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When will we black and Asian Britons no longer need to wag our fingers at institutions which remain wholly white at the top?
This week Lenny Henry reminded broadcasters that they are running out of excuses: "We are a multicultural, multi-ethnic society and there is an area of that society which is slightly hoping it is not true." Samir Shah, member of the BBC's executive board, agrees that the picture is "absolutely dire". Meanwhile London Fashion Week has thrown up, yet again, questions about why there are hardly any black and Asian models on the catwalks and in fashion magazines.
They like the colour of our money but not of our faces. Our taxes and purchases are welcome but pale skin is essential for real fame and fortune, the most coveted positions and clout. Look through the TV schedules. Only white men are deemed capable of presenting travel programmes, game and chat shows and political debates. Cookery, too, and gardening are in the capable hands of white folk, experts these days on oriental food and gardens.
Trevor McDonald, Meera Syal, George Alagiah, Naomi Campbell and Henry himself have had to fight for decades to get places. What is so depressing is that their success changed little for others. Broadcasters have spent a fortune on training courses and "diversity" initiatives, squandering your money and mine - all damned useless. Not one black or Asian person is a channel controller; not one runs any of the many glossy mainstream magazines or fashion houses.
And some of the most beautiful women in the world are black, Indian, Chinese and Vietnamese - but you wouldn't know it from the images reflected by the fashion industry of itself.
Millions of ordinary people in this country, meanwhile, are genuinely open and at ease with the nation as it has evolved. As Henry says: "In the real world there's more diversity - mixed relationships, mixed-race kids running all over the place. It is a fact of life." But they don't get it, the arrogant toffs running broadcasting and fashion.
They will do what they always do when criticised - another initiative, more earnest meetings, promises emptier than George Best's glass. And nothing will change. So we will complain again, each time feeling more demeaned knowing they don't give a damn. I know it is tiresome to hear these incessant gripes. But, trust me, it is even more so to have to nag year after year.
Reader views (1)
Lenny Henry doesn't get TV work any more because he is NOT FUNNY. He is a totally dire comedian. People won't watch him, that is why the offers have dried up.
Why is Naomi Campbell whinging? She is a model not a TV entertainer or presenter. As for you Yasmin, your face is on telly all the time, why are you complaining?
- K Home, London, 14/02/2008 14:57
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