Just saw the BBC Panorama programme Undercover: Hate on the Doorstep. Where both Amil Khan and Tamanna Rahman spent eight weeks living undercover in a working class housing estate in Bristol, UK. This report-cum-experiment was done to test the Head of the UK’s Equality and Human Right’s Commission assertion that “having neighbours of a different ethnic background is no longer an issue in modern Britain when compared to other countries.” Khan’s family is originally from Pakistan and Rahman’s from Bangladesh.

In the eight-week experiment the reporters experienced over 50 incidents of racial abuse. But I wonder if this was solely a result of racism or other social and economic factors as well? Would a similar result occur in a middle class or upper class, educated area? I doubt it. And similarly would an experiment be repeated by having native white English reporters undercover in a largely immigrant and Muslim neighbourhood? I doubt it.

The racist individuals shown on the programme are well and truly CHAVs, council housing and violent. Just a testament on how far Britain needs to go in addressing its social and economic problems. Then only can it adequately address its racial problems.