Opinion from Black Abers please (or white)

[Joe_the_Lion]

I was forced this morning to sit through a few hours of kids TV, I noticed that 50 percent of presenters were black.

Whilst looking at a group of people larking about on a Royal Bank of Scotland flyer, 4 of the eleven are black.

Now watching Liverpool vrs Arsenal on TV, 8 of the 22 are black.

At half time I watched BBC news 24 where of the four stories reported 2 of the four reporters were black.

I do not follow the hit parade, but I guess 40-50 percent of artists are black.

Whilst I embrace our ethnic cousins, I am just wondering do black people feel they are over-represented. I understand the population is about 5 percent non-white.

Are they annoyed at this seemingly token induction of black people in the media?

If not annoyed, then what is all the fuss about inequality, when it seems to me, blacks have better life chances.

[sp1814]

Depends really...where I used to live, around 40% of the population were black/Asian, so when they turned on the telly it looked completely normal

However, if you lived in a small town (say) in Hertfordshire and never saw a black/Asian face, I think it helps having different racial groups on telly because otherwise you could end up ignorant of 'who they are'.

Also, 'over-representation' in some fields is balanced out by under-represntation in others - you could watch the UK History, Discovery or Bigography channels for a week without seeing a black face.

I've just checked out the official UK singles chart for the week ending 31st March. There are six black acts - 15% of the chart...and bizarrely the same bloke (Akon) turns up on three different singles.

Rap/R&B isn't as popular as you may thing. The UK is currently going through an indie rock revival (Kaiser Cheifs, Fratellis, Artic Monkeys etc etc).

[jackenorie]

Or maybe they are simply just better presenters, models, footballers, reporters and singers? I dont think it is overpresenting (and can I say I live on a rural island) I think those people are ambitious and talented, thats why they do what they do.

[bigmalc]

Does it matter?

The examples you have chosen seem strange. I would imagine that in those professions, especially football, a person gets the job based on ability rather than skin colour.

Whilst it may appear to you that minorities are 'over-represented' in the media, that is certainly not the case in the business world or the upper eschelons of the media corporations. How many black CEO's are there in Britain, I wonder? It may be that 8 out of 22 (well uder 50%!) of the players in the Arsenal vs Liverpool game were non-white, however, there isn't a single black Premiership manager.

[Le Chat]

It does not matter a jot but there is something in it. The four C Beebies presenters are white, black, chinese (descent) and one white yet obviously gay.

[Beria]

While you were busy counting the number of black faces on screen, did the thought not occur to you that life is passing you by?

[Joe_the_Lion]

Well I thought whilst I was exposed to some childrens TV, I'll make a sociological analysis of ethnic demographics. Life passing me by??? Nah, just a highly intellectual brain that never switches off.

[matt66]

I also noticed that none of the sailors who are kidnapped are black. Blimey even the Iranians are playing along racial lines

[Joe_the_Lion]

Even Dr Who is now 50 percent black.

I rest my case.

[Beria]

presumably his bottom half?

[mightyWBA]

You are quite right Joe, Black and Asian people are over represented on television.
When they ask an opinion from people "in the street" on news programmes etc.at least one in four of the public has to be an ethnic minority.
This is a fact,a friend of mine is a cameraman for Central News,and he said that once when they were filming in Stourbridge they couldn't find an ethnic minority person to ask a question so went to the bus station hoping the driver of the Wolverhampton bus would be one.
Fortunately he was of Indian origin!
They are over represented without a doubt,apart from the Chinese who just get on with it,and don't cause a fuss.
"I like Chinese......they only come up to your etc....."

[BillyBB]

It is called positive discrimination and has been prevalent for years within the police and BBC especially. People with lower qualifications and less ability can get the job over those with more common ethnicity. All to often it lowers the standard but the football example just shows the strengths of different races over Caucasian.
Whites and Blacks have different bones, men and women are different. We should all work together to our strengths. We should stamp out negative prejudice for being 'different' and forget this PC madness.

[Oakleaf51]

Have you studied the fire brigade recruitment policies lately? Nothing down for a white guy!

[ELVIS68]

I think the BBC have overdone it with the amount of Asian news presenters

Also...I was quite suprised to hear some of my black workmates say that people like Trevor Macdonald,Moira Stewart,Lenny Henry,Frank Bruno etc are not that well liked by the black community, when I asked why, they said that they are not `real blacks`

They seem to have the impression that the TV companies are just using these people to play the PC game, along with the police force and their phoney attempt to recruit more black/asian coppers

[johnlambert]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles /news/news.html?in_article_id=445917&in_page_i d=1770&in_a_source=

if you can belive this article, remember today is 1st April

[THECORBYLOON]

I had a look at the BBC site to get the names of the players in the Liverpool-Arsenal game and at a couple of other sites listing where they were born

LIVERPOOL

REINA SPANISH
ARBELOA SPANISH
CARRAGHER ENGLISH
AGGER DANISH
AURELIO BRAZILIAN
PENNANT ENGLISH
ALONSO SPANISH
MASCHERANO ARGENTINIAN
RIISE NORWEGIAN
GONZALEZ SOUTH AFRICAN
ZENDEN DUTCH
GERRARD ENGLISH
CROUCH ENGLISH
KUYT DUTCH
DUDEK POLISH
FOWLER ENGLISH

5/16 ENGLISH 31%

ARSENAL

LEHMANN DUTCH
EBOUE IVORY COAST
HOYTE ENGLISH
GALLAS FRENCH
CLICHY FRENCH
HLEB BELARUSIAN
FABREGAS SPANISH
DIABY FRENCH
ROSICKY CZECH
DENILSON BRAZILIAN
BAPTISTA BRAZILIAN
LJUNGBERG SWEDISH
ADEBAYOR TOGOLESE
ALUMNIA SPANISH
SENDEROS SWISS

1/15 ENGLISH 7%

If folk are really saying there is tokenism because of the number of black players, why are they not saying the same about the number of Spanish, Brazilian or Dutch players?

Why can folk not accept that we are seeing a large number of non-white faces because they are good at what they do?