Britain skin colour still matters: racism in Britain is now disguised in language such as diversity, immigration and citizenship, and is thus far more sophisticated, subtle and slippery in identifying. But as Ama Biney finds out, the colour of one's skin still very much matters in Britain today.

Britain is a place where there is still a reluctance to talk candidly about racism and racial discrimination in mainstream society. In the last five years, the issue of racism has become a latent one, lurking behind media discussions and TV programmes such as the recent five-part "BBC White Season" which focused on what the BBC termed "the disappearing White Britain", and the media's examination of the 40th anniversary of the infamous speech by the controversial Tory politician, Enoch Powell, who spoke about "rivers of blood" if immigration into the UK was not halted.

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Despite London being celebrated as the UK's most cosmopolitan capital, skin colour still matters in Britain today. It determines an individual's opportunities in life and how one is treated and viewed in the wider society, even if Britain has moved on from the racism of the 1950s and 1960s when "coloured people", as black/African people were referred to by native Britons, were subjected to overt racism.

Today some white elements are vociferously shouting that they are now the minority in their own land; that there are far too many immigrants, and that immigration has got out of control. Certainly the British media and politicians from all sides have played upon these fears with sensational headlines and utterances about immigration and illegal immigrants. Trawling through the British media coverage, there have been some rational and objective commentaries (few and far between though) on the matter of rising immigration and its impact on British society. For example, a lead article in one of the UK's most respected dailies earlier this year challenged several myths about new immigrants, including those from Eastern Europe.

"The cold facts are that Britain has accommodated the huge influx with comparatively few real, as distinct from perceived problems--and crime has actually fallen in England and Wales by 9% in the past recorded year. The evidence just does not support the wild theories of a massive crime-wave generated through migration," said the paper. It continued: "The myths around immigration crumble when exposed to the light of day. Few of the incomers sponge on the state; as many as 97% of registered immigrant workers have full-time jobs; the numbers on benefits is very low. Immigration is good for us. Migrants do jobs that many Britons turn down. They perform vital tasks in the public services. The economy grows faster because of their contribution." What is disturbing is that some elements among second and third generation immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa who have settled in Britain and now consider themselves "Black Britons" as distinct from being a transient migrant community, now echo xenophobic attitudes and comments such as Britain should now close the door on new immigrants and send them back home. They have forgotten that they hail from immigrant roots.

But these views are part of a wider hysteria of mainstream white society and across the class spectrum. For example, a scathing report in a popular British newspaper said recently: "Immigration is diluting our culture and leading to the breakdown of society, according to the vast majority of Britons. 83% told pollsters the country had a 'population' crisis." Strikingly, this view was held by 58% of settled migrants and their British-born children. Most of those interviewed felt that special treatment for newcomers was causing locals to "lose out". The survey found that 15% of Britons would halt immigration altogether and 84% would reduce it. 63% of settled Commonwealth immigrants agreed with them."

However, the British government has declared that migration contributed roughly [pounds sterling]6bn to the growth of the UK economy in 2006. But, in an effort to appease the public disquiet, the British government is currently in the process of fleshing out a points system for skilled labour from non-EU countries.

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These "non-EU people", would earn points to come to the UK based on qualifications, salary and the desirability of their skills. The scheme will clearly enable the British economy to cream off the best brains from the developing countries.

Alongside the media panic on the "influx" of immigrants, has been the BBC-TV" White Season" series broadcast in March this year, which prompted many to question the BBC's motivation in broadcasting the programmes.

But Richard Klein, the BBC's commissioner for documentaries believes that the voice of the white working class Briton has been marginalised, and they have been most adversely affected by the economic upheaval and mass immigration of the past five years. What comes across in the "BBC White Season" is not only a sympathy for the white working class, but that these elements feel betrayed and ignored by both the media and the political classes. The programmes also showed deep resentment alongside their siege mentality, as well as deep-seated ignorance and prejudiced thinking. Perhaps what could help ease the discomfort of such people is a serious reading of the British historian, Robert Winder. In his book, Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain, he argues that: "Ever since the first Jute, the first Saxon, the first Roman and the first Dane leaped off their boats and planted their feet on British mud, we have been a mongrel nation. Our roots are neither clean nor straight: they are impossibly tangled. Why, then are we so fond of believing that Britishness consisted of some smooth and harmonious racial archetype until the postwar arrival of several million black and brown faces from the Tropics? Overseas settlets have been coming here for centuries."

Following on the heels of the "BBC White Season" was another media focus on the 40th anniversary of Enoch Powell's infamous "Rivers of Blood" speech and its impact on race relations in the UK.

Powell was a maverick Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South-West who made a speech on 20 April 1968, two weeks after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jnr in America. Powell said he had received letters from members of his constituency, one of which was from an elderly widow frightened to go out because she would be chased by "wide-grinning picannies" (black children). He went on to prophesise: "In this country in 15 or 20 years time, the black man will have the whip over the white man." His vivid language ended with a quote from the Roman poet, Virgil, which summed up his deep unease: "As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood."

The speech was racist in language, tone and message. Powell deeply opposed the Labour Party's proposed Race Relations Bill whose objective was to outlaw discriminatoty behaviour in employment. But as he saw it, it would lead to the victimisation of whites who would not be able to sack black employees, some of whom he had ironically helped to recruit in the early 1950s when he went on a personal crusade in the West Indies to recruit Caribbean doctors and nurses for a fledgling National Health Service in Britain.

Powell's political career ended in disgrace when he was dismissed by the Conservative party leader, Edward Heath, for his inflammatory speech. However, his sentiments remain within British society. But the country is finding it difficult as it takes one step forwards and two steps backwards in the unsuccessful rebranding of Powellism.

On the whole, the anniversary of Powell's speech has made racism worse. In early February this year, a [pounds sterling]10m architectural centre built as a memorial to the black teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was brutally killed by racists in 1993) was viciously vandalised a mere week after it was opened. Though 15 years have passed since Stephen's death, no one has been convicted of his murder.

According to one British weekly newspaper, "a recent government citizenship survey showed an increase in perceptions of levels of racism in Britain. Of those surveyed, 56% said they believe there is more racial prejudice in Britain now than five years ago."

In 2007, the UK's Commission for Racial Equality warned that "segregation--residentially, socially and in the workplace--is growing, and that extremism, both political and religious, is on the rise as people become increasingly disillusioned and disconnected from each other."

Subliminal messages and codes for racial superiority and inferiority continue to permeate British society and particularly through the media. Television, in general, is--to use the apt words of the former director-general of the BBC, Greg Dyke--still "hideously white".

While there are some attempts to get black actors of all hues, the issue is more complex. The racial stereotype in acting tends to rather be dysfunctional black individuals and an image of blackness and black people that whites are comfortable with.

In other words, racism has simply reshaped itself in contemporary times.

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