I certainly wouldn't say that older generations have a general tendancy towards being more racist, however 50 years ago Britain was a very different place - with strongly defined social and cultural divides of all types in place, the nation was recovering from a war which had made us realise that we were no longer the dominant power in the world, perceptions of other races weren't necessarily derogatory but there was a simple and widespread belief that they were "different", which coupled with the dramatically increasing levels of immigration we saw post-WW2 led to a strong us/them differentiation throughout society, because other races were still very uncommon in Britain - most people in the country would never have seen a black person.

The culture in which your grandparents and parents grew up was one which was crafted by the generation before them, your parents beliefs would have been progressive for their time, as the present generation's is today.

Additionally communications, in all forms, have changed things. Today I can turn on the television and see a dozen different nationalities in as many channels, a one-hour plane ride today could take me to a dozen different countries - in most cases simply walking through immigration/customs, I can pick up a telephone and direct dial any country in the world - none of this was viable half a century ago. We take it for granted having always seen a multitude of races, whether in day-to-day life, or simply on TV, children growing up today don't see other races as "different" so much, because they see them every day.

Compare it perhaps with women's rights, and gay rights; suffrage occurred long enough ago for a full social generation (50 years or so) to have grown up and fashioned current society with the belief that men and women are equal, so discrimination based on gender is less widespread than that based on race (bearing in mind of course that 50% of the population are distaff, whereas 90%ish are white, so in absolute terms there's still a significant problem). Gay rights on the other hand have only become an issue in the last couple of decades, it wasn't to long ago that homosexuality was illegal, and there's still plenty of gay-related legislation out there; many people still fundamentaly believe gays are "different", and it will be a full social generation (50 years or so) from now before that completely changes.

My nan's the same, She walks around quoting Enoch Powell and 'in her day' e.t.c. My mum & dad are not racist, and I have been brought up the same as are my children. I agree with your statement, Spike, I feel now children are in mixed race schools, it's just something they are brought up with and think nothing of it, if the child sat next to them is an Asian. I think that had that happened 'in my nan's day' she would have trounced straight up the school and ordered for her child to be moved. It all biols down to how you are brought up.

Dunno if it has much of a bearing on the subject, but I'm always mildly interested by the fact that, whereas people post questions like 'What sign/predominant hand/hair colour are you?', they never ask 'What colour are you?'

As for racism, some people place too much importance on a person's colour, while others are unrealistic about the extent to which other cultures can be integrated. Whatever 'racism' is, it's not going away.

One thing to consider is that the first MP of Indian origins was born in Bombay, Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji elected in 1892 and entered the House of Commons as a Liberal, representing the Central Finsbury constituency, he argued for social reforms and Independence for India, Two other Indians later won seats in the Victorian Parliament. All these seats must have been in areas with very low numbers of non Europeans, so it must have been mostly caucasions that voted.
So race in Britian must not have been such a major issue over a 100 years ago either.

Of course the other thing to consider is what constites race or an immigrant community, some people consider people with Jewish origins to be another race (although most of those in the UK appear white, many Jews consider themselves to be a non-white ethnic minority, though some people from other non-white groups consider them to be white and not a minority.

I myself come up on the census as an Ethnic Minority group as I put on the Census in the other box Norman French as my ancesters emmigrated from Normandy to Britian in 1087 (with William the second) and did not go back when Normandy was overrun by the French in the 1400's, I did not think it appropiate to put English or British on the form. So the details of what minority groups exist in Britain very much depend on what people catagorised themselves as.

Gopher