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The Times: "Brixton: the depressing symbol of Britain's multicultural failure"

he thinks only white people shop in tesco, is he having a bubble?

I have been troubled by the fact that lots of pubs feel "segregated" but who's to say that people with different cultures should all have the same idea of a good night out? Doesn't mean they are "avoiding" people from other backgrounds.
 
The truth that does lie in this article is one that has been observed before about London, that communities aren't integrated but rather that there's a huge level of tolerance in London toward each other - no need to like or accept the person standing next to you, just don't go round trying to start a fight with them. The rest of it is bollocks tho.
 
not only were my eight years there marked by a retrospectively bewildering number of terrifying incidents...but also a complete failure to make friends with any local residents"

"The last flat I lived in, for instance, was in a part of Lambeth that I described to friends as “Brixton” if I wanted to be precise and impress them with my ethnic credentials, “North Clapham” if I wanted to reassure them with my suburbanism"
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I suspect the fact this guy struggled to make friends probably has more to do with him being an idiot than anything else...
 
Belushi said:
I suspect theres some truth in what he's saying, but its class rather than race based.
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This.

He's not wrong, exactly, but I agree a lack of socialisation is more to do with class or income.

By my reckoning, A lot of people who move into the area are white and have come to London for relatively well-paid central london jobs and end up flat sharing with similar. The local populace will be more mixed.


It just depends. I used to socialise with as many black people as white, but not nearly so many just now. Just how my life has shifted with one thing and another.
 
Are the ethnic backgrounds of the mixture of Urban75 posters who live in Brixton an argument to contradict or support this article?
 
Yossarian said:
I suspect the fact this guy struggled to make friends probably has more to do with him being an idiot than anything else...
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I reckon so. I seem to have integrated reasonably well and am on better terms with my neighbours and local community regardless of skin colour than anywhere I have ever lived before.
 
kyser_soze said:
The truth that does lie in this article is one that has been observed before about London, that communities aren't integrated but rather that there's a huge level of tolerance in London toward each other - no need to like or accept the person standing next to you, just don't go round trying to start a fight with them.
Click to expand...
Multi-race/faith tolerance is good enough for me, and that's what I see loads of in Brixton.

Apart from that, he just seems to be projecting his own inability to make friends on to the community, he's confusing race with class and finished off by throwing a few tired stereotypes.

Pointless article.
 
kyser_soze said:
The truth that does lie in this article is one that has been observed before about London, that communities aren't integrated but rather that there's a huge level of tolerance in London toward each other - no need to like or accept the person standing next to you, just don't go round trying to start a fight with them.
Click to expand...

Which is my understanding of what the term "multiculturism" (as opposed to integration) is usually taken to mean.

So it doesn't make sense to use the words "multicultural failure" in the title of the article.
 
“Brixton” if I wanted to be precise and impress them with my ethnic credentials
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No wonder everyone hated you around here. It's not a Brixton problem, it's a wanky soft-brained liberal bedwetter mememememe problem.
 
editor said:
Multi-race/faith tolerance is good enough for me, and that's what I see loads of in Brixton.

Apart from that, he just seems to be projecting his own inability to make friends on to the community, he's confusing race with class and finished off by throwing a few tired stereotypes.

Pointless article.
Click to expand...

Well quite...

teuchter said:
Which is my understanding of what the term "multiculturism" (as opposed to integration) is usually taken to mean.

So it doesn't make sense to use the words "multicultural failure" in the title of the article.
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And again...
 
Total strangers of the same ethnic/cultural background don't tend to speak to each other, either. If, despite having lived here for ten years, there's no-one Jamaican, Polish, Portuguese, Eritrean or Ecuadorian I'd actually call (or would call me) a personal friend, I don't think this is a failure on anyone's part. Why's he stirring things up?

And yeah - only white people shop in Tesco's? He obviously hasn't been there for a while.
 
Belushi said:
I suspect theres some truth in what he's saying, but its class rather than race based.
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I'm inclined to agree and I found his readiness to jump to those conclusions based solely on race a little perturbing.
Diversity will bring complexity. A mix of incomes, classes, educational and political backgrounds; it's far too simplistic and short sighted for a self proclaimed liberal journalist to make such assumptions.

Being of an intermediate shade, I felt unwelcome in both and spent most of my time in the pub at the other end of the street, which was frequented almost entirely by young professionals.
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Talk about projection!
His sense of alienation and prejudice=representation of mulitcultural failings acorss the land.
 
I don't quite understand the point of the article.

I'd say Brixton is a perfect example of multiculturalism because of the wide mix of people that you can come across that, pretty much most of the timedo get on. Yes, they're all different, yes they often keep themselves to themselves, but so what? If everything was mixed into one big beige "fluffy" culture where you couldn't tell one person from another, that wouldn't be multiculturalism would it?

We don't all have to sit in Windrush Square holding hands round a camp fire singing Kum-By-Ya to call it a perfect world. It doesn't mean we have to like everything we see round here either.

I don't think it's necessarily a 'class' or 'race' issue, but as far as the article writer goes, I guess you get tossers from both.
 
editor said:
Multi-race/faith tolerance is good enough for me, and that's what I see loads of in Brixton.

Apart from that, he just seems to be projecting his own inability to make friends on to the community, he's confusing race with class and finished off by throwing a few tired stereotypes.

Pointless article.
Click to expand...

Personally I don't think mere tolerance is enough. I find it disappointing that Brixton is so (racially) un-integrated. There are probably parts of London that are more integrated. I don't think its just to do with class. I noticed the way that people split into groups after work when I was working for Lambeth Council last summer. No-one spoke about it... I found it quite shocking. I may be wrong but i dont think you would find that in other parts of London so much. And perhaps Urban also reflects this.
 
Funnily enough, I disagree completely. People get along. I'm working at Lambeth now and it seems just at ethnically integrated as Camden or Haringey in terms of the council. Like aj_down says, just because we're not sitting on the lawn having a sing-song doesn't mean we're not interacting in a friendly non-judgemental way.
 
bluestreak said:
Funnily enough, I disagree completely. People get along. I'm working at Lambeth now and it seems just at ethnically integrated as Camden or Haringey in terms of the council. Like aj_down says, just because we're not sitting on the lawn having a sing-song doesn't mean we're not interacting in a friendly non-judgemental way.
Click to expand...


I've also worked for Camden and Haringey Councils in the past 18 months so without wishing to make explicit comparisons my experiences at those two Councils do form a background to what I said before. Perhaps it was just the dynamics of the section in Brixton I was working in.
 
toblerone3 said:
I did buck the trend in a small way. And if I had been there longer I would have probably found out more what was going on and possibly challenged a few things.
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Why did you feel the need to interfere with who people chose to socialise with, and the desire to force them to change that?

What people do outside of work is entirely their business, not yours.
 
toblerone3 said:
I did buck the trend in a small way. And if I had been there longer I would have probably found out more what was going on and possibly challenged a few things.
Click to expand...

What would you have challenged tob? What aspects of adults living their lives didn't square with your vision of how integration should be?
 
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