White (BBC series)
Encyclopedia
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
in Britain. The series alleged that some white working class Britons felt marginalized and poses the controversial question, "Is white working class Britain becoming invisible?"
Last Orders
This documentary by Henry SingerHenry Singer
Henry Singer is a documentary filmmaker. He produced the documentary 9/11: The Falling Man which dealt with the attempts to name an individual who jumped to his death from the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks...
looks at a working Men's club, Wibsey Working Men's Club, in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
and the way in which it feels threatened by immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
which has increased the local Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
populations as well as allegations that they are prioritised for services.
It also examines the effect that the government ban on smoking in public places and the availability of cheap alcohol in urban pubs has had on the viability of the club. The documentary highlights the alienation which these working class voters feel from the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
.
Rivers of Blood
A documentary looking at Enoch PowellEnoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, MBE was a British politician, classical scholar, poet, writer, and soldier. He served as a Conservative Party MP and Minister of Health . He attained most prominence in 1968, when he made the controversial Rivers of Blood speech in opposition to mass immigration from...
's Rivers of Blood speech
Rivers of Blood speech
The "Rivers of Blood" speech was a speech criticising Commonwealth immigration, as well as proposed anti-discrimination legislation in the United Kingdom made on 20 April 1968 by Enoch Powell , the Conservative Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West...
on the 40th anniversary of its delivery.
The documentary charts sacking from the Cabinet of Edward Heath after the controversial speech which predicted violence on the streets of Britain and which quoted Roman poet Virgil's prophesy: "I see the Tiber foaming with much blood".
The documentary also examines the effect of the speech on Britain's immigration policy.
White Girl
A drama by Abi MorganAbi Morgan
Abi Morgan is a British playwright and screenwriter known for her works for television, such as Sex Traffic and The Hour, and the film Brick Lane...
about an eleven-year-old white girl who becomes interested in Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. The drama centres on a culture clash
Culture Clash
Culture Clash may refer to:* Culture Clash , American performance troupe* Culture Clash , British band which plays Harare Jit music...
when a working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
family from Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
move to an otherwise all-Asian neighbourhood in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
. 11-year old Leah (Holly Kenny
Holly Kenny
Holly Kenny is a British actress, best known for playing Sambuca Kelly in the BBC1 drama Waterloo Road.- Personal life :...
) and Mum Debbie (Maxwell Martin) move after a family relationship breaks down.
Leah becomes friends with an Asian girl Yasmin. However, rows begin when Leah comes home one day wearing a hijab
Hijab
The word "hijab" or "'" refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general....
.
The Poles are Coming!
A documentary by Tim SamuelsTim Samuels
Tim Samuels is an award-winning British documentary filmmaker and broadcaster. His work is characterised by approaching serious topics in innovative and subversive ways to produce hard-hitting documentaries. Samuels formed older people's rock group The Zimmers for a BBC documentary and is a...
looks at the attitudes of working class Britain's to their recent East European arrivals. The documentary is set in Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
and looks at the strain on public services and the effect on the local economy of thousands of new immigrants.
The documentary contrasts the positive attitude employers have to the Polish immigrants to that of working class youths who accuse the new arrivals of taking their employment.
The effect on Eastern Europe itself is also examined. It is revealed that Poland is struggling to build stadiums for the Euro 2012 Championship because of the skills drain.
Despite the programme's title, it is not only Poles who have migrated to the city in large numbers in recent years, and the documentary shows that. Foreigner
Alien (law)
In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.-Categorization:Types of "alien" persons are:*An alien who is legally permitted to remain in a country which is foreign to him or her. On specified terms, this kind of alien may be called a legal alien of that country...
s from other Eastern European countries, along with Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
immigrants, have swelled the population of that formerly small city. In parts of Peterborough, including Millfield, whites are the minority. The documentary included scenes at a primary school at which only one pupil spoke English as his first language - the vast majority of the children were Eastern Europeans and Asians.
The Primary
A documentary on Welford Primary School in HandsworthHandsworth, West Midlands
Handsworth is an inner city area of Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. The Local Government Act 1894 divided the ancient Staffordshire parish of Handsworth into two urban districts: Handsworth and Perry Barr. Handsworth was annexed to the county borough of Birmingham in Warwickshire in 1911...
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, which has pupils from 17 different nationalities.
Head teacher Chris Smith attempts to make pupils aware of the many different nationalities and cultures.
All White in Barking
A documentary by Marc Isaacs on the area of Barking and Dagenham, in outer East London, which has recently seen some of the highest levels of immigration in the United Kingdom, and, as a result, is the Borough with the highest number of BNP councillors in the UK. The activities of an activist for the British National PartyBritish National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
are also analysed.
One of the people featured was a middle-aged white man, originally from Bow
Bow, London
Bow is an area of London, England, United Kingdom in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a built-up, mostly residential district located east of Charing Cross, and is a part of the East End.-Bridges at Bowe:...
but who had moved a few miles east to Barking, who was horrified that many of his white British neighbours had been recently replaced by various foreigners, and that his daughter had a child by a very violent Nigerian immigrant. The father and his daughter explained how she and her child have to live in protected, secure housing, as it is the only way to escape the Nigerian and his savagery. At the end of the documentary, the white man moves to (the much whiter) Canvey Island
Canvey Island
Canvey Island is a civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary in England. It is separated from the mainland of south Essex by a network of creeks...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
.
Allegations of racism
Allegations of racism emerged after the trailer for the series was shown where a white face was covered in writing until it disappeared under a mass of ink. It read 'Britain is changing' in many different languagesIn an interview the BBC 2 controller Roly Keating
Roly Keating
Roland "Roly" Keating is the current Director of Archive Content for the BBC.-Education:Keating was educated at Westminster School, an independent school for boys in London, followed by Balliol College at the University of Oxford, where he read Classics.-Life and career:Keating joined the BBC in...
responded:
"I absolutely refute that it is at all racist. It's clearly arresting. It denotes to audiences that they will find certain elements of this season challenging. Part of the point of the BBC is to stimulate public debate."
Allegations of stereotyping
The series also gained criticism for the portrayal it gave to white working class Britons. Sarah MukherjeeSarah Mukherjee
Sarah Mukherjee is a former BBC Environment Correspondent. She was educated at Loughton County High School in Essex, before attending St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she read Law...
, an environment correspondent at the BBC argued that the series reinforce stereotypes that the white working class were violent, racist and lived on benefits.
The BBC’s commissioning editor, Richard Klein stated that the commissioning of the series was in response to a report which showed white working class voices rarely made it on to TV and that when they were they were portrayed as "chavs" and "white trash
White trash
White trash is an American English pejorative term referring to poor white people in the United States, suggesting lower social class and degraded living standards...
".