley Price, suggested that the situation may represent a failure in United Kingdom employment equality laws. Anthony Lester, a key contributor to such legislation, stated in 1991 that "White people in Britain don't have the legacy of guilt about the past as there is in America about the period of slavery, even though there is plenty to be guilty about". In another comparison of the two nations, while accepting that "any portrait of Britain as a haven of multicultural understanding and friendship among different groups is an exaggeration"; University of Maryland professor Eric Uslaner has observed that "the effect of segregation on civic norms is far more pronounced for whites in the United States compared to whites in Britain." Scholar Ron Walters also stressed the significance of correlation between white majorities and their behavioural patterns in the UK and US. Lecturer Clarence Lusane has written of Walter's use of themes, such as the "cultural similarity with regard to racial attitudes of Whites in Britain and the United States" and also, "the reception by the White host societies" towards black communities. The 2008 BBC series White attempted to address issues of white-related class and race issues in the country. Academic Vron Ware described the documentary as "a provocative series that claimed to address the marginality of working class white people in Britain." Based on data from eligible voters, white people overall voted to leave the European Union in 2016's Brexit referendum in higher proportions than other racial groups in the country. There are many notable actors and actresses who are from or based in the United Kingdom, and have been identified as being white. Stage actor Richard Burbage, contemporary of William Shakespeare, was of English descent. John Bennett, and American Orson Welles, who spent many years in the UK working in British television and radio, were of English ancestry, and Laurence Olivier was of English and French Huguenot heritage. Yvonne Bryceland, and John Justin were of a European Argentine and European South African background respectively. Actors such as Patrick Stewart, Christian Bale, Laurence Fox, Edward Holcroft, and actresses Florence Pugh, Jessie Cave, Emma Watson, and Daisy Ridley are of English ancestry. Joseph Fiennes, and Tom Hardy are of English and Irish descent. Dublin-born Michael Gambon, and Scot Gerard Butler are of Irish ancestry. Actresses Imogen Poots is of English and Northern Irish descent, and Tilda Swinton has English and Scottish heritage. Actors Jonathan Pryce, and Anthony Hopkins are of Welsh descent, while Taron Egerton has English and Welsh heritage. Thespian Luise Rainer was of German Jewish background, and actor Ed Skrein has English and Austrian Jewish heritage. Notable UK journalists, broadcasters, and presenters have been described as being white. Journalists David Dimbleby, Fiona Lamdin, Sarah Sands, and former broadcasting executive James Purnell are of English descent. Newsreader Huw Edwards has Welsh ancestry. Broadcasting directors James Harding and Ian Katz both have English, and British Jewish and South African Jewish heritage respectively. Presenter Caroline Flack was of English descent, while Dublin-born Laura Whitmore, and Scot Lorraine Kelly are of Irish ancestry. Comedians and comedy actors, who have been described as white, such as Leigh Francis, Reece Shearsmith, Noel Fielding, Jennifer Saunders, Robert Webb, David Walliams and Matt Lucas, have been involved in some of the most notable British comedy series in the late 20th and early 21st century. These include Peep Show, French and Saunders, Bo' Selecta!, The Mighty Boosh, Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. They are predominantly of English extraction, as is stand-up comedian Daniel Kitson. Noel Fielding has partial French heritage, and Matt Lucas has maternal German Jewish ancestry. There are multiple musicians and artists, born or based in the UK, and from various ethnic backgrounds that, defined in media as white, have gained both commercial and cultural success. Singer-songwriters Elton John, Stevie Winwood, and Sam Smith, singers Mazz Murray, Sam Bailey, Ruth Copeland, and members of duo Disclosure are of an English background. Singers Petula Clark, and Adele have English and Welsh heritage. Dusty Springfield was of Irish descent, as is Boy George. Two of Britain's best-selling artists, Paul McCartney, and Ed Sheeran are of English and Irish descent. Jay Kay has English and Portuguese ancestry. Opera singer Adelina Patti, who settled in Wales, was of Italian heritage. Jess Glynne has English and British Jewish ancestry, and Kelly Osbourne is of English, Irish and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. Many notable individuals involved with sport in the United Kingdom, who come from the UK or have been based in the country for their profession, have been identified as white people. Footballer Phil Foden, and rugby player Tom Mitchell are of English descent. Former footballers and national captains of Wales and England respectively, Vinnie Jones has English and Welsh ancestry, and David Beckham has an English and maternal British Jewish background. Yohan Cabaye, who spent five years in English football, is of French descent with some paternal Vietnamese ancestry. University of Essex professor Richard Berthoud has proposed that between 1970 and 2000, white families in Britain progressed towards modern individualism, and away from other traditional behaviours. Based on a 243-person study (103 whites, 83 British Pakistanis, and 57 British Indians) in Bradford, England in 1988, white people had higher rates of drinking and smoking than Asian British people. This correlated with a study around 30 years later, which found that alcohol consumption is higher among whites in Britain than other groups. In 2017 the Mayor of London office published that; "51 per cent of ethnic minorities, and 16 per cent of white people, in Britain in 2017 had not consumed alcohol in the last week." A 2018 Stroke Association report also found that white people had the highest levels of alcohol consumption and smoking in the UK. White people are usually defined, in scholarly works and media, as the majority group in the country. It is not always clear whether majority-based terminology is dependent on cultural perceptions, statistics (such as ONS censuses and UK Statistics Authority's Citizenship Surveys) or a combination of multiple factors. The scope of the term of white people, or reference to a white majority within the UK, is sometimes a source of debate or controversy. For example, Richard Dyer's work, an academic who specialises in racal representations, suggests the ethnicity of white people in Britain is rarely scrutinised. There have been social challenges to integration, and adjustment to multiculturalism, in the United Kingdom among the white population. A study conducted by NatCen Social Research asked whites in the UK a number of questions, including: "Do you think most white people in Britain would mind/would you mind if a close relative were to marry a person of black or West Indian/Asian origin?" The results found that between 1983 and 2013, the white participants' opinions on "white people in Britain" dropped from around 80% 'would mind' to under 60%, and their personal opinions moved from around 60% to just over 30%. A publicly-funded Citizenship Survey found that 56 percent of "Whites in Britain" had friendships exclusively with other white people. In a published 2005 report, the UK Statistics Authority wrote: It is in fact the Whites who are by far the most likely to have friends only from their own race - that is, other Whites. Given the much larger number of Whites in Britain, and the geographical concentration of ethnic minorities in large conurbations, many Whites will not have opportunity to meet ethnic minorities. A 1982 study of riots in the UK in India Quarterly, outlined what it described as a "substantial displacement of the local whites in Britain." The journal suggested that "this has occurred in certain areas like Birmingham, Brixton, Manchester, Southall, Toxteth, Wolverhampton", and that "to a great extent this clustering has hampered the assimilation process." After the 1991 United Kingdom census, newspaper The Independent reported: "Yet Britain as a whole remains very white indeed; there is nothing "multicultural" about it. At the census in 1991, ethnic minorities came to about 5.5 per cent of the population: that is, just over three million in a total population of almost 55 million." In 2000, The Observer reported the demographic prediction that white people would become a minority group in all or certain parts of the UK, while remaining the largest singular group (which is sometimes defined as a majority minority scenario). Governmental advisor, Lee Jasper, stated that "the demographics show that white people in London will become a minority by 2010", and that 'We could have a majority black Britain by the turn of the century." Runnymede Trust, a leading British race equality think tank, published criticism which took issue with assumptions of future birth rates, and an "inadequacy" in the "use of the term 'whites'." Journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, regarding the report, stated that within Britain; "Only white people worry about this." A 2010 Ethnic and Racial Studies study, which analyzed UK and US census data, showed that UK-born white people in the country were more likely than white Americans to have a black partner or spouse. With regards censuses, the White British category has, at times, been the focus of demography (above other groupings, such as White Irish) particularly in journalistic media. In 2012, The Telegraph reported that the percentage reduction in whites recorded at the 2011 census had occurred "despite an influx" of White Polish people. A 2005 Smith Institute report on migration noted that income, and employment rates, of "British-born white individuals" and "foreign-born whites" were similar in the United Kingdom, and diverged almost inseparably in comparison with "non-white immigrants". According to the Social Issues Research Centre, there is still, however, significant diversity within the white populace in terms of income. In 2008, the Oxford-based institute also reported that whites experienced half the rates of low income households as do ethnic minorities. In 2009, writing for a Runnymede Trust publication, University of Iceland researcher Kjartan Sveinsson wrote: Feigning white working-class disadvantage as an ethnic disadvantage rather than as class disadvantage is exactly what rhetorically places this group in direct competition with minority ethnic groups. As such, it does little to address the real and legitimate grievances poor white people in Britain have. Between 2012 and 2013, the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that white people were far less likely to live in poverty, compared with what the report defined as "Ethnic minority people". Trades Union Congress research in 2017, which was analyzed by the Scottish Government, showed that white people had higher rates of general employment and less chance of insecure employment, such as seasonal or agency work, than other racial groups in the Britain. A 2019 study found that on income-related demography, British Indians are the only census-based ethnic group with similar earnings to white people in the UK. White people in the United Kingdom have the lowest rates of household crowding, with two percent of the population experiencing it. White people face less discrimination in the United Kingdom than ethnic minorities. For example, European Network Against Racism notes that white people in the country are around six times less likely than black people, and half as likely as Asians, to be stopped by police. The British Election Study has defined "white people" in Britain, as part of a poll of 2,049 ethnic minority respondents regarding opinions on equal opportunity in British society. The Centre for Economic Performance revealed in a 2014 study that "Many white people in the UK feel that social landlords actively discriminate against them in favour of immigrants and ethnic minorities." Analyzing this trend, professor Alan Manning found "no basis in reality for this perceived discrimination". Mona Chalabi, a notable data journalist, writing in 2015, suggested that while racism from white people in the UK has a greater significance than from ethnic minorities; "a lot of other white people in Britain genuinely believe racism affects them too". Journalist Simon Kelner has stated a similar view, posing the question "Can white people in Britain really feel they’re the victims of racism?" In 2016, the Ministry of Justice issued a report noting that "white people in Britain" were four times less likely to be in prison than black Britons. In 2017, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary found by studying England and Wales data that; "White people in the United Kingdom are more likely to be carrying drugs when stopped by police but less likely to be stopped, compared to black people who are disproportionately searched". Between 2017 and 2018, Home Office data revealed that Dorset was the county where police were least likely to question white people in comparison with ethnic minority groups. Whites had around 17 times less chance of being subjected to Stop and Search. In a 2018 ICM Research poll conducted between 2013 and 2018, 4% of white people in the United Kingdom believed they had been treated like a shoplifter; 9% asked to leave an establishment for what seemed like no good reason; 18% believed they had been unfairly overlooked for a job; 52% felt a stranger was rude or abusive to them. (The results were 47% (treated like shoplifter), 25% (asked to leave), 43% (overlooked for job), and 69% (received abuse), respectively, for members of the BAME community). A 2019 United Nations Human Rights Council report noted that the Cabinet Office's Race Disparity Unit had number of findings in relation to racism, including that; "One of the primary discoveries made through the audit had been that ethnic minorities were worse off than white people in the United Kingdom." In 2020, a CNN and Savanta ComRes survey revealed that, among many other findings, that around half of white people in the country believed there was a fair representation of ethnic minorities in film and television (while 17 percent of black British people agreed). Whites were also twice as likely to say they had been treated with respect by British police. 1983 research of breast cancer rates in Birmingham, England found that whites in the United Kingdom had significantly higher rates of the disease than black and Asian people who had migrated to the country. The study examined white people who were born in either the UK or Republic of Ireland. A 1999 study revealed that white people in the country had lower mortality rates from stroke than black people. In 2007, professor Andrew Hattersley studied the genomes of whites in the United Kingdom (as well as Finland and Italy), discovering what some researchers described as the first clear genetic link, via the FTO gene, to obesity. Presence of the gene beyond that initial subject pool was not yet studied. White people are the most likely racial group to have a form of atrial fibrillation conditions. The same 2018 data also showed that whites were around half as likely to suffer a stroke than black people in Britain. Among a number of other disparities, 2019 research demonstrated that whites in Britain were prescribed antipsychotic drugs (as dementia treatment) for around 4 weeks less on average than black Britons, placing the latter into an excess of dosage recommendations. White people are less likely to die from COVID-19 than any other racial group in the United Kingdom. White people in the country had half the chance of dying of the virus when compared with black Britons, while British Chinese showed similar fatality rates to white people. White males were at just under half the risk of men of British Bangladeshi and British Pakistanis ancestry. A British government report confirms that Black and Asian people in Britain had higher death rates amid the COVID-19 pandemic than their white counterparts United Kingdom Total population White: Total – 55,073,552 (87.2%) (2011)
White British – 51,736,290 (81.9%)
White Irish – 1,105,673 (1.7%)
White Gypsy or Irish Traveller – 63,193 (0.1%)
White Polish – 61,201 (0.1%)
Other White – 2,107,195 (3.4%)Regions with significant populations United Kingdom England 45,226,247 (85.3%) (2011) Scotland 5,080,195 (95.9%) (2011) Wales 2,925,468 (95.5%) (2011) Northern Ireland 1,778,449 (98.2%) (2011) Languages British English · Hiberno-English · Polish · Romanian · Welsh
Angloromani · Beurla Reagaird · Cornish · French · German · Irish · Italian · Scottish Gaelic · SheltaReligion Predominantly:
Christianity
Minorities:
Irreligion · Judaism · Islam • HinduismRelated ethnic groups White Americans · White South Africans · White Australians · White New Zealanders · Irish People · White Canadians Contents
Census
Use in academia and government
Homogeneity myths and exclusions
Ethnic Group Year 1991 2001 2011 Number % Number % of total population Proportional amount of white population Number % of total population Proportional amount of white population White: British – – 52,037,485 88.52% 96.1% 51,736,290 81.88% 93.94% White: Irish 837,464 1.48% 691,232 1.18% 1.27% 585,087 0.92% 1.06% White: Gypsy / Traveller / Irish Traveller – – 1,710 – – 63,193 0.1% 0.01% White: Other – – 1,423,471 2.42% 2.62% 2,690,088 4.25% 4.88% White: Total 53,415,915 94.65% 54,153,898 92.12% – 55,073,552 87.17% – Population in constituent nations of the United Kingdom
England
Ethnic group Year 1981 1991 2001 2011 Population % Population % Population % Population % White: British – – – – 42,747,136 87.0% 42,279,236 79.8% White: Irish – – – – 624,115 1.3% 517,001 1.0% White: Irish Traveller/White Gypsy – – – – – – 54,895 0.1% White: Other – – – – 1,308,110 2.7% 2,430,010 4.6% White: Total – 95.4% 44,144,339 93.8% 44,679,361 91% 45,281,142 85.4% Scotland
Ethnic group 1991 2001 2011 Number % Number % Number % White: Scottish – – 4,459,071 88.09% 4,445,678 83.95% White: Other British – – 373,685 7.38% 417,109 7.88% White: Irish – – 49,428 0.98% 54,090 1.02% White: Gypsy/Traveller – – – – 4,212 0.08% White: Polish – – – – 61,201 1.16% White: Other – – 78,150 1.54% 102,117 1.93% White: Total 4,935,933 98.74% 4,960,334 97.99% 5,084,407 96.02% Wales
Ethnic group Year 1991 2001 2011 Population % Population % Population % White: British – – 2,786,605 96.0% 2,855,450 93.2% White: Irish 20,841 0.7% 17,689 0.6% 14,086 0.5% White: Irish Traveller/White Gypsy – – – – 2,785 0.1% White: Other – – 37,211 1.3% 55,932 1.8% White: Total 2,793,522 98.5% 2,841,505 97.9% 2,928,253 95.6% Northern Ireland
Ethnic group 2001 2011 Population % Population % White: 1,670,988 99.15 1,778,449 98.21 White: Irish Traveller/White Gypsy 1,710 0.10 1,301 0.07 White total 1,672,698 99.25 1,779,750 98.28 Population in metropolitan areas
Population in counties
Education
British Empire
Interwar and post-WWII periods
Late 20th century
21st century
Arts and entertainment
Broadcasting and journalism
Comedy
Music
Sport
Alcohol and smoking
Integration and representations
Employment and housing
Discrimination
Health
Research by the Trades Union Congress and Resolution Foundation has found that black men and women are more likely to be in precarious employment than white people, including agency and seasonal work. Furthermore, people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds are twice as likely to be unemployed than white people in the UK (as the chart below shows).
In 2017/18, the biggest difference in stop-and-search rates between black and white people was in Dorset ... Source: Home Office (2018c) ... in their analysis of policing in Manchester, Williams and Clarke (2016) found that white people overwhelmingly committed the largest proportion of police-defined incidents of serious youth violence (76% of the sample) ... Recent research that aims to fill this gap shows that while ethnic minority voters were less likely than white people to vote to leave the EU, the vote differed according to ethnicity
Research on ethnicity and employment trends in 2013 found white people had a higher employment rate than those from ethnic minorities. People from ethnic minorities were more likely to live in poverty than white people in 2012/13.
The Citizenship Survey report has a tone quite different from the Commission for Racial Equality speech (although both were publicy fundeded) ... An academic analysis of the same data finds similar results - that over half of the White population have friends exclusively among the White population ... How worrying is the much higher figure of 56% for the White population? Perhaps neither figure is surprising given the demographics and geographies of Britain's ethnic group populations.
This paper investigates majority group members’ perceptions of racial discrimination by local housing authorities in England, examining survey data from the 2008-09 Citizenship Survey ... general beliefs about the persistence of racial prejudice in Britain affect whites’ feelings of group disadvantage in the allocation of public housing.
To test these hypotheses, we draw upon the Ethnic Minority British Election Study 2010 (EMBES) ... Non-White people don't have the same opportunities and chances in life as White people, as they are held back by prejudice and discrimination (agrees or strongly agrees); 39.9%; 466 of 1,140
Drilling down on that finding, nearly half (44%) of White people said there was about the right amount of representation of Black people in film and television. Only one in six (17%) Black people agreed.
The NSEM, which covers England and Wales, was undertaken by the Policy Studies Institute in 1994. ... Of those successfully contacted, 79 percent of minority households and 71 percent of households headed by British whites participated in the NSEM (Smith and Prior, 1996). ... our multivariate analysis compares the gap between minority and whites in Canada with the gap between minority and whites in Britain
As figure 1 shows, non-white immigrants have, on average, a dramatically lower employment rate than British-born white individuals. Foreign-born whites are very similar to the British-born whites. ... Our research also shows that labour market outcomes of non-white immigrants are more volatile over the economic cycle than for white immigrants and British-born whites.
Today there are still twice as many people from ethnic minorities living in low income households than White people in Britain, although we need to stress again that there is significant variation within the White population as well.
White people in the UK are more likely to have atrial fibrillation (a type of irregular heart beat), smoke and drink alcohol than other ethnicities.
This analysis show that Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups are persistently disadvantaged in the labour market. Overall, the employment rates for White people (76.1 percent) is significantly higher than for those from a minority ethnic group (64.2 percent).
Whites in Britain are not only less ethnic than non-whites, their 'ethnicity' is never discussed, it is never put into focus (Dyer, 1988).
Further analysis of microdata suggests that the vast majority of the Scottish-born White Polish are the young children of recent Polish migrants rather than, e.g. offspring of migrants from previous eras, because nearly 80% are infants aged 3 or under.
Through the use of fieldnotes and interview extracts, I discuss how I became aware that my ethnic identity was not always recognized by participants, and in some cases the distinction between white Irish and white British was denied.
Table 2-2 shows the proportion of older people in the 2001 census by ethnic origin. There are a great preponderance of white people in the United Kingdom, with only very minor differences in the proportion between males and females.
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While whites in Britain dislike the half-caste more than the full-blooded Negro, whites in the West Indies favour the half-caste against the blacks. These, however, are matters of social prestige.
He claimed the nation was being overrun by foreigners who made white citizens feel like “strangers in their own country.” Whites, he argued, were becoming a “persecuted minority” because of laws that favored nonwhites.
Non‐white full‐time employees were offered, and undertook, less training than whites in Britain in 1993–4, according to data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey. ... These findings suggest that equal opportunities legislation has been unsuccessful in eliminating unequal access to employer‐funded training in Britain.
The problem was who should play Othello. The part was written for a white actor, Richard Burbage, who probably wore black make-up, and for 200 years or so that was the way things stayed. In 1825 the black actor Ira Aldridge played the role
It's impossible to know if the stereotypes would have been lessened by casting a Chinese actor as Chang, but the decision to cast a white actor ... certainly exacerbates the problem. I don't think anyone involved had sinister motives in casting John Bennett
The character of Othello has been played by white actors 'blacking up' ... Orson Welles play the role in the 1952 film version, and in 1964 Laurence Olivier was heavily made-up
Berkoff enjoyed watching a blacked-up Laurence Olivier play Othello in the 60s before the “fiends of political correctness” created a so-called “no-go zone for white actors on that particular role”.
She was the first black actor to play the part of Fugard's Lena, a black character written to be played by the (white) actor, Yvonne Bryceland.
Island in the Sun, a 1957 film in which she appeared opposite white actor John Justin, marked the first time the theme of interracial love was explored in the movies.
In 1997 Sir Patrick Stewart, a white actor, played Othello at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC while the rest of the cast was black.
Using white actors to play characters of a different ethnic origin has been going on for decades - such as .... Laurence Olivier blacking up for 1965's Othello. Christian Bale played Moses in 2014's Exodus: Gods and Kings, while there was criticism of 2016's Gods of Egypt, in which stars like Gerard Butler played Egyptian deities. And there was a similar outcry when Tom Hardy was rumoured to be playing Jafar in Guy Ritchie's new Aladdin ... Skrein's decision marks the first time a white actor has left a high-profile film project after receiving criticism
A mixed-race university lecturer accused of being racist by the white actor Laurence Fox has been bombarded with hate messages via social media, she has told the Observer.
Black actors were “confused and understandably angry” when Edward Holcroft was chosen for London Spy after many of them had auditioned.
However, discussions around diversity have threatened to overshadow the ceremony after Bafta named an all-male Best Director shortlist, with Greta Gerwig failing to make the cut, while every acting nomination went to a white actor.
Jessie Cave, a white actress, portrayed Lavender Brown in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Even though Hermione’s race is never specified in the Harry Potter series, Emma Watson’s casting in the film adaptations confirmed many readers’ assumptions that the character was white, leading to a blockbuster film franchise for children where the only characters of color featured in minor roles.
In addition, it’s also been pointed out that Finn’s arc, though it began with promise, wasn’t given the same care or development as other characters—such as Rey, played by white actress Daisy Ridley—nor was his race ever taken into account and explored in a thoughtful way in the world of the films.
Michael Gambon, in 1990, was probably the last white actor to play the role wearing black make-up.
The report suggests that a white actress, Imogen Poots, could be cast as Iris West Allen - a part played in the successful TV version by black actress Candice Patton.
Cargill suggested Marvel had one eye on sensitivities over Tibet in the world’s most populous nation when the studio cast white actor Tilda Swinton as the traditionally Asian mentor to Doctor Strange, the Ancient One.
Protest by Asian American members of Actor's Equity over the casting of a White actor, Jonathan Pryce, in the lead role of The Engineer
Laurence Olivier's black-face performance of Othello ... one of the last times the role was played by a prominent white actor, Anthony Hopkins's portrayal ... supplying the exception that proves the rule.
The role is instead given to white actor Luise Rainer, who wins an Oscar for her portrayal—making the film an eternal sore spot for Wong.
The show’s main, white presenter Huw Edwards is the BBC’s sixth-highest paid on the list ... a high number of leading white presenters were not included as most of their pay came through a production company hired by the BBC ... David Dimbleby, host of Question Time, is one such case ... Off-screen, Harding, James Purnell, director of radio and education, Ian Katz, editor of BBC2’s Newsnight, and Sarah Sands, editor of Radio 4’s Today programme, are all paid more than £150,000 a year, and are also white.
From the BBC’s use of the N-word on daytime television by a white presenter to black Labour MP Dawn Butler being incorrectly stopped by police.
Caroline Flack stepped down following her arrest last month ... Before Whitmore was appointed, This Morning's Rochelle Humes, Vick Hope and Maya Jama were reportedly in the mix for the job, and Whitmore has now responded to claims that producers should have helped further representation on TV by not choosing another white presenter.
Leigh Francis has apologised for playing black people in his 2000s Channel 4 show, Bo' Selecta. Using masks, the white actor created exaggerated versions of Michael Jackson, Craig David and Mel B. Leigh ... In the show, white stars like Kelly Osbourne, Elton John and Lorraine Kelly were also portrayed in a similar way. ... There have also been some calls on social media for white actors David Walliams and Matt Lucas to apologise
The character was one of several caricatures of black celebrities on the show “Bo’ Selecta!” that were played by the white comedian Leigh Francis, wearing masks with grotesquely exaggerated features.
The controversial character has been heavily criticised for years as white actor Reece Shearsmith was painted in blackface in the BBC Two comedy series.
The Mighty Boosh’s Spirit of Jazz and The League of Gentlemen’s Papa Lazarou characters were both played by white actors wearing blackface ... The Spirit of Jazz character is supposed to be the ghost of fictional jazz musician Howlin’ Jimmy Jefferson and was played by Noel Fielding in the series.
Two years ago, in a West End production of Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan, the Duchess of Berwick was played by the white actress Jennifer Saunders, while her biological brother Lord Lorton was played by Joseph Marcell, who is black.
In the UK, cult Channel 4 comedy Peep Show has become the latest show to have a scene featuring a white actor in race-changing makeup removed from Netflix ... Jez (played by Robert Webb) ... painting him with dark brown face paint. ... white comedian Leigh Francis play characters like Michael Jackson, Spice Girl Mel B, and British R&B star Craig David.
The comic Daniel Kitson’s show, in which he says the word “Paki” several times. The debate hinges on whether it is acceptable for a white comedian (in front of a largely white, although almost certainly liberal, audience) to use such a toxic word so casually, even to prove a point about racism.
Featured a young Stevie Winwood, the one white singer whose voice James Baldwin admitted misidentifying as black.
Jess Glynne has described the criticism of white artists nominated for MOBO Awards as "strange and annoying" ... "That's not a bad thing just because I have white skin," she said ... Should Ed Sheeran win Best Song for "Sing" this evening ... The white singer-songwriter topped the 1Xtra Power List ... who came third behind white brothers Disclosure and just ahead of the white son of a former City banker, Sam Smith.
An evening of musical numbers at the Royal Albert Hall, by white singer Mazz Murray ... She wasn’t alone: also in 2013, white former prison guard Sam Bailey was joined by Nicole Scherzinger to sing Telling before she won The X Factor.
It was co-written and produced by Ruth Copeland, a white singer from County Durham who opened for Sly Stone and David Bowie
Concert film The T.A.M.I. Show (1965) along with the television special in which white singer Petula Clark embraced black singer Harry Belafonte
If Sheeran and Lamar are both nominated for album of the year, we may be in for another fraught event - following the controversy that was Adele winning over Beyonce at the 59th awards. Sheeran beating Lamar would mark the fourth year in a row that a white singer has been picked for the award over a black artist.
Springfield left the trio for a solo career and turned to pop and soul material. She was instrumental in the arrangements that brought top Motown acts to the United Kingdom in 1965, and she was the only white singer to be on the bill of some of the shows in which she appeared.
Born George O'Dowd on 6/14/1961 in Bexley Heath, Kent, England. White singer. Leader of Culture Club. ... Jamiroquai: Interracial alternative dance group led by white singer/songwriter Jason Kay
Certain oberservers thought it was an act or courage for white singer Paul McCartney to risk his standing with white audience by recording songs wth black artists such as Stevie Wonder
The name was inspired by the nineteenth-century black opera singer Sissieretta Jones, who was nicknamed Black Patti because her vocal gifts resembled those of Adelina Patti, a leading white singer of the day.
Sterling posted two pictures showing headlines from the Daily Mail, one talked about a young black player, Tosin Adarabioyo buying a house, while the other headline talked about a young white footballer, Phil Foden buying his mum a home.
Mitchell is conscious that, as a public school and Oxford-educated white athlete, his complaints at unfair treatment at the hands of the RFU might not be met with widespread sympathy.
Vince Jones, a leading white footballer with Leeds United
People magazine's pick for their annual “Sexiest Man Alive” cover story is … another white guy. David Beckham, the 40-year-old retired soccer star, received the nod on Tuesday, making him the latest in a long line of white men so honored since the magazine started awarding the title 30 years ago.
One brand of potato chips is even kebab-flavoured, and advertised by Yohan Cabaye, a white footballer who plays for France and Paris Saint-Germain.
Patterns of family life have become increasingly diverse over the past thirty years among white people in Britain and other North European countries. Family relationships are said to be moving away from “old fashioned values” towards “modern individualism”. Different minorities are strongly represented at both ends of the spectrum.
243 adult patients who were attending general practitioners at a health centre in Bradford,England. Of these 103 were white, 83 were of Pakistani origin and 57 were of Indian origin ... Smoking and drinking are less frequent amongst 'Asians' than whites in Britain and the obvious reasons are the religious and cultural taboos.
Some critics of microaggression research, including psychologists, have also said that majority (e.g. white people in Britain) individuals would not respond to the same events so severely.
Any other arrangement, such as racial equality or control by people of colour, would threaten the 'white comfort zone' and therefore be unacceptable to most whites. The intensity to which most whites in Britain and the USA hold these views varies from very intense to passive (Figure 11.1).
Do you think most white people in Britain would mind or not mind if a suitably qualified person of Asian* origin were appointed as their boss? (If mind) A lot or a little?
It comments on neither the inadequacy nor the use of the term ‘whites’.
The results indicate that, with or without controls and irrespective of ethnicity, blacks in Britain are significantly more likely to have a native born white partner than their US counterparts.
Overall, the proportion of white people in Britain has fallen from 91% in 2001 to 86% in 2011. The fall has taken place despite an influx of white immigrants from Poland.
Indians also have similar or higher earnings relative to white people in the United Kingdom, while earnings can be much lower for people who have Pakistani or Bangladeshi backgrounds (Longhi and Brynin, 2017)
Only 2% of white people in the United Kingdom live in crowded conditions, but 30% of Bangladeshi, 16% of Pakistani and 15% of black African households are overcrowded.
Black people are stopped by police at 6 times the rate of White people in the United Kingdom and Asians at almost twice the rate of Whites
Many white people in the UK feel that social landlords actively discriminate against them in favour of immigrants and ethnic minorities. Research by Alan Manning and colleagues finds no basis in reality for this perceived discrimination – but the recent history of social housing gives an indication of why that view has become so entrenched.
We have investigated the incidence of breast cancer amongst Asian and black immigrants in comparison with whites in Britain ... Caucasians were taken from those born in the United Kingdom or Eire. ... The incidence of breast cancer among Asian and black immigrants is low compared to that of the Caucasians and is similar to the rates in their countries of origin.
Mortality from stroke, however, is higher among black people than white people in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The gene, called FTO, was found by studying the genome of 39,000 white people in the United Kingdom, Finland and Italy who gave blood samples, the team said in Thursday's online issue of the journal Science.
Half of white Europeans carry one copy of the variant and one in six has two copies, experts estimate.
The coronavirus doesn't care about heritage, yet BAME people are losing their lives at a higher rate than white people in Britain. GQ looks at the links between racial inequality and public health.
Data from the coronavirus pandemic has shown that death rates have been significantly higher for Black people and ethnic minorities than for white people in Britain.
The study showed that black people were 1.9 times more likely to die with the coronavirus than whites in Britain, while Bangladeshi and Pakistani men were 1.8 times more likely to die than white males. The Office of National Statistics said ethnic Chinese and those of mixed ethnicity have risks for virus-related deaths similar to white people.
