RoAD Research Reports, 6
The experience of age discrimination of older people
from two minority communities in Leeds
Preface
This report is from a project undertaken by Jenny Sleight and Zara Farsi. In the first phase
of the RoAD project we went to considerable lengths to investigate possible ways of
ensuring that older people in black, Asian or minority ethnic groups were involved. For
example, late in 2004 we consulted PRIAE (the Policy Research Institute on Ageing and
Ethnicity) and approached possible contacts in London and Birmingham. Similarly with the
Older People's Forum in Bristol we discussed collaborating in a joint recruitment drive
among ethnic minority groups in that city. In January 2005 we first made contact with
people in West Yorkshire. There was interest but discussions dragged on and by the early
summer we began to think we would have to turn elsewhere. Then in August, we were
referred simultaneously to Ulfat in Bradford and Jenny Sleight in Leeds and, within weeks,
we had two projects up and running.
Jenny, in collaboration with Zara, has investigated how age discrimination affects elders
from the African-Caribbean and Irish communities. They saw the project as an opportunity
for older people in focus groups to discuss feelings, express their views and compare their
experiences of age discrimination.
Their report reveals some of the problems that older people in these communities in Leeds
currently face. In particular, their analysis focuses on the relationship between age and
race discrimination and how with time, older people may come to compound their
disadvantages by tolerating their experiences of discrimination.
In September 2006, Jenny and Zara contributed to 'Age Discrimination and Other
Prejudices', a symposium that RoAD organised for the 35th Annual Scientific Meeting, of
the British Society of Gerontology at the University of Wales, Bangor, and they are
contributing to a chapter in Researching Age and Multiple Discrimination, a book to be
published later this year by the Centre for Policy on Ageing.
Bill Bytheway
Director, RoAD project
The experience of age discrimination of older people
from two minority communities in Leeds
Jenny Sleight BSc (Hons) MEd and Zara Farshi BSc, MSc, PhD, Research Consultants
Background
The main aims of RoAD (Research on Age Discrimination) are to investigate how age discrimination is
experienced by older people, and to develop tools and strategies for challenging ageist behaviour and
promoting a more age-inclusive society. Particular emphasis is on forms of discrimination which have been
neglected in the media despite being a common experience for older people. This sub-project was
undertaken in Leeds to ensure that the experiences of BME elders were included as part of the research. It
focused on two BME communities: the African/Caribbean and the Irish. Resources for the sub-projects were
limited and one reason for the choice of elders from these two communities was their ability to participate in
discussions without the need for an interpreter.
Aims/objectives
The overall aim was to establish to what extent BME older people are being discriminated against within:
a) BME settings on the grounds of age (including prejudice from younger BME people),
b) old age settings on the grounds of race (including prejudice from older white people),
c) general settings of everyday life on the grounds of both age and race.
Methodology
We, the researchers, were already in contact with a large number of established voluntary organisations that
were supporting elders from specific communities in Leeds. For this project, we selected three. Serving
African/Caribbean elders are (1) the Roscoe Luncheon Club, providing Caribbean cooking and based in a
Methodist church opened in Chapeltown in 1974, and (2) the Frederick Hurdle Day Centre, providing
daytime activities for people from African and Caribbean communities and run by the Leeds Social Services
Department. The third organisation is the Leeds Irish Health and Homes project, providing a housing
outreach service for Irish people, including a lunch club for older people. It was decided to have two groups
from the African Caribbean community as we felt it would be more difficult for them to disentangle examples
of age discrimination from race discrimination. Moreover, involving participants from two contrasting
organisations gave us a broader perspective.
We attended the voluntary organisations and explained to elders there the purpose and nature of the focus
group discussions. This included the offer of a £10 voucher for those who participated as a thank you for
giving up their time. We sought members deemed to be ‘typical’ users of the service who would represent as
far as possible the overall membership of the club. For those selected, a convenient time was arranged to
hold the focus group discussion.
The three focus group discussions were held during January and February 2006. Each focus group was held
at the premises of the voluntary organisation as we felt this would not only assist in access issues but also
help participants feel more comfortable and at ease in familiar surroundings. We, the researchers,
moderated each focus group. This involved welcoming participants and asking them to introduce
themselves, a brief description of the purpose of the focus group, gaining their consent for the discussion to
be tape-recorded (this was agreed by all three), and establishing ground rules (e.g. one person to speak at
any one time). Periodically we summarised emerging themes, and took the necessary care to ensure that
power hierarchies within the group did not affect the contribution of individuals: if one person began to
dominate, we would seek out contributions from other participants. Also, we observed the body language of
individuals in order to identify those who wished to contribute but felt inhibited.
Similar questions were asked of all groups regarding their experiences of age discrimination. In particular,
we kept both ‘double jeopardy’ and ‘tolerance’ in mind, in particular when attempting to identify experiences
of age discrimination. Particular care was taken to obtain and record life experiences which could be
attributed to either race or age discrimination, or both race and age discrimination.
2
Six members of the Roscoe Luncheon Club took part, one man and five women, ranging in age from 69 to
77 years. Three were disabled and three not. All had lived in the UK for over 44 years. Seven members of
the Frederick Hurdle Day Centre participated, two men and five women. Their ages ranged from 64 to 82, all
were disabled, and they had lived in the UK for between 44 and 50 years. One man and five women from the
Leeds Irish Health and Homes project took part. Their ages ranged from 57 to 70 years, none were disabled
and they had lived in the UK for between 42 and 57 years. The ratio of men to women taking part was
representative of the users of the services of these organisations.
Data analysis and emerging themes
All discussions were tape recorded and the transcriptions were analysed systematically. From this, three
themes emerged regarding the participants' experiences of age discrimination:
1
1
Age and race discrimination (‘double jeopardy’)
2
Age discrimination
3
Previous experience compounding age discrimination (‘tolerance’)
Age and race discrimination (‘double jeopardy’)
On participant in the focus group at the African/Caribbean day centre offered the following description is of
an incident. It reveals well how BME elders can experience the double jeopardy of age and race
discrimination, and how closely these can be interlinked1:
“Yesterday, in the swimming pool, this white lady she is swimming like she owns the pool. Now I am a
small person as you will see . . . I love when I am in the pool, for my feet when I stand up, to touch the
floor. . . . If the water gets up here [gestures to her neck] I panic because I feel I am going under. . . .
So when people are backstroking that way . . . I don’t like it unless I am really where I think if I get into
any trouble with them, I can stand up. Anyway, this young woman, she is doing as if she owns the
pool, she is carrying on and carrying on. So when you are on your back, you can’t see who is in front
of you. I was in front of her and she is coming and coming, I was just right at the beginning of the
bottom end of the pool, the 6ft part, and I felt like I was going under so I held on to the rope that they
have there for protection and I just looked at her and I says: 'Can’t you swim properly? I don’t like
people swimming like that'.
Now everybody in the pool knows me, this is the first time I have ever seen her in pool. So she says:
'You don’t say nothing, if you can’t keep quiet, go out'. You know what I mean, I mustn’t be saying
nothing. You know what she said to me? 'If you don’t like it and you can’t swim, you should be above
there with them.'
Now above there with them is all the black people, with a few older people, that just come in. I have
never seen them before ‘cos I was there from in the 90s, swimming there, but I am black and I am the
only black person that swims below there because the pool assistants, they always say to me 'you
swim below because you are a good swimmer'.
But I have never seen her before, she had never seen me and she says that and I say: 'Wait a minute,
is this yours? You should be in your private pool', and she just went on swimming. . . . She didn’t stay
very long much after that. When she got out, I noticed she was a big belly woman and I thought 'If I
had taken my foot and given you a kick you would have had your baby in the pool'. Honestly, I know I
am being recorded, but I am saying how I felt. That was discrimination . . . . in my view, I looked like I
was the oldest person in the pool, number one, and number two, I were black and she felt that I
shouldn’t have any right swimming below there because all the white people were below there and the
black ones all above. But don’t get me wrong, those that were black above there, can’t swim, they
were wearing the arm bands and learning things, equipment you know what I mean, so to me that’s
discrimination.”
It is clear from this vivid account that 'above there' refers to be a segregated part of the swimming pool. In
what she perceives to be the reasons for this segregation, the young woman expressed her prejudices
regarding age and race. She explicitly 'invites' the older woman to get out, to go 'above there with them'.
1
We have transcribed the words of participants in italics. The transcribed words of ourselves asking
questions are not italicised in the following transcriptions.
3
The indignation of the older woman is evident but what is most significant is her understanding of the two
forms of discrimination: number one she was old and number two she was black. Her concluding
comment implies that her interpretation was that the younger woman's view was that only young white
people were capable of swimming 'properly'.
2
Age Discrimination
We obtained evidence of age discrimination in relation to how people appeared, their use of health services,
life in their neighbourhoods, the use of public services, and travelling and visiting their country of origin.
2.1
Visual/Appearance
There is a tendency to think of age discrimination solely in terms of chronological age: 'how old are you?'
being the question that triggers an ageist response. But age is often judged by how someone appears. This
occurs in many different settings.
“I know this sounds stupid, but when you lose the colour from your hair, you know when you go white,
people do have a tendency to talk slower to you [participants laugh], they really do [participant speaks
slowly] speak to you like this. I think I might have lost the colour of my hair, but I can still see, I can still
hear [participants laugh] and I’m still compus mentus! But they do, honestly, they see the white hair or
the grey hair, and they automatically think that you are very much slower in all your actions and
everything you do. It’s true”.
The participant gave an example later on in the focus group when the discussion turned to the NHS:
“Once, I went to the hospital. I only went for some bloods taking and . . . I mean I’m a big woman, and
please God I’m healthy, and she just got hold of my arm and said ‘Now come along Mrs [X]’ and I said
‘Oh right’ and I thought it must be my hair, because I don’t look that old.”
"So she assumed that you needed help?"
“Yes, they do have a tendency to talk slower to you. They go 'She’s a white old lady' [participant
laughs] and I think 'Dear Lord'. And you see the other thing is none of us think that we are old, do we?”
On both occasions, she felt betrayed by the colour of her hair; the ageist assumption that white hair equals
old age, and old age equals hard of hearing and slow of understanding.
A participant in the Irish discussion group gave a similar example of how older people are assumed to have
hearing problems and how this can create tension between carers:
“My husband was in hospital a few months ago and one of the nurses come round, and he’s not deaf
or anything, he’s fine, you know, just had an infection in his chest, and she come over to do
something, a catheter, and she was quite young and she bent down. I was standing and she bent
down, and she said ‘I have to give you’ . . . what was it ‘clean your catheter’ or something like that . . .
‘Do you want me to?' And he was there and he just said ‘What?’ and I just said ‘Yes, he does’. So she
said ‘Let him speak for himself’. So she bent down again and she said ‘Do you . . .’ and she mouthed
it, you know ‘would it be alright if I changed . . .’ You know this attitude. So I just said ‘You don’t need
to talk to him like that. He’s not deaf’. So you know, I got a bit cross at that stage with her, you know,
and she kind of left it. And another nurse came in and I said ‘She didn’t have to talk like that’. Lots of
people do to patients, don’t they? They shout. I mean I know some of them are deaf, but a lot them
aren’t.”
2.2
Health Services
There is a statistical association between age and poor health: the older you are the more likely it is that you
have some kind of chronic ailment. The problem is that, knowing this, many people, including doctors,
explain each and every ailment as being 'due to age'. This is what one participant from the day centre said:
“Well speaking as an old person now, sometimes you go to the doctors' and, as soon as you walk in
the surgery, it’s good morning and sit down. ‘Oh, it’s your age’. The first thing, ‘it’s because of your
age’. He doesn’t have time to discuss anything with you afterwards, they just say ‘it’s because of your
age’."
4
"Anything you have wrong with you it’s because of your age?"
“Yes, because of your age.”
Another participant described a similar experience:
“Well I don’t know if it’s relevant, but I had gone with back pain and I’ve had lots of different treatments
for it, and I said ‘Isn’t there anything? Can’t you do anything for it?’ And she said ‘No, you're too old,
the damage is done now.’ You know, you’ve got your tablets, there you are. As if there is nothing else
they can do. Well, I just think, I suppose I am lucky to be here, but I’d like to be feeling a bit better than
I am. I’d like them to put a bit more effort into it."
And another attempted to explain this readiness to deny there was anything that could be done in terms
of exclusion and rejection:
“I feel as though the NHS as well, when you get to a certain age, they don’t want to know as much. I
think you are left really.”
This feeling is reflected in current age restrictions on screening2. One participant recently phoned her surgery
to make an appointment for a cervical smear, and was told the she had reached the cut-off age. There
followed a discussion in the focus group about whether the cut off age was 60 or 65. And then another
participant stated:
“But that’s when you are more likely to develop breast cancer! I bet you know of people who’ve had
cancer of the cervix or cancer of the womb.”
“I told her [the practice nurse] that one sister had breast cancer, the oldest, and the youngest had
cervical cancer; it didn’t make any difference. She said ‘If you have any symptoms, you can always
make an appointment’ and they would do it for me."
"So do you think that’s discriminatory?"
“Oh I think so, yes.”
“Well I think it is, they talk about people over 60, that’s when cancer really starts in older people, you
know. So why? I mean you’ve worked, you would like to have a few years of reasonable good health
and you know, why can’t we have it?"
The following account from a participant at the Day Centre, is another example of how patients are excluded
through priority being place on younger people. It also illustrates how people become resigned to the
consequences of such decisions:
“I have been a kidney patient now last month for eleven years, and the Professor said to us one day,
‘If somebody come in that is younger than you and there is a match, they will give that person, the
younger person, the preference, rather than you because you are older’. It is eleven years since I have
been on dialysis. I don’t mind because if they had a match for me and offered me a kidney when I first
went on, it would be alright, but at this stage and at my age, I don’t believe, I told them plain, I won’t
have it now cos you have so many tablets to take, so much medication to take and then if you do get a
kidney at this stage, you still have another lot to take so . . .”
On age discrimination and nursing homes, two participants expressed concern. It is important to note how
their concern is for the wellbeing of others and what happens 'out of sight' in nursing homes:
“Well I’ve visited homes . . . and I’ve seen older people in homes that have been just left there
unattended. If they have a relative or friend come to visit, the staff start running around, but if you go
unexpected, you see them in a chair like this, like zombies.”
“I think there is a lot of discrimination in homes. When I first came to Britain, they used to treat people
so well, you know the inspectors and all sort come into hospital, but you don’t know what’s happening
behind the closed doors in these homes. I would rather die at home than go in a home.”
2.3
2
Neighbourhood
See the RoAD report on age discrimination and breast screening.
5
Several of the participants were concerned about relations between older and younger people in their
neighbourhood. One user of the day centre commented:
“In general, the young people of today don’t have any respect for older people. It’s their manner. They
come around and you try to do something, you speak to them, and they say ‘Oh, it’s because you are
old’. One day, a woman said to my wife, ‘Oh, you are old’. Her son was playing with a ball, which was
coming in back and forth all the time. He lives on the opposite side, playing football in the street and it
kept coming over. ‘I haven’t got time to be worried about you and ball, why don’t you go to the park
round the corner’, and the wife came out and said ‘because you are old’. Even the boy’s father said to
remember when you were young. I said, ‘Yes, but when I was young I had respect for older people’.
This is one of things you get in the neighbourhood, no respect.”
There was much discussion of this side to age discrimination among the Irish participants:
“I think it’s the younger generation, that’s worse, the younger ones, isn’t it? They are verbally abusive
and they are violent to elderly people aren’t they? Well you know, when you are waiting for a bus, on a
bus or wherever, it’s nearly always the younger generation that’s the worst, isn’t it? They’ve no
respect, but that’s their upbringing I think, isn’t it?"
When asked if they could give specific examples, the Irish elders commented:“Like years ago, somebody would stand up (on a bus) and let you sit down wouldn’t they?”
“Yes, they’d let you sit down, yes. We were brought up that way. An older person would be able to sit
down like.”
They discussed a recent case of a purse being stolen from an older person at the bus stop. They were
uncertain whether this could be put down to age discrimination. One thought the older person was being
taken advantage of 'because you were on your own'. One participant disagreed with the majority:
“I’m afraid I find it differently. I find young people, even at the bus stop . . . I’ve never had any trouble, I
usually try and have a little bit of a chat with them, and you find that they are quite nice people.”
Another participant recalled a mugging that recently happened to her sister. She was 64 and with her two
baby grandchildren. When asked if they felt that older people were viewed as an easy target, the majority
agreed, one offering the following account of how his trust in 'some young lads' had been betrayed:
“I used to let them go through to their house because there are a lot of trees at the back, but they
started abusing it then, they started knocking at the door as they went through, they broke a side gate.
I said ‘Please open the gate, you can go through’. And they kept doing it and in the end my son put up
a side gate. And then they come in, in the winter time, and they couldn’t see. They jumped over the
fence, there was three of them and they’ve seen there was a big gate up and the whole fence, and
they went 'Wah'. So I just come out the door and they ran off . . . and started looking back shouting at
me and I went to the gate, and they were down the road, and I started laughing to myself, and I just
thought, you know you always hear of it, teenagers picking on an old age pensioner [laughs] you know
that kind of way. . . . I thought it was funny because I don’t think of myself as an old age pensioner.”
There is in this account the belief that older people have to tolerate the trouble that younger people cause
them. They have to accept that they are 'old age pensioners' who are unable to chase after the young. An
alternative account of neighbourhood life was offered by one of the day centre users:
“. . . it’s 41 years that I’ve been living where I am, and I am among what you would call the Asian
community, the Bangladeshis or whatever you call them, they are from Bangladesh, you know what I
mean? I would like to live among them if I could until I die, because as far as age is concerned . . .
they are a respectful generation. Those young children, they have all been born and see me there and
lots of them, you know how they marry around and live around their families, they have grown up, and
buy homes and things, and have their own little babies and things around me, they call me grandma or
auntie . . . which I think a multi lot of, you know what I mean, so I like living among them because I find
them respectful to age.”
2.4
Public services
6
The African Caribbean elders reported problems with public transport, and buses in particular. Here is a
discussion about the problems of 'keeping to time':
“Sometimes you go to get the bus - walking up and as soon as they see you, as you reach [laughing]
they turn off just as they see you coming. [laughing]”
“Why do you think that is?”
“They are working to time so even though you have a pass, they can’t wait for you, so they leave you.
They will think you are holding the bus up for a minute or two, you see.”
“They hold us up too! They don’t run on time!”
“Sometimes you wait three quarters of an hour before another bus comes, and I don’t think that’s right
because it is supposed to be there at a certain time. Happened to me up to last week – I waited three
quarters of an hour and it didn’t come, the bus didn’t come.”
“They see you and they just turn their face aside." [laughs]
“They see you running and then just turn off.”
“Are these white bus drivers?"
“Yes, there is hardly any black, so the majority is white.”
“But you think they are making that decision because you are older person not just because . . ?”
“Well, they have been doing it for yonks, it ain’t just happening, been doing it a long time.”
“I think some of them have a problem." [laughs]
“Well no need to take it out on me!”
In this way the question of whether they were being kept off the buses because of age or race
discrimination was avoided. Two users of the day centre raised some practical questions regarding
access to buses:
“Oh yes, public transport, I’ll tell you about public transport. I’ve been having a run in with police for
months now at meetings about public transport. Now coming from town on the buses, cars are parked
at the bus stops and you find it difficult getting on/off the bus, because the bus can’t get to the kerb,
stops in the middle of the road because of the cars. For some months now, I have been to several
meetings about the same problems, it’s still the same.”
“I was going on the bus one morning and you know the bus sometimes puts that thing down for
people to get on if you can’t walk on the bus, but they wouldn’t put it down for me, and I couldn’t get up
on the bus because I have trouble with one of me legs, so he said I had to wait for another bus to
come, that’s what he told me. It could have been because I’m old or because I can’t walk very good
with my arthritis, you know I had my trolley with me.”
The power of bus drivers is evident over the following experience:
“Just because I couldn’t find my bus pass, he charged me £1.80, just for two minutes. I pay it.
Otherwise he will tell me to get off.”
Many older people have informed RoAD about the problems they have with queuing in shops. Often
assistances appear not to notice they are there. One participant recalled a similar incident queuing in his
local post office:
“The postmaster . . . came round to talk to his mate or whoever, and I stood there waiting in the queue
and when it was my turn to go I went up to the counter and the fella who was talking to him went at the
same time . . . [The postmaster] said to me ‘Excuse me, it was this fella’s turn, it’s his turn’. I said ‘No, I
stood here and saw when he came in, and you came over and talked to him’. And he didn’t like it and I
didn’t like it either, and he said to me ‘Alright then, go on then’. And then I got my money, went home
and I haven’t been back in there since.”
“Was this a younger person that jumped the queue?”
“Yes, a young man.”
7
“Was he white?”
“Yes.”
“Was the postmaster white?”
“No he was Indian, but they were mates.”
“Maybe he was assuming you're retired and you’ve got lots of time to wait? Do you think that happens
sometimes when you are out?”
“Well if they are in a hurry and they say excuse me, you don’t mind. But I was in the queue a long time
and I wanted to go home. Sometimes if I go in the queue there and I wait and there is someone white .
. . they pass me.”
“That has got nothing to do with age?”
“No, they do it all the while - it’s because they are white.”
So again it is unclear whether the experience should be put down to age discrimination or race
discrimination. Whatever, the fact is that the older person was threatened with being ignored and made to
wait.
2.5
Travelling
When asked if they experienced age discrimination when they travelled back to their native country, the
responses from some African/Caribbean elders at the lunch club were negative and defensive:
“Where? Back home where you come from? Don’t be like that!!”
“No? Do you think age is respected more in other cultures rather than it is in this country?”
“Well I don’t know, I think it goes all around, but the people here don’t know us like where we come
from, where they know us, and then they even know your family, your relatives, everybody, so there is
no point picking a fight!" [laughs]
“When we were growing up at home, if anybody was sick and we know that was person sick, we pop
in and look for them, do their shopping and what, but nowadays it’s not like it now. No, we never even
used to want money, but those now, if they have to do it, you have to pay them now, you have to pay
people now.”
This rosy view of their native country was not shared by all. On of the day centre users had returned and
this is what she said:
“I go home regularly for holiday, OK, but I wouldn’t like to go back home now. I’m from Barbados, I
wouldn’t like to go back home now on my own to live because what I see at home, the younger people
has adopted, I am sorry to say, but the English style of the younger people, the Western style, and
nobody takes much interest of you because you are of older generation. For this reason, we left home
when we were young people, twenty odd, thirtyish, you know what I mean, and those younger people
that are there, don’t know us, know what I mean, so you do not get the respect from them, like what
we were brought up to do with older people. So I wouldn’t think of going back home, especially on my
own now.”
The Irish elders felt that older people were treated better in Ireland. When asked in what ways, most cited
having more respect for elders:
“I’ve found that they are very nice, really nice. They have, I don’t know if this is right, they have a softer
attitude towards you, they treat you as though . . . you get treated better, I think, when you go to
Ireland, kinder, thoughtful. Yes, they are thoughtful and when they speak to you, they look at you, you
know. I know that sounds crazy, but they talk to you as though they are interested in you, whether they
are or not, and maybe they just get paid to do that, I don’t know, but generally speaking. And they are
welcoming, all ages.”
However one participant challenged this view:
“Does anybody listen to Radio Ireland? People are dying on trolleys, unbelievable, days, seven or
eight days on a trolley. I suppose we probably hear about the cases that make headlines, but still, if
you were listening to a current affairs program on Radio Ireland, you wouldn’t just have one person
8
ringing in to relate their experiences about their elderly relatives, you would have more than they could
deal with . . . Actually seven or eight days on a trolley, an elderly person, you know. And they’ve died,
people have died in those situations.”
When they returned to Ireland on holiday, they were always asked when they were going back. They said
this seemed to imply that they were unwanted. But they laughed about it:
“When are you going back? How long are you staying?”
“That’s right! Thank you very much! How long are you staying?”
Similarly, when asked about the prospect of returning to live in Ireland, one replied:
“You were welcome like, but now it’s all changed. I was thinking of going back, but I’ve changed my
mind because like, I’d find it very hard to settle down.”
Travel itself generates experiences of age discrimination. Some are viewed positively. Here is the report
of a user of the day centre:
“The last time that I went home, we don’t have a direct plane from England to my country, so we have
to go to Antigua, and I was walking very slow, and someone saw me and when I got to the stairs. She
came down and she helped me and put me in a seat, and when we got to Gatwick, she said, I mustn’t
get off the plane until she come for me. And she came for me, she put me and me granddaughter on, I
think it’s a buggy they call it, and I was driven straight from the plane to the customs. The man who
drove us there took the cases off the spinning thing, carousel, and took me right to the bus and I never
had to ask for help.”
Another day centre user reported a similar experience. It is interesting to see how she saw it as an
experience unaffected by race discrimination.
“I travel a lot, and I always like to be independent you know, because we want to be independent and
you want to feel you can do what the young ones are doing as well, and at Manchester, I always use
Manchester airport, I sat there and I was waiting in a chair and, because I was early, to be honest, this
white lad came up to me and he says, ‘Madam, what are you waiting for?’ I says ‘For the clock to go
around’. He says ‘Where are you going?’ and I tell him, I said that I am being transferred to go on
further. He said ‘Have you got someone to take you to the plane?’ I said ‘No, I can get there myself.’
He says ‘No you can’t’. So I says ‘Yes I can’ [laughs]. So he says ‘You stay here until I come back. I
have to take that man', which was a white gentleman as well, ‘right out to the plane, I’ll take you as
well’. He says ‘but in future, whenever you come back to this airport, how regular do you travel?’ I
says ‘Every year’. He says ‘When you come back here, you always sit there and tell them you want
someone to wheel you out to the plane. It is too far for you to walk on your own, it is really far.’ And I
thought that was very good and I thought, well in future, I will do that. When I returned back to
England, I did that and another white one came and said ‘What are you waiting for?’ and I says ‘I’m
waiting for someone to take me back in to get check out’. He said ‘OK, I’ll take you’. So that was good
I thought.”
In contrast to this, some lunch club users complained that they were discriminated against because of their
age in relation to travel insurance:
“When you reach about 70 years old, travel insurance is high you know, very high. I went away in
September and I was 70 in November and the travel agent told me that it will be £69 or £79 pounds
with insurance and I don’t travel without insurance. And he says to me, if I’m on medication, and I say
yes, I’m taking blood pressure tablets and cholesterol tablets, and for this insurance now, I have to pay
£30 more. I say well, it’s all under control I’m taking my medication, it’s under control. £40 more I had
to pay, in case anything happen to me, I was covered.”
From the Irish discussion group, there were similar comments:
“There is just one area where you sometimes think, you know, when you want insurance to travel . . ."
“Yes to go on holiday . . ."
"We are very discriminated against in that.”
"Yes after 64 isn’t it, and disabled, they double the amount. Yes my husband has to pay double.”
9
3
Previous experience compounding age discrimination (‘tolerance’)
Throughout their lives, all the participants in these focus groups had experienced race discrimination, both in
gaining entry to the UK and in living here. They had found ways of coping with being placed at a
disadvantage. In many instances their way of coping was to be tolerant, or at least appear tolerant. Here is
the experience of one man in the day centre:
“My experience goes back a long way until now. I worked in factories among white people more or
less, and once I was going to the washroom to wash my hands and this gentleman says to me, “Why
you wash your hands for? It doesn’t make any difference.” So when I came back, I said to him, “I didn’t
wash my hands to make any difference to the colour, I washed my hands because they were dirty. We
are accustomed to washing our hands before we eat something”. And the reaction from then on was
that nobody spoke to me. I was the only black person there on the line then, I was operating a
machine and for days they just ignored me. And it was the truth, he’s telling me that because I’m black
and I wash my hands, it doesn’t make any difference. . . ."
“And that happens now?”
“Yes, it happens now. Even some churches you go in now, you stand up and . . . they look as if they
are afraid to shake your hand.”
"Why do you think that is happening?"
“Because of the colour of your skin, you know they see you as a black.”
He was asked if this might be because of his age, but he didn't answer the question. For him, it would
appear, his experience in the church was a continuation of the racial prejudice he had experienced
throughout his working life. Throughout he has had to tolerate this kind of discrimination.
The following account is another example of how older African/Caribbean people still have to tolerate race
prejudice. It was offered by a user of the luncheon club who lives in a sheltered housing scheme. To put it
into context, it is important to know that a high percentage of residents in the Chapeltown area of Leeds are
from the African/Caribbean community:
“Where I am living now, we have an old lady living next door to me. When the children come to see
me, you know like in the summer and they lay out on the grass, she will go to her window and say “Go
back to Chapeltown where you come from!” [participant laughs] I mentioned to the warden one day
that sometimes she does throw toilet rolls outside to the back after she’s finished with them. . . . She,
the warden, says “Oh no, not she, she wouldn’t do a thing like that”. Well I say, maybe she is racist,
but you know, if I report it to the Head Office, they say just ‘ignore her, she seem to be going funny’.”
Another participant from the same scheme, agreed:
“We will never get rid of this racism, we will never get rid of it. Like coming up here this morning, she
would see me and say, “Oh get out, get out to Chapeltown where you come from [one participant
laughs, others sharp intake of breath]. They tell me not to say anything, because you see if you get
into trouble with them, say anything to them, they might say more than . . . Sometimes it gets me down
a bit but they tell me not to bother with her. She don’t come outside, you know, she seem to be going
funny.”
“But do you think she is behaving like that because of your background rather than your age?”
“Yes, because of my colour. Some people think, because of your colour you can’t live next door to
them and all this sort of thing. I expected that now that I have finished work, I am sick you see, I have
to be getting my pension now, I would like to enjoy my pension with ease, not for people to pass
remarks on me because I am black, because I live next door to them. I don’t like it, but I have to put up
with it. I just leave them alone because you are getting older, your health is getting worse, you know
like you are senile, you don’t know what you're saying.”
It is clear from this that they are able to tolerate the abuse from their neighbour, but it is something they had
not anticipated, something that they still find offensive and tiresome.
The discussion turned to reminiscence. One elder described the race discrimination she used to experience:
“When I was young it was terrible – the discrimination, I used to cry.” Another participant advised her “You
have to be strong”. She replied:
10
“No not for me, my children. It used to make me cry to see how my children were treated, but it is
better now. Where I used to go out with my children, that was what used to make me cry.”
“What about now, do you think because the race relation has got better, or do you think you have got
older?”
“Because I’ve got older and the children have grown up. The children couldn’t play out and when I put
them out to play, they come and they cause trouble. I had to keep them in sometimes because of the
neighbours, because of the way they carried on.”
One participant challenged this form of tolerance, claiming that:
“I never had any arguments with anybody because I always teach my children to defend themselves,
right? If you go to them and say you hit them back and then, if push come to shove and shove come to
fight, then you fight. And you fight to the brink of death if you have to.”
Participants at the Irish lunch club also offered examples of race discrimination. Their discussion started with
an account of one incident three years ago. The participant described how a bus driver had mimicked the
Irish accent:
“I was quite cross but I didn’t say anything to him, and he started to talk again when it come to the stop
and I just couldn’t, I was really cross with him and I just ignored him, and I just got off the bus.”
“So he wasn’t Irish but mimicking an Irish accent?”
“Yes – taking off the Irish”
“Years ago . . . lots of people would sort of take you off, and say ‘sure’ and ‘be gone’, but we never say
'sure' and 'be gone' [participants laugh], that kind of thing you know. But it’s not as prevalent today.”
All participants agree this happened more in the past. They had learnt to disregard it then, and believed that
this sort of behaviour didn’t happen as much in Britain today. They thought it wasn’t tolerated due to the
impact of other ethnic minorities:
“I think people realise that they can’t do that because of other ethnic minorities, isn’t it? Because I felt
like saying to him ‘If a Pakistani man got on, you wouldn’t start mimicking him’. That made me really
cross, you know.”
“There is more integration and we are mixing better now than years ago, aren’t we? And it’s not
tolerated now.”
“I think why it has stopped as much is because the Asian community used to complain so much.”
“I was just going to say that. It hasn’t become better for us because we have done anything about it. It
is other people . . . But it has come because of them, hasn’t it? It has spread hasn’t it, to every other
nationality. It’s not tolerated.”
However, the Irish elders felt they also experienced discrimination because of religious and political
affiliations:
“When I was leaving school, and this is only about religion, not particularly Catholics, but we knew,
and the boys knew, that there were certain firms that would take Catholics and there were certain
firms that you had no chance of getting a job.”
“Was that here in England?”
“Yes, when I was leaving school, the boys would say you might get a job at such and such, and the
post office was always good, you know, get a job at the post office, you didn’t get any discrimination
there, but there were certain firms that definitely wouldn’t take us.”
"But how did they know?"
“Well they knew through the families, they knew through people going and asking which school did
you go to.”
Another Irish participant recalled an experience early on in her working career as a district nurse:-
11
“I can remember one man who wouldn’t allow me into his house because he thought I belonged to the
IRA. So then they got a man to go in, another district nurse, and unfortunately his name was Irish so
he wouldn’t have him in either! He wouldn’t have either of us in. That was more like race
discrimination.”
Another participant gave a more recent example of possible discrimination. Her son had applied for a job and
they 'didn’t bother even writing to him '. He wasn't considered, she believes, because of his Irish name and
possible affiliations with the IRA.
Conclusion
Some people experience discrimination because they are seen to be both old and of a black or minority
ethnic group. They suffer from the devaluation of old age and the additional economic, social and
psychological burdens of living in a society in which racial equality remains a myth. Sin (2005) has described
this as the 'double jeopardy' facing older BME people. Some have countered these burdens by developing a
‘tolerance’, as a means of coping with the cumulative disadvantages and discrimination associated with their
migration history and their reception in British society (Smith, 1976). This report has considered the
relevance of these two concepts in understanding how older members of two BME groups experience
discrimination. We found evidence not only of age discrimination in the health and public services, and in
response to appearance in local neighbourhoods and in travelling, but also of the double jeopardy. We have
also uncovered examples of older people who have found ways of coping with being at a disadvantage, but
tolerating – or appearing to tolerate – everyday experiences of discrimination against them.
J Sleight, and Z Farshi, April 2006
References
Sin, C. H. (2005) ‘Experiencing racism: reflections on the practice of research with minority ethnic older
people in Britain’, International Journal Social Research Methodology, 8(2), 101-115.
Smith, D. J. (1976) ‘The facts of racial disadvantage: A national survey’. London: PEP.
12