Comments on: We need to drop the ‘tick-box’ approach to equality

By: John Q. Publican

John Q. Publican — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:04:15 +0000

I suspect situations are also worse regarding education and social expectations, for example, in Somalia where there is a war versus Ghana where there hasn’t been for some time.

I suspect that most Somalis who arrive here are ‘economic migrants’ in the sense ‘refugees’; most Ghanaian immigrants, particularly since about 1992, have definitely been ‘economic migrants’ in the sense of choosing to migrate for economic reasons.

By: damon

damon — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:58:22 +0000

As someone working driving to wharehousing and distribution centers in the last several years, I have seen how guys from West Africa put themselves out there on the industrial estates and do lots of minimum wage jobs.
Like on the security gates of these premises.
Long shifts, checking the trucks in and out.

And they (if it doesn’t seem too patronising) engage with the other workers, and you chat and get to know each other after a short while.

If people from Somalia don’t want to do these basic kinds of jobs – what are you supposed to do? Try to get them off the khat?
Well banning it might be a start.

By: Lee Griffin

Lee Griffin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:50:50 +0000

4. In a yearly statistic it certainly can be about their migrant status. If it *isn’t* then that’s precisely why the thinking pushed by the authors of this article is a good idea, so that we can find the real causes of inequality, not miss it behind inappropriate labels.

By: damon

damon — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:21:04 +0000

How come Somali born people only have an employment rate of 20%?

It can’t be still about them not being allowed to work because of their immigration status can it? That status must have been resolved by now for a majority of that community.

By: abc

abc — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:19:13 +0000

Of course our first priority should be to improve public services and focus on the needs of those groups of aliens in the population with only 20% in employment. The public service being immigration control and the need being repatriation to developing mother countries in need of their drive and industry.

By: Earnest Ernest

Earnest Ernest — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:27:52 +0000

So..do we want new labels on the boxes or no boxes at all? Since identity has become such an eclectic and highly nuanced concept, a course of in-depth analytical identity-characterisation interviews could be undertaken by a trained diversity professional whenever information on identity is required; resulting in a precise set of identometric positional coordinates defined relative to their positions on the various ethnic, gender, sexuality, cultural, religious, dietary, political, favourite soap, geographic, physically proportioned, ableness, handedness, health, drug-dependency level, hairstyle, piercing, moral, immoral, obsessiveness,margarine or butter, favourite film, favourite Bond, fashion sense…blah..blah…fuckin blah…axes. These professionals would have demonstrated a high degree of competence in the field before being loosed on a ‘live’ identity point…I’d recommend anyone aspiring to such a role to consider a diploma from the Sunny Hundal School of Advanced Offence Taking on Behalf of People Who’d Rather You Didn’t Bother.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:54:26 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by libcon: We need to drop the ‘tick-box’ approach to equality http://bit.ly/d2sCPH...

By: Dpoc41

Dpoc41 — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:51:57 +0000

We need to drop the ‘tick-box’ approach to equality http://bit.ly/9iqrxW

By: Alisdair Cameron

Alisdair Cameron — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:33:07 +0000

What has been most encouraging is that the reaction to the report has been overwhelmingly positive

Good, because from your precis it sounds far more progressive than the current ethos pursued by Labour. It boils down to the (dreaded by New labour) line of “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs” (n.b needs, not wants). Identity politics pursued in a narrow and ‘siloed’ fashion hampers this.Look at someone’s needs, not their skin colour,gender etc. The inequalities born of racism, sexism,disablism etc are best tackled with a needs approach rather than an overly broad-brush, label-affixing approach which views people through just one prism at a time, ignoring the many facets and angles to any individual’s identity. Rather than shoe-horning people into category x,y,or z, address their needs.

By: Helena Baptista

Helena Baptista — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:52:07 +0000

RT @libcon: We need to drop the 'tick-box' approach to equality http://bit.ly/d2sCPH

By: Jose Aguiar

Jose Aguiar — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:46:01 +0000

RT @libcon: We need to drop the 'tick-box' approach to equality http://bit.ly/d2sCPH

By: feral

feral — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:53:23 +0000

RT @libcon: We need to drop the 'tick-box' approach to equality http://bit.ly/d2sCPH

By: Liberal Conspiracy

Liberal Conspiracy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:38:42 +0000

We need to drop the 'tick-box' approach to equality http://bit.ly/d2sCPH