大象传媒

Exactly nine years before the arrival of Empire Windrush - and just three months before the outbreak of the Second World War, the British people had an opportunity to say what they thought of various 鈥榝oreigners鈥�. The social research organisation Mass Observation sent to several thousand regular panellists around the country a questionnaire or 鈥榙irective鈥�, inviting responses on a range of issues. In June 1939, one of the questions posed was how people felt about 鈥楴egroes鈥�.

The answers that came back don鈥檛 amount to a scientific sample, but they do give a revealing insight into the sorts of views circulating at the time. And what they reveal does not always make for comfortable reading.

A few, like this one, from a 45-year old English woman, were explicitly and proudly anti-racist:

"I have felt for years that until the whole policy of the white races toward color be revised, there can be no hope of human progress. Negroes are among my best friends and I value their contribution to art and that they can still retain friendliness towards any while person in face of gross exploitation and injustice."

- Directive Respondent 2060, June 1939, 漏 Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Special Collections and 漏 Adam Matthew Digital 2018. 

Many others expressed varying degrees of sympathy. 鈥淪orry for them - underdogs鈥� was all that one respondent had to say on the matter. Others denounced 鈥渃olour prejudices鈥� as 鈥渟illy鈥� or 鈥渞idiculous鈥�. One writer - a 17-year-old schoolboy - even expressed his 鈥渂itter resentment鈥� at the damaging role western countries had played in their 鈥渄egradation鈥�. But even the more sympathetic replies were usually accompanied by the kind of racial stereotypes which had been around for decades:

"Coloured people characterized by their large and sensual mouths. I feel mildly sympathetic towards them on account of their many trials and tribulations. They give me the impression of being very large and very helpless children."

- Directive Respondent 2077, June 1939, 漏 Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Special Collections and 漏 Adam Matthew Digital 2018.

"I can consider a white man a brother, so I consider a Black also a brother. In the middle of Africa a negroe might be ignorant but give him a Christian teaching and education and invariably he becomes a gentleman, better than some Englishmen." 

- Directive Respondent 2061, June 1939, 漏 Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Special Collections and 漏 Adam Matthew Digital 2018.

Time and time again in the replies, black people were described as 鈥渃hildlike鈥�, or passionate rather than rational, or incapable of being the equal of 鈥渦s鈥漸nless they could be educated or 鈥渃ivilised鈥�. They were often attributed with a strong and warrior-like physique - but this only went to reinforce the notion that they were more 鈥渁nimal-like鈥�. Many respondents simply spoke of their own straight-forward 鈥渁version鈥� - or even, at times, their 鈥渞evulsion鈥濃�� towards such people.

What鈥檚 most striking, however, is the intense feeling that there was an irredeemable difference between the 鈥渨hite鈥� and the so-called 鈥淣egro鈥�, and, on this basis, a refusal to contemplate 鈥渕ixed marriages鈥�. Equally frequently, it鈥檚 obvious that almost every attitude expressed was based entirely on a complete lack of direct experience.

Replies spoke of having had 鈥渘o actual contact鈥�, or of having formed an opinion based only on childhood reading, with its endless tales of imperial derring-do against troublesome natives. Sometimes, however, all these second-hand attitudes were also accompanied by a hint that they just might be open to change:

"My opinions are quite fluid. I really know nothing about the negro peoples & any impressions I have are 2nd hand. I do feel that they are still and oppressed race & in few places do they get a 'square deal'. Would like to meet some intelligent negroes. My only definite idea is that should be no inter-marriage between blacks and whites."

- Directive Respondent 2180, June 1939, 漏 Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Special Collections and 漏 Adam Matthew Digital 2018.

In June 1939, despite the fact that several thousand black people had been living and working in Britain for decades, a commonplace lack of direct contact was understandable. But this raises an obvious question: might British attitudes soften a little if unfamiliar and 鈥渁lien鈥� people suddenly became a little more familiar?

In his book, Black and British: A Forgotten History, David Olusoga explores in detail popular reactions during the Second World War to the arrival in Britain of some 130,000 African-American GIs. He suggests that the experience of meeting black GIs helped make racism a little less acceptable among ordinary Britons. But it鈥檚 possible that attitudes towards the Empire were also shifting a little during the course of the war - and that this, too, might have had implications for future attitudes, especially towards people coming to Britain from the 鈥榗olonies鈥�.

A Mass Observation report from 1942, which asked people to describe their 鈥楩eelings about the British Empire鈥� revealed, for instance,鈥渁 very considerable body of guilt-feeling about the way the Empire has been acquired, and the way the colonies have been administered鈥�. It noted that there was a remarkable lack of concern - and in some cases a positive delight - that 鈥減arts of the Empire may be lost鈥�. On the other hand, its overall conclusion was that British people held hugely contradictory attitudes, and that concern for 鈥渢he wellbeing of the peoples of the Empire鈥� was perhaps rather superficial:

The following negative points are significant:

A. There is very little mention of the effects of Empire-reform, Empire-secession, or the various suggested forms of Union on the life of this country. People seem hardly to have considered the possible impact of the events theyr forsee or hope for on their own lives and those of the British people. Ideas based on a sense of justice. But, as we have suggested, the relief of a personal sense of guilt is also important. 

B. Only in one or two instances is the possible part to be played by the USSR mentioned, thought the USA is quite often mentioned as participating in federation. Ideas are still very vague on possible means of achieving desired reforms. At bottom there seems to be a picture of a post-war position not radically different from the pre-war, among reformers. The underlying assumption for many people, in the analyst's interpretation, is of a more of less intact Empire and a more of less dominant Britain emerging from the war. This despite a prevailing cynicism and numerous suggestions that the Empire won't survive. Attitudes are exceedingly complex at present, owing to the incomplete synthesis of apparently contradictory desires. 

a. A half-repressed desire to see the Empire gone.

b. A desire, on the other hand, not to see the Empire go, not to have suspicions confirmed.

c. A desire to reorganise the Empire on better lines, for which an intact Empire is essential. 

Either desire may predomine, at present, but in the analyst's interpretation the wartime trend among the present sample is towards a. and b. -  a state of anxiety which is really personal though superficially directed directed to the present state of feeling.

The granting of some new measure of freedom to India for instance might well produce a switchover of feeling towards more constructive ends as well as relieving a considered amount of emotional tension. at present the sense of guilt about the past and present of the Empire is producing in many people a state of mind which is quite undynamic. The idea of the "bad" made "good" have been put into practice is emotionally tiring and, from the point of view of war-effort and war-enthusiasms, negative.

A lost Malaya produced self-recrimination as well as leader-recrimination. We would suggestion, on the basis of our interpretation of the material, that a "free' India, lost just as quickly might well stimulate enthusiasm among just the people whom the loss of Malaya etc has most depressed.

- Report 1158, The British Empire, March 1942, 漏 Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Special Collections and 漏 Adam Matthew Digital 2018.

One reason for British people鈥檚 contradictory and ill-formed attitude is suggested by a report conducted on the very eve of Windrush鈥檚 arrival - a survey of public attitudes to colonial affairs, conducted not by Mass Observation but by the Colonial Office in Whitehall. Again, it showed that views about 鈥榯he colonies鈥� such as the West Indies were mixed, if not utterly confused. It also showed that nearly half of those questioned exhibited 鈥渓ittle or no interest in the Colonies鈥� to begin with:

The General Population

This method of assessing interest in the Colonies is admittedly a subjective one, but the results provide a useful check on the answers obtained from the previous question. Table XXXIX shows how interviewers rated the degree of interest displayed by their informants.

Table 38 Interviewer's ratings of informants' degree of interest

The proportion of people (one in five) who showed a high degree of interest is roughly the same as the proportion who showed no interest at all. Nearly half the sample evinced little or no interest in the Colonies

- File Report 3010, Public Opinion on Colonial Affairs, June 1948 漏 Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Special Collections and 漏 Adam Matthew Digital 2018.

This lack of interest is mirrored in the lack of information being sought by the British people. A fair proportion of those who were surveyed got their news about the colonies from the newspapers, and a smaller proportion from the radio. But the largest group by far was made up of those who could offer no details at all about what they had heard about the colonies or from where it came:

Question 6: Have you heard any news lately about the Colonies - perhaps in the newspapers, or through the radio, or films?

Affirmative answers to this question were received from just over one third (38%) of our sample. Newspapers and the radio were most frequently mentioned as the source of their information, but so few informants were able to give details of what they had read or heard, that further analysis of their replies has not been undertaken. The following table shows the proportion of informants mentioning the various sources. (Since some informants named more than one source, the percentage figures total more than 100%)

- File Report 3010, Public Opinion on Colonial Affairs, June 1948 漏 Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Special Collections and 漏 Adam Matthew Digital 2018.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that, at the point in their history when Britons needed to come to terms with larger numbers of immigrants arriving from the Caribbean and the Indian sub-continent, their attitudes towards these 鈥榮trangers鈥� were still likely to be based largely on hearsay and inherited prejudice.

This puts the 大象传媒鈥檚 own portrayals of immigrant life after 1948 into an interesting perspective. If the 大象传媒 was hesitant, nervous, and contradictory in its approach to the country鈥檚 blossoming multi-culturalism, it was perhaps no more so than the British people as a whole; in some respects, the 大象传媒 was a step or two ahead of public attitudes.

So, might the 大象传媒鈥檚 own output start to shape opinion? Caused and effect here is notoriously hard to pin down. But what is clear is the 大象传媒鈥檚 awareness that the mass media had a responsibility to think about such matters. In the 大象传媒鈥檚 own archives, we find, for instance, a fascinating 1972 audience research report. Its aim, it said, was 鈥渢o determine just how many non-whites appear on British television鈥� and to explore whether 鈥渢he nature of presentations of non-whites鈥� should be changed.

It started by estimating that 鈥榥on-white鈥� people made up around 2.5 per cent of 鈥楨ngland鈥檚鈥� population. (It would appear, in a classic example of unconscious national bias that by 鈥楨ngland鈥� the 大象传媒 audience researchers actually meant Britain, but it鈥檚 not entirely clear). It then went on to sample and 鈥榗ode鈥� TV programmes broadcast each evening during a sample week. The full report, including detailed findings can be downloaded here:

What is striking is that even though the observers noted a superficially encouraging number of appearances on British TV by 鈥榥on-white鈥� men and women, these were usually in small and insignificant roles. For instance, 40 per cent of drama programmes on 大象传媒 One had 鈥榥on-white actors鈥�. But in these, only a measly 4 per cent of characters who spoke were non-white. And, most devastating of all, 60 per cent of those characters which were non-white appeared in just one series imported from America.

On 大象传媒 Two meanwhile, there was not a single speaking-role for a non-white actor. In various news and current affairs documentaries, non-whites appeared - though, most obviously, in programmes about the India-Pakistan conflict or reports about drug addiction.

The only comfort for the 大象传媒 came from ITV鈥檚 figures being even worse. Only 20 per cent of its programmes featured non-whites, most of these were also in an American series, and - 鈥渆xcluding Hawaiians鈥� - not a single non-white character spoke. The battle for representation - and representation in non-stereotypical roles - had a long way to go.