A documentary to be shown on the BBC tonight will show a catalogue of racist abuse towards two undercover reporters living on a housing estate in Bristol.
Tamanna Rahman and Amil Khan spent two months living in Southmead for the Panorama programme Undercover: Hate on the Doorstep. Posing as a married couple with limited English, they were racially abused more than 50 times by children and adults, and suffered physical assault.
Tamanna Rahman: Undercover BBC reporter was frequently racially abused in Southmead
The report was initiated in the wake of Trevor Phillips, head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, saying that having neighbours of a different ethnic background is no longer an issue in modern Britain when compared to other countries.
The reality is very different for the BBC reporters who, they reveal, were intimidated, racially insulted, and threatened with bottles and bricks.
Ms Rahman, recounting her experience on the Panorama website, said: “Before we began filming, Southmead was identified to us by the group Support Against Racist Incidents (SARI) as an area where recent racially motivated attacks had occurred. Other estates and areas around the country were also highlighted by race campaign groups.
“It must be said that some people were lovely and in an estate like Southmead, many have their own issues to deal with, especially during tough economic times.
But I was not looking for special treatment in Southmead, I was looking to be treated like everyone else – not to be reduced to a four letter word that starts with ‘P’.”
The documentary comes on the day research from the National Centre for Social Research showed that people with African and Asian names have to send nearly twice as many job applications before getting an interview than those with white English names.
Applications were sent for 987 vacancies between November 2008 and May 2009. The jobs applied for included accountants, IT staff, care workers and sales assistants and were based in Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Manchester.
The report found there was no plausible explanation for the difference in treatment other than racial discrimination.
The BBC Panorama programme is on BBC1 at 8.30pm
We are an Indian family living on a white majority council estate in fact we were the first asian family to move onto this estate, over the years our windows have been smashed, car tyres slashed, physical attacks, racist abuse, letters posted to us threatening to burn us out whilst we sleep, groups of adult neighbours aged in their 40-50's standing outside our house and loudly shouting they are sick of the f****** p***'s taking over the estate, we live like prisoners in our own home. The police are a waste of time, they encourage this behaviour from the locals, they get personal enjoyment watching an asian family suffer this abuse. (The Police Station where we live).
Yes I saw the program, you know this is typical of estate life, the fact that the people being abused are not white, is only an easy target for the low life behaviour, they would do that to any body who presents a target to them, I am English white, and this brought back the absolute hell these young ignorant minds can produce, and if you are living there, there is no escape- hence the common suicide of victims of this constant abuse.
The first battle is the battle of the minds, the violence is group behaviour. You have got to intergrate into the world you have entered by living there. It takes skill and bottle to do it and you would rather not, but it is the only way. Buy a packet of fags, and offer them one, ask for somthing simple like a road direction, get to know them, If you stay apart due to shyness or you are scared or unable to mix with people get someone who can, and go with them.
You know Panorama, would you try putting a different type of person in that estate someone with the skills of a Lenny Henry that can mix and see what happens. It would be interesting to see if the same happens?
Black or white, Born an Raised account is an accurate one, it is the target not the skin that you have to deal with. Remember, each of these low life behaviour pattern is learned …. why because they are scared targets themselves.
as a born and raised 'Meader' who now lives in the north of the city ,can i just comment on last nights panorama programme whist most like minded people will be disgusted and amazed by the abuse given and ignorance shown by these filthy uneducates.what i really dont want to see is the real people of southmead pigeoned holed into the same breath as those minority and they are a minority! dont let the bbc dictate to everyone as if you counted the individuals we are talking a dozen or so kids and low lifes amongst the rest of the southmead community.In the early 80's as i grew up on the estate we had horrible nasty kids around then and seeing a couple of those last night i was back on estate trying to get sneak back from greystoke shops thru westleigh,charfield to safety of pen park rd and surrounding fonthill/ascott estate and i was and still am a plain old white english/irish boy.unfortunately as much as people like to blame council estates like southmead,st .annes lets not fool ourselves only early this year near where i live know with 2 teenage sons a lad was attacked because of his skin colour by another lad with a PYTHON.what we can all do im not sure but we have to try.
It shocked me just how violent the individuals in the documentry were in what was an un-provoked situation, however I do feel that the couple filming undercover provoked further reaction on several occasions by turning round and trying to talk to their attackers rather just walking away. Its this small minority that let down the majority of residents in Southmead and countless other places in the UK, both council estates and private residential estates alike. My first reaction too was a bit of chav bashing, but then that makes us no better than them.
Watching that documentary made me feel physically sick. How can Britain have bred such awful people?
If these chavs did this to asians in East London, they would get fukd up!
Makes you proud to be a white Bristolian eh.
My gut instinct was to go round and put all those chavs out of their misery. But then you're just losing any moral high ground you might have had.
I'm not saying we should feel sorry for them, they're pathetic. I just hope incidents like this become fewer and more far between.
And no, not all of Bristol is like Southmead!
I had the same problem in Norwich/Norfolk last year.
I had to call the police because a gang of kids(10-15 years) tried to smash our windows with snow balls. After that I went out and asked the kids why are you doing this? the kid said:
"just for fun, are you hungry? f@ckin.. Hungarian, you want more?, f@ckin.. monkeys"
He said.
It was a "good" experience how foreigners welcomed here.
As well as welcomed in a good job too.
By the way me and my family white Europians.
Just seen the documentary. Hugely disturbing stuff. The National Centre for Social Research statistics are very disheartening. Is this really what modern Britain has become?