Legislation and historical perspectives

Prior to the late 1960s: ‘The Black “newcomers” were to be absorbed into a culturally and linguistically homogeneous society. People had to get rid of what they came with, in order to fit into “our” society’ (Burke et al., in Acton and Dalphinis, 2000). This was called ‘assimilation’ and this approach preceded a ‘culturally diverse’ approach. This is described by Roy Jenkins in 1966 as: ‘not a flattening process of assimilation, but as equal opportunity accompanied by cultural diversity in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance’ (Acton and Dalphinis, 2000: 159). This ‘culturally diverse’ approach was meant to lead to educational programs that focused on minority groups’ needs, and also included encouraging the positive use of other languages. However, as Burke et al. say:

The cultural diversity’ approach conceived of racism as simply a set of mental prejudices held by a few people, would disappear if we all knew how other people dress and speak. It didn’t look at the effects on education of the structural nature of institutional racism. (In Acton and Dalphinis, 2000: 15a)