Attitudes
Now my grandad, with being Italian,
they took him down to the Town Hall to be interrogated to see if he'd
any political views, which he hadn't, so they let him go. But you felt
a bit ashamed really. If my mother started speaking Italian you used
to think, 'Oh God, don't', because everybody had to be English.
(Second Generation Italian Woman, b.1920)
For years and years she never spoke to us and
always referred to us as the foreigners. But funnily enough as
we grew older and went to school, she realised that we were probably
just like any other family. And I'll never forget, she was the
first person that ever bought me a book.
(Second Generation Ukrainian Woman, b.1950)
Our street was very multi-racial. White families,
families from Pakistan, Gujerati families from India, and the
one thing I can remember is that it was a very happy street. I
mean people knew each other. Whether they were Indians, Pakistani
or whatever, people got on. In summer, in our back garden, there'd
be loads of women from the whole street sat in the back garden,
just talking or knitting whatever, no matter what religion they
were.
(First Generation Sikh Man, b.1953)
There were end of term fights between Asian boys
and white boys. And I can remember vividly at one time when the
Asian boys had to band together and march down the road for their
own safety. I can remember leaflets going round school from the
Yorkshire Campaign Against Immigration. Things like, 'If you sit
next to an Asian in class you are bound to catch smallpox'.
(First Generation Asian Man, b.1954)