Coming to America

Making a decision to undertake qualitative research in the US with white working-class communities was challenging, sometimes daunting, and often unpredictable. As researchers of long standing in the UK, we have undertaken various studies and community engagement projects focusing on race, class, community engagement, and disadvantage. Much of this research had included working directly with white working-class people in the UK or indirectly, for example, when working on the experiences of racist violence in black and minority ethnic communities. We have had a long history of working together on projects and making sense of our own experiences of growing up since the 1960s in an emerging multiracial, multi-ethnic and multicultural UK.

Our parents immigrated from India and Pakistan to the UK and settled in and near the West Midlands of England. One of us was born in the UK and the other was but a few years old when he arrived in England. We were part of the first generation of South Asian children growing up in the UK from the “mass immigration” that started in 1948 with the arrival of West Indians on the Windrush through to the early 1970s, when draconian immigration legislation slowed the pace of immigration. We had similar educational experiences in largely white schools, often only being taught by all-white teachers through primary, secondary, and tertiary education. Indeed, one of us did not meet an educator of color until postgraduate level. We both shared experiences of racist harassment and abuse in our schools at the hands of white, often male, working-class students. Yet, we also had strong multiracial and multiclass friendships. One of us grew up in a predominately white community and having white friends was considered normal. There were not always known boundaries to cross; sometimes, just having the courage to ask if one could join in to play together would build friendships.

The disjuncture between experiencing racist abuse in school by some white children and the friendships offered by other white young people was a lasting legacy for both of us. It offered us an early proto-sociological and political lens to explore the nuances of everyday life.