Texto Selectividad. How racist is Britain?

How racist is Britain?

In Britain, social and ethnic division is a plain fact. Ethnic minority populations concentrate in particular neighbourhoods. Although mixed-race marriages are on the rise, they still comprise only 2% of all marriages. For the most part, people mix and marry with people mainly of their own cultural background, as determined by a combination of country, family origin or religion. Britain is a patchwork of almost hermetically sealed sub-worlds, in which class as much as race is a crucial factor. We all like to feel that we are open-minded people who can be friends with anyone, and we can also probably find a few examples of friends who do not match our demographic profile to prove our lack of insularity. But if we are honest, the vast majority live, work and socialise overwhelmingly with people of a similar social type. And the opportunities to mix are limited because many areas remain deeply inhospitable to aliens.

Besides, well-intentioned promotion of multiculturalism can actually exacerbate the paranoid feeling of Britishness being under threat. When people are informed by local and national governments that they ought to embrace minority cultures more than they do, they feel they are being told that their own way of life simply isn’t good enough. This is all clearly bad news for optimistic multiculturalists, and some will think that it suggests a negative view of human nature. On this view, the best we can hope for is little tension between communities by means of mutual tolerance. But toleration implies putting up with something you don’t much like, not embracing difference.

Questions and (possible) answers:

1. Are the following statements TRUE or FALSE? Copy the evidence from the text. No marks are given for only TRUE or FALSE.

a) In Britain people usually mix with people of similar backgrounds. TRUE.

"For the most part, people mix and marry with people mainly of their own cultural background", or "the vast majority live, work and socialise overwhelmingly with people of a similar social type"

b) Britons do not think that other cultures are a menace to their way of living. FALSE.

"well-intentioned promotion of multiculturalism can actually exacerbate the paranoid feeling of Britishness being under threat".

2. In your own words and based on the ideas on the text, answer the following questions.

a) Which facts indicate that Britain is socially and ethnically split?

There are two main facts which indicate that Britain is socially and ethnically divided. First of all, people usually live in areas where they will mainly meet people of their own race or social class. Secondly, although there are marriages among different races, they are not very common.

b) Why are chances of socialising small in Britain?

Chances of socialising are small in Britain because there are many neighbourhoods for just one race or social class.

3. Find the words in the text that mean.

a) increasing (paragraph 1) - on the rise.
b) blocked (paragraph 1) - sealed (limited accepted).
c) furthermore (paragraph 2) - besides.
d) opinion (paragraph 2) - view.

4. Complete the following sentences. Use the appropriate form of the word in brackets when given.

a. A racist is a person who treats other people as inferior due / owing to their race.

b. If only Helen had not fallen (not fall) in love with that black! She should have ignored him!

c. There was a feeling among some black people that the level of racism was declining / had declined / had been declining (decline).

Complete the sentence.

d. Racism isn’t one of the priorities for this Government, is it?

5. Write about 100 to 150 words on the following topic.

- Are minority cultures a danger to our society? Do they have to adapt to our culture or do we have to adapt ourselves to these minority cultures?