Britain’s not racist but…

Nigel Williams, 29 May 2014

The headline in Wednesday’s Guardian, ‘Racism on the Rise in Britain‘ attracted a lot of attention. It came from early results from the 2013 British Social Attitudes survey. Numbers of people describing themselves as very or a little racially prejudiced had risen from the unusually low number a year before. In highlighting that particular question, the article made the mistake of taking people’s self-reported assessment at face value, but also missed the chance to note the attitudes of people that regard themselves as free of racial prejudice.

The 2013 BSAS data are not yet generally available but there is a lot to be learnt from 2011 and 2012. In 2012, near the end of a long block of questions about the Olympics and Paralympics (‘Did you attend?‘ ‘Did you volunteer?‘ ‘Will the Paralympics reduce prejudice against disabled people?‘), they were asked:

How would you describe yourself… as very prejudiced against people of other races, a little prejudiced, or, not prejudiced at all?

In 2011 the question came in a set of personal questions after a block on politics, such as ‘Have you ever signed a peitition?’ and ‘Should voters be able to force their MP to resign?’ The scope for nudging people into more generous answers in 2012 is obvious. In 2012 they were gently nursed into feeling part of the wider human family, whereas in 2011 they were offered every opportunity for cynicism.

Even that is not the biggest problem with judging the extent of Britain’s prejudice this way. The question remains one of self-assessment. It is one of those questions, like good manners or good grammar, only with higher stakes, where we are not qualified to judge ourselves. In 2012, two per cent, almost all white, admitted to being very prejudiced. There is no obvious reason for not taking that at face value. However, if people admit to ‘a little prejudice’ that is a long way from saying they are racist and proud. Equally possible is that they are owning up to occasional tribal feelings, of which they feel at least slightly ashamed and wish to do something to address them. It is more constructive for people to get over their own prejudices than to point accusing fingers at other people. In the simple responses to that one question, people apologetic for past failings cannot be distinguished from the mildly unrepentent. Likewise, the group claiming no prejudice mixes the genuinely unbiased with the biased that are in denial. To measure true national levels of prejudice it pays to look a bit more deeply.

The NatCen researchers are aware of this pitfall. The survey is a rich source of attitudinal questions, whose answers can be cross-tabulated by anyone undertaking to preserve the confidentiality of the respondents. It can reveal truths not just about the extremes, but about aspects of mainstream opinion. One such is hinted at in the Guardian’s report, but was also the subject of a report for the BBC by Nick Robinson.

Of those with self-reported prejudice, 92 per cent wished to see a reduction in immigration. More remarkable is that similar wishes were expressed by 72 per cent of the group claiming to be without prejudice. The previous detailed questions on attitudes to immigration were in 2011. Even among people who saw migration as good for the economy, a majority wished to see it reduced to a greater or lesser degree. A quarter agreeing strongly with the idea of economic benefit wished to see a large reduction. Guardian readers were not unanimous. Half saw fit to leave immigration about the same, but a third wished to see it reduced. Liberal Democrat supporters (in 2011) were split into approximate thirds between ‘stay the same‘, ‘reduce a little‘ and ‘reduce a lot‘.

It is by no means proven that reducing or even ending immigration will solve all the ills for which it is blamed. A country without immigrants can still struggle to find well-paid jobs for all its workers and to provide welfare where employment fails. It can still neglect its own culture in the absence of imported alternatives. There will still be difficulties providing enough affordable homes to go round since, almost by definition, most new sites are in less suitable situations than all the existing ones. That is not what this section of the survey is saying. It does not ask people to argue a coherent economic strategy. It asks for an expression of their opinions and wishes. Rightly or wrongly, most do not regard a wish to reduce immigration as an expression of racial prejudice.