EU 10683 Mod. Brit. Society

Ethnic Origin

Katja Buthut, 06/07

University of Bath

Department of European Studies and Modern Languages

2006/ 2007, Semester 1

EU 10683 Modern British Society

Referee: Katja Buthut

November 2nd 2006

Is it right to ask university and job applicants their ethnic origin?

The second day in the university, I wanted to register with the medical centre. I had to fill in a

form asking me about my address, previous diseases and allergies. At the bottom of the page

there was a field where I had to tick a box confirming which ethnic background I had. I

considered the filling in of that form to be up to my own knowledge and conscience and as I

had never been asked such a question before I left the box blank and handed the form to the

lady seated at the desk. She scanned through what I had filled in and gave it back to me: "You

must fill in your ethnic origin," she said. I told her I did not know what my ethnic origin was

and that I had never been asked that before ­ not mentioning that I was utterly confused by

the many choices I had. Of course, I knew I was white. But I was not `White English′ or

`White Scottish′ or `White Welsh′, which was certain. She said: "You are from Germany? So

you are `White Other′." Now, that really killed me. I ticket the corresponding box and

discomposedly went outside, wondering what difference it would make to define my ethnic

background this specifically. And, if she knew I was from Germany and thus my ethnic origin

was `White Other′, why did I have to tick the box then? Can′t she guess it herself? What was

the use of that anyway?

One reason that medical centers like the one at the University of Bath ask their patients about

their ethnic background is that certain groups of people are more likely to come down with

certain diseases than others. "Some diseases are much commoner among some ethnic groups

than others. Sickle cell anemia is common among Africans, while hemochromatosis, an iron

metabolism disorder, occurs in 7.5 percent of Swedes" (Wade). In recent times a lot of

experiments have been realized with a special focus on the `race′. This was done, however, to

find out more about the occurrence of special diseases among certain groups. The experiments

vary from simply asking the participants about their and their family′s previous diseases to

even analyzing the genes of the tested persons using high standard modern research methods.

In that way, scientists and medics found out and proved a number of interesting facts.

"Twenty six [...] of 96 patients dying from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the Paris

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