To ask if you’ve noticed this? Race-related.

[OffRampHilton]

I grew up (not UK) in an area that was entirely populated by white people but that’s changed since I was a child (I’m 40) and I’ve moved away to live in a big city so my friends and colleagues now are very racially diverse. I know couples of all races/ethnicity from same-race/ethnicity to every mix you can think of.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been really happy to see more diversity on tv, especially in terms of race. I grew up seeing nothing but white people on tv shows, unless it was a programme specifically about black or Asian families. I remember the fact that Coronation St was introducing their first non-white family was covered in the newspaper. The default was white people unless non-white people had a specific “reason” to be there- and that reason was pretty much always race-related.

I’m noticing lots more diversity, especially on ads. However, I still don’t see a lot of black or Asian families. I see mixed families where one parent (normally the mother, for some reason), is white, then a black parent (usually a dad) and two mixed children (normally a boy and a girl!). Great, it certainly represents a lot of families, but there seems to be a lack of depiction of families that are entirely black or entirely Asian or entirely anything other than white.

From paying attention to a few ad breaks tonight, I saw the following, in order of most common-

White families.
Mixed-race families.

I didn’t see many wholly non-white families.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Also, if I’ve used any clumsy wording in this, please don’t jump on me, but educate me instead.

I have noticed that the models on clothing website are mainly white, with some black or mixed (black/white) models, don’t really see and Asian models.

Could it partly be because having two parents of different races plus their mixed race children is a very easy way of representing three different groups in one advert?

That's what I thought, too.

If portraying interracial couples is supposed to somehow appease some people, I don't think it will work. The kind of person who'd be upset about an all-black or all-Asian family in an advert is probably also the type who wouldn't approve of interracial couples.

I think it's more likely that the ones making these ads think they're being extra "correct" or inclusive, the more diversity they can squeeze into a single advert.

I have assumed same as PP that they have 30 seconds to get their message across so picked an interraical couple.

Therefore hoping they will get less abuse on their social media sites.

It must be tough be an advertisor as the moment, they have black people in it they are woke, have asians in it they are woke all white they are racists, no woman they are sexists, lets not forget the trans issue, then you get to sexuality no gay couples homephobic, gay couples, you are defying gods law. oh I haven't even got onto disability

How they hell do you get all of that into 30 seconds.

youshallnotpass9. - is right. We have got to the stage where you really can't not offend someone.

It’s just a box ticking exercise. I cringed a bit last year following BLM movement when companies were falling over themselves to suddenly include black and Asian models. I must have had about 10 emails from different companies telling me how they were going to get better and had woken up. Yawn. Shouldn’t take something like BLM to cause that shift, we’re 2 decades into the 21st century ffs.

In coronation Street there's an all black family and in Emmerdale an all Asian family. Beyond that I haven't noticed.

What I find interesting and appaling in equal measure is that black families on TV almost always live white middle class lives.

They might look black but they are much more like the white middle classes than they are the black communities I know, in every other aspect.

The racist outpouring after the Sainsburys add at Christmas was awful. I agree that ad companies are treading softly with their diversity-lite, making sure they include some kind of white person to appease the "I don't relate to people who don't look exactly the same as me" crowd. FFS, people of ethnic minorities have been staring at our all white media for sodding years, either representation matters in which case, let's represent ALL the British people, or it doesn't in which case racists need to shut the fuck up.

@MachiaNelly

In coronation Street there's an all black family and in Emmerdale an all Asian family. Beyond that I haven't noticed.

In Corrie you’ve got Dev Alahan and his twins ( the mum was in it years ago too), Yazmeen and her granddaughter Alya ( there was a husband, son and grandad too) and the lawyer whose name I can’t remember.

Imran

@lavenderandwisteria

Imran

That’s the one !

DinosaurDiana

Yup, so one entirely Asian and one entirely black family in the leading British soap.

I have noticed this for a while now. I live in an area with a lot of Pakistanis and Indians and I rarely see them represented in adverts. Also agree with Backhills that the black families shown appear to live in ultra middle class white homes. I know some people who work in advertising and they are all white middle class people so I suppose it is a box ticking exercise.

@MachiaNelly

DinosaurDiana

Yup, so one entirely Asian and one entirely black family in the leading British soap.

It’s two Asian families.

I agree OP. There are few asian people and if there are any 'mixed race' couples it's invariably a black person and a white person. Few other mixed race couples seem to exist. The black people in mixed race couples are usually very light in skin colour, leaving me wondering whether darker people feel like they are looking at 'people like them'. It all feels a bit tokenistic but maybe it is a step towards where things should be?

It’s two Asian families

Ok, at least one Asian and one black family in leading soaps. I've just woken up. Should give it an hour before mumsnetting

Just remembered there's a black family in Emmerdale as well although the mum is now off screen and was divorced from the dad.

I was going to mention the Sainsbury’s Christmas ad too. A whole lot of scum crawled out of the pond when that was aired.

Whenever I’ve been in Turkey, the adverts always leave me aghast. Most of them show white people despite many Turks not looking like that. Even their travel ads aired in the UK were similar. It’s baffling!

Our adverts here don’t offend me at all, I have to say. It’s nice to see such inclusivity. I don’t think anybody is left out. Just quickly scanning my head of adverts and there is an Asian guy selling accounting to the self employed, Lenny Henry, Rylan Clarke, Philip Goddamn Schofield.

@Bythemillpond

These are the same people who claim that the country is filling up with non-whites, and that white British will become a minority

White British is a minority in London.

I’m not sure I agree 45% is a true minority, especially when the white population is 59% when you include white Irish and white other. They are still the majority group, other groups are between 10-18% when you include all of the sub-groupings.

I work in a slightly related field where we have to source imagery to connect our audience to the content.

It's gotten to the point where we have a spreadsheet to track the spread of 'diversity' in our content to make sure we aren't favouring one demographic or completely ignoring another, just so we can provide evidence to the latest woke warrior complaining about a snapshot of our content that across the board we are mindful of our prospective audience and represent them fairly.

From a stock imagery perspective though (we have accounts with 3 of the largest ones) it's really difficult to get content that is non white/black. Trying to represent folk that are distinctly Middle Eastern/North African, Indian or Asian is really tough. There's such a small pool of imagery that can be drawn upon that we end up repeating content.

It's also quite difficult to get imagery of androgynous folk or people with disabilities that aren't in a wheelchair.

I don't envy advertisers at all. Someone will always choose to be offended and complain because the ad doesn't represent them

I never see East Asians in adverts and rarely see any in TV shows or films. Seems to be just interracial (black and white) couples/families.

I too have noticed lots more black people represented on tv, which is great, but not as many Asian people. It annoys me that it is no doubt reactive to BLM but Asian is by far the biggest ethic group in the UK and needs more representation in my opinion.

I live in an area where there has always been areas known for the Bangladeshi and Pakistani community. My dd is also training to be a dancer/actress and I used to run kids drama classes. There is a distinct lack of representation from this group. Indian too but not quite so much.

People from this background are not encouraged/allowed to become actors/get involved in the performing arts on the whole. The reasons are complicated and partly cultural. I've long said that there are things that can be done from grass roots level to encourage this but I thin it needs a few generations more.

The few who are allowed to pursue this type of career tend to be from mixed or more tolerant families.

It's good that a wider ethnicity is being represented. It seems to me that Chinese people, of which there is a sizeable number in the UK, are under represented though.

I also find people's attitudes sad. There was recently an article by the RAD about a ballet class for muslim girls. (white girls are also welcome to attend). Adaptations to the way of teaching include things like the children dance to poetry rather than music and the uniform if adapted for modesty etc. The comments was full of why should we pander to them type comments. Why are we allowing them to teach the kids that music is evil etc etc, they should go to a normal ballet class instead. It's not as if they will be allowed to become perfomers when they are adults/wear a tutu etc Its our country etc etc

I agree on the religious points but the fact is that these girls are being allowed to study ballet because of these adaptations to their culture. In 15 years time one or two of them might decide to become teachers or performers themselves and might decide to move away from some of their religious rules. But if we don't give them the chance as children (they would not be allowed to attend a normal ballet class) then they don't have the options as adults.