ABSTRACT
Casual street observation will convince all but the colour-blind that Britain’s youth cultures are ethnically divided. Pupils from multi-racial classes leave in separate ethnic groups. This chapter explains racial divisions without recourse to field-specific race relations theories. Traditional sociology’s accounts of how leisure opportunities are class-related can be adapted to explain how and why ethnic minorities are multiply disadvantaged. There are many ethnic groups and many minority youth cultures. Young blacks and Asians share just one set of experiences: racial disadvantage and harassment. Experience of racism creates a basis for potential unity, but otherwise Britain’s ethnic minorities have far less in common than indigenous whites. Discrimination must feature prominently in any account of racial divisions among youth at leisure, but the explanation is not exhaustive. Race-relations researchers have found it necessary to envelop ‘direct discrimination’ within the larger concept of racial disadvantage.
