Discrimination Against Coloured Immigrants in the British Housing Sector in the 1960s

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,0, University of Regensburg, course: Black Britain, language: English, abstract: The place you live in, where your accommodation is set, is a determinant factor for the integration of coloured people in the society today and was one in the 1960s. It does not only determine the education of the children and the employment of the adolescent1, but the surrounding also has a deep impact on the social development. Therefore it is easier for coloured immigrants to be integrated into British society, when they are living in a rather middle-class area than in a run-down 'immigration quarter'. Wole Soyinka's poem 'Telephone Conversation' describes the attempt of a coloured man to break out of the normally poor housing situation of blacks, but instead of getting a fair chance to improve his living conditions, he is only discriminated against. This paper will first have a close look on the poem and afterwards examine the reasons of discrimination in the housing sector and how they worked in the daily search for a better accommodation.