Britons’ Racial Bias

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30901, 6 November 1965, Page 15

Britons ’ Racial Bias

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.AJ LONDON, Nov. 5. About 20 per cent of British people are severely prejudiced against coloured people, 30 per cent have a considerable amount of prejudice, a further 40 per cent are mildly prejudiced, and no more than 10 per cent are without prejudice by the strict test of approving intermarriage. These findings were suggested by a survey conducted by Mr Clifford S. Hill, a graduate of the London School

of Economics, who has worked since 1952 as a Congregationalist minister in areas of London where large numbers of Commonwealth immigrants have settled.

The survey forms the skeleton of “How Colour Prejudiced Is Britain?” published

today. It is based on a "carefullycontrolled” sample of 120 persons in three diffeernt areas of London: Islington, with a high density of coloured immigrants; Edmonton, with hardly any at all; and Tottenham, with a sizeable coloured population, but at a much lower density than Islington. All three are working class districts with similar patterns

of light industry. Mr Hill divides his study into two parts, relations which

involve “impersonal” contact with coloured people, and those involving “personal” contact. The first category includes working in the same place or living in the same

road, the second entertaining in one's home and intermarriage.

The book concludes that there is a hard core of prejudice throughout British society, which rises sharply during the initial period of contact with coloured immigrants and the first experience of competition between the races. “When the initial period of settlement and adjustment has been made, and the immigrants begin to adjust them-

selves to the conditions of their new environment and to conform to local customs, and the host community begins to get used to the sight of the newcomers and to accept their presence, the level of overt prejudice in the matter of impersonal relationships begins to fall.” Mr Hill found that, across the whole spectrum of relationships, prejudice decreased with age among men, but increased with age among women.