Wednesday 20 May 2009

Following from my first post about the social issues of Ethnic Minorities, I continue by expanding on my thoughts.

Equal Opportunities or Equal under the Law should afford every individual the same opportunities suffice that they are prepared to work hard. I look at the recent election of Barack Obama in the United States of America and have seen how far the American people have come in accepting or should I say tolerating racial harmony even though they're still much work to be done. That election to me was the last hope for everyone on this earth because it gives everyone who falls into the category of minority to feel hope and and belief in the system that at least in the USA Equal Under the Law/Equal Opportunity appears to be working. If the people believes that the system of Equal Opportunity is working it would instill a sense of hard work and excellence in whatever people do. People would strive to be better i.e more people would want to go back to school to better themselves, this would result in more and more people coming off the benefit. All people wants to be guaranteed that if they work hard, that they will be treated fairly and as a result their lives is going to become better.

I have friends from all walks of life and in different class. Some of my friends are in the upper class of society and some are in the working (lower class) of society. This differentiation doesn't mean that my friends in the lower class of society doesn't have the same level of education or even more than my friends who are considered in the upper class. They have jobs and are hard working as the ones in the upper class. The question I'm trying to ask myself is, why haven't they made it to that class or why weren't they given the opportunity to even demonstrate their capabilities? Most of the friends in the lower class or what I consider lower class have accents which aren't necessarily British as they're from all parts of the Caribbean. That doesn't mean that they don't have impeccable grammar and easy to understand accents. So why it it that they're finding it so difficult to find jobs or if in work, upward mobility is a steep climb.

This is a discussion that needs to be had and I wish we all read and comment on this.

Get reading and share your comments.

Thursday 14 May 2009

Employment and the social ladder

I'm writing from my personal experience and a lot of my mates as an ethnic minority living here in the UK. I have found that a lot of ethnic minorities especially black men even though we're highly educated and have the relevant experience to operate at a very high level in the work place; we're not given the chance to do so and especially in very big Companies. When we're actually given the opportunity it's within very small family run Companies with 6 or 8 employees. This to me is very bad in a lot of sense for the following reason: Small Companies do not have the funds to make their salary scale comparable with say medium to large Companies with someone of the same qualifications and experience. When we do apply to the large companies we're told we have too many small Company experience and thus we're over looked for the jobs. This is creating a whole lot of social problem because even though we're being preached today in and day out about equal opportunities, I feel that it is not really being practiced and thus leaving black men especially at the bottom of the social ladder and continually creating a a society of the haves and have nots.

This type of exclusion to me is spilling over even into social circles where only people of a certain ethnic group can afford to socialize at certain bars and restaurants and black men and a large part of the ethnic minority community is pushed to socialize in the most grotty and dangerous parts of society.

Equal opportunity to me means total integration at all levels of society and zero tolerance on all levels of exclusion.

These are some of my thoughts, do comment and let's get this discussion started.