top of page
Search

Diversity is fashionable, but is it valuable?

  • 1 day ago
  • 8 min read

To begin with, I believe the right way to answer any question is to break down the key terms the question employs-which in this case are diversity, fashion and values. Diversity in the words of oxford dictionary is defined as, ‘the condition or fact of being different or varied; variety’i. To make this more specific to our subject matter of politics, we can extrapolate that diversity implies a government to be organized in a  way where it caters to the perspectives of all the different ethnic and religious groups within society- this is done by giving opportunity for people from those groups to come into power so they can stand as  ambassadors for their people's rights. The question that now follows is whether it's valuable and what  exactly does that mean? So, firstly valuable, being derived from the word values, is used to regard as  something adding or subtracting from society’s moral compass. However, it is imperative to consider that  different groups have different moral compasses and inherently these moral compasses are social constructs that evolve so a rigid conclusion about one party’s morals being correct and the others  incorrect cannot be made. A very similar story follows with what is considered fashionable or not, as fashion in the words of oxford dictionary is,’ a style that is popular at a particular time, especially in  clothes, hair, make-up, etc.’ii, but, fashion reflects the values personal to the cultural group of the  individuals who define what fashion is According to Vogue Business, in the British Fashion industry, only  9% percent of executive roles are held by people of minority ethnic backgroundsiii. This concludes that  fashion itself is not diverse so how can it associate itself to diversity? However, this is just one side of the debate. 


It would be rather foolish for one to not recognize that the current Vogue is representation, which is implied in relation to different social institutions and how they accept people of all colors, ethnicities and  religions. This trend is fueled by the high demand in the vocabulary market for words such as bias, discrimination, racism, and insensitivity. These coalitions of vowels and consonants are weaponry for  ideologies such as that of cancel culture. Cancel culture in the view of oxford dictionary is a way of  behaving in a society or group, especially on social media, in which it is common to completely reject and stop supporting someone because they have said or done something that offends youiv. According to some research this culture gives a voice to the marginalized to express their  frustration hence it shouldn't be a huge occurrence to anyone when hearing that cancel culture was also  in consideration to be the word of the decade in 2021. Thus, most governments through strategic  planning have tried to avoid crossing paths with this contagious disease. One way through which this is  done is to satisfy the marginalized and the minorities by giving them power and status that is equal to  that of the ruling party. A prime example of this is of the current mayor of London, ‘Sadiq khan’. An individual with Pakistani roots and the son of a bus driverv. Khan’s election as mayor can be considered  commendable for many reasons as firstly it expands onto this idea of a, new, more accepting London,’  where despite different cultural backgrounds, people stand united due to the sentiment of belonging from  Britain and being inhabitants of London. This sentiment has even been embodied by institutions under  Khan’s leadership, for example, City Hall started working to incorporate more opportunities for  individuals from BAME groups (Black, Asian, and minority ethnic groups)vi. Moreover efforts towards investigating patterns of discrimination that already exist within systems against minorities have been  opted for. 


However, all these initiatives are mostly in the interest of minorities and implicitly can be viewed as a tool  used to transform the power dynamics that exist in society. These initiatives can be applauded for their  nature of upholding humanitarian values, but, at what cost? That of the natives' opportunities and liberty?  A sentiment that has been long present amongst the multicultural societies of the U.K where the sheer  abundance immigrants had resulted in sub-cultures such as that of the new wave of the Skinheads arising

in the 1970s : a group of young working class men that opposed the lack of their job opportunities in the  system due to the immigrants taking over those opportunitiesvii. This anger was demonstrated in violent  acts such as the, ‘1981 South all riot’, which saw groups of these men making their way to a concert in  Southall, a suburb primarily dominated by people of Pakistani and Indian descent - mid- way they found  another target, which was an Asian woman whose head was kicked in. Violence further escalated when  they started distorting and violating people’s business set-ups as they went by and as reported by The  New York Times, an 80 year old individual who was a part of the group told that the group specifically  stopped people to ask them about the whereabouts of Indiansvii. Thus, highlighting the intensity of hate  they had for these specific ethnic groups which was also shared by the police who instead of punishing  the skinheads just pushed them away, even though even after the police came and drew the barricades  the skinheads kept targeting the people with rocks. Hence, it can be concluded that a sentiment towards  evicting opportunities for ethnic groups was present even at the times when these ethnic groups mostly  occupied the lower strata of society, especially the Indians and Pakistanis as a study that reports in the  1970s the Indian man was behind a white man in terms of his economic standingviii. Therefore, the question arises, now that politics is becoming more representative with the example of Sadiq Khan, and  then that of Rishi Sunak, a man with Indian descent becoming the Prime minister of the UK- the dismissal  of opportunities presented to these individuals, flare up Conservatives and many natives even more. 


A primal example being of Sadiq Khan becoming a victim of racist remarks was when he was accused of being  controlled by Islamists including many senior government officials such as Suella Braveman, the house secretary of the previous Conservative government, who claimed that Britain was being run by  Islamists.Khan believed that these remarks were only made about him on the premise that he was a Pakistani and a Muslim, even though a YouGov poll done in early 2024 clearly depicted that Khan was 25  points ahead of his Conservative rivalsix. These rivals are anti multiculturalism, including Conservatives such as Suella Braveman (who has Indian roots) who has made statements such as, ‘how social cohesion 'has  failed because it allowed people to come to our society and live parallel lives in it. They could be in  society but not in society.’x Even the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has failed to protect the rights of  minorities and he and his cabinet did not condemn the racist and Islamphobic attacks which Khan became a target ofix. 


Thus, opening the discussion to the angle that diversity can only be considered fashionable and  acceptable when it is viewed at its face value and when it's valuable in regards to the beliefs and values of the majority of the host culture. As soon as the values it brings forward become reflective of its roots  and origins, words such as Islamist become attached to it and as Suella Braveman believes when that  happens, social cohesion fails to exist. However, such a point of view can also be attacked by putting  forward the idea that often people of the same ethnicity who grow up with similar belief systems have  contradicting thought processes which is why there are white, British nationals on both the conservative as  well as the Labour party. Moreover, inculcating social cohesion is the government’s responsibility via the  education system but research shows that there is still not much diversity in the cohort of teachersxi which  opens doors to students of ethnic minority background becoming a victim of institutional racism which  makes them see themselves as a separate entity to the wider population and thus they form their own  groups and sub cultures. Therefore, it can be said that diversity can be made valuable when individuals  are taught to respect the values that diversity brings with it rather than using it as a fashionable marketing  tool to put their policies forward, and, internally washing all of its values in the colour of those that the  majority holds. 



However, achieving such equality becomes idealistic as it forgets history and how for many minority  ethnic and religious groups in the U.K, representation is important because they have emigrated from  countries which have been under British colonial rule: a period of unfairness and cruelty for the natives.  Therefore, rather than making diversity a race about who gets what, it’s important to consider the  historical backgrounds of all the parties involved and also about the power dynamics, as even if few  Pakistani Muslims or Black people come into power, they still wouldn’t have authority equal to that of the  white British citizens. Hence, it’s illogical to blame every case of wrongdoing in the country on these  minorities, for example Pakistani British men have been accused of forming grooming gangs which  pursue and rape innocent white girlsxiii. Even though this is a heinous crime and action should be taken to  bring an end to it, it also reflects power dynamics as despite the mayor of London at that time still being Sadiq Khan, no one hesitates from generalizing all Pakistani British men into the category of being sexual  predators. These power dynamics are highlighted when Richard Fewkes’, the director of NPCC’s  program for targeting child sexuality abuse said that, ‘Offences where grooming gangs are involved are  predominantly white’xiv. 


However, we don’t see the same generalization being made for white men because diversity is only  considered fashionable and not valuable, even though the fashion element of it isn’t that strong as the  2024 elections saw 90 minority MPsxv being elected out of the total of the total number of 650. Hence,  diversity is looked at vainly in terms of politics, even though western democracies support liberalism but  that liberalism somehow compels them to regard other group’s ideologies as harmful for example one  Muslim is seen as a threat to turning their democracy into a Sharia state. This is currently being witnessed  in the United States of America, where Zohran Mandan’s win as the mayor of New York has sparked a  frenzy with President Donald Trumpxvi calling him a radical, inherently due to him being a Muslim and his pro-Palestinian views. 


Thus, this leads to the conclusion that diversity is needed because even with the little specks of it present  in, ‘apparent democracies’, racism and religious hate is still present which is why mayors of probably two  of the biggest urban cities in the world are still insulted publicly due to their ethnic and religious  background. Therefore, more of them are needed to make people realize that these groups have a voice  too and they are valuable enough to be heard. Moreover, we never question if racism or hate towards certain religious groups is fashionable or not because stakeholders realize that debate would never favor them. 

 

References


(Last accessed on 21st June 2025) .Cambridge Dictionary. Diversity. (Cambrdige Dictionary, n.d) ii https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fashion 

(Last accessed on 30th June 2025). 

Cambridge Dictionary. Fashion. (Cambdrige Dictionary, n.d) 

(Last accessed on June 21st 2025) 

A wake-up call’: UK publishes first census on diversity in fashion. Vogue Business. (Shoaib, 2024) 

(Last accessed on 23rd June 2025). Cambridge Dictionary. Cancel Culture. (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d) v https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sadiq-Khan (Last accessed on 24th June 2025). Sadiq Khan. Britannica. (Kellner, 2024). 

 vi https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-declares-city-hall-an-anti-racist-body. (Last accessed on 30th June 2025). Mayor declares City Hall as an anti-racist organization. London.  Government. (Lonodn Government , 2020) 

(Last accessed on 29th June 2025). The Surprisingly Tolerant Origins of the SkinHead movement.  Allthatsinteretsing. (The Surprsingly Tolearnt Origins of the Skinhead Movement, 2023) viii 

(Last accessed on 30th June 2025). 

(Last accessed on 30th June 2025) 

(Last accessed on 30th June 2025) 

uk/#:~:text=While%20the%20ideal%20of%20equal%20opportunity%20underpins%20the,access%2C%2 0and%20experience%20for%20many%20ethnic%20minority%20groups. 

(Last accessed on 30th June 2025) 

(Last accessed on 30th June 2025) 

(Last accessed on 30th June 2025) 


 
 
 

Recent Posts

See All

Comments

bottom of page