LONDON: An increase in racism has been seen in United Kingdom as Britons admit to being racially prejudiced, according to a new study.
According to the 2013 British Social Attitudes Survey,nearly a third of people in Britain admitted being racist on some level.
About 30 per cent of those answering the survey described themselves “very” or “a little” prejudiced against people of other races.
They called on political leaders to react to the apparent increase in racism.
More than nine in 10 of people who admitted to some level of prejudice also wanted a reduction in immigration levels, in comparison to around seven in 10 who denied being racist.
Penny Young, chief executive of NatCen Social Research, which conducted the survey, called the findings “troubling”.
She said: “Levels of racial prejudice declined steadily throughout the nineties, but have been on the rise again during the first decade of this century. This bucks the trend of a more socially liberal and tolerant Britain.
People living in inner London were least likely to describe themselves at racist (16 per cent), compared to the West Midlands, where 35 per cent of respondents said they were.
Levels of prejudice rose with age, with the highest among over-55s, and those with no qualifications.
There was also a trend among occupations, with more manual workers admitting bias than managers and “professionals”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Young said self-reported prejudice was very difficult to study in detail.
She suggested the 9/11 attacks in New York and heightened concerns about immigration were possible reasons for the increase since 2001, when racism had seemed to be in “inexorable decline”.
The British Social Attitudes Survey has been conducted annually since 1983 and the most recent data used 3,244 interviews with a random sample of British adults.
It also covered political issues, social and moral attitudes and opinions on gender roles and the family.
Source: The INDEPENDENT
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