Here's a link to what appears to be a portal for blogs about Black Britain [or maybe it's just one blog-I haven't figured it out yet]

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/black-britain/

Among the blogs linked to this portal [if that's what is is] is this one called "Charcoal Ink" in which the author writes about "The Situation of Black Britain".

http://charcoalink.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/the-situation-of-black-britain/ aulelia, 12/03/08

Here is an excerpt from that blog post:

"Discussing black people in relation to Britain is very very difficult and almost impossible. That is because Britain is not England, contrary to what many foreigners think. There is N.Ireland, Wales & Scotland to consider. Not to mention that everyone's experience of being black in the UK is wholly different.

As a person who sees herself as African, I have been going to school here since I was 11. A final year university student, my experience of being black in England has been one that is varied. London is a mecca for black people but Scotland is thin on the black population factor and this is bound to affect how people situate themselves here."...
-snip-

The author goes on to talk about her experiences of colorism* among Black Britons. However, most of the post is about Black men dating and marrying White women. The author uses the term "IR" as a referent for interracial dating/marriage.

That post has 10 reader comments-which appears to be larger than other blog posts I saw listed on the first page that I linked to.

Not surprisingly, these reader comments center around the subject of "IR". As an aside, does "IR" come from the word "interracial"? For what it's worth "IR" is not an abbreviation that I'm familiar with in the USA.

Here are some of those reader comments:

1. lifeisannoying Says:
23/05/2008 at 09:05
the answer is backin the 1990's norman tebbit told the west indian population that they had to assimulate to truely be british and look 50% IR , we have . Shame about that!

**

3. Dolores Says:
21/03/2008 at 15:30
Being a black British woman born and raise in the UK, I would like to add my voice to this debate. In the UK, the white population on the whole are not use to seeing black people as whole human beings because of racism and general lack of knowledge about black people's history and experience in this country. This is also true of a lot of black people as well. We are stereotyped in two ways: crime and family breakdown. There are no other images of us in TV and film in the UK. In response to the question of black men dating/marrying white women, the number of 50% is right. I live in London and I see more black men/white women relationships on the street than BM/BW. So this is very true! I think there is a issue of self-loathing in a lot of black men in the UK but it's rarely admitted. The black stereotypes that black women in America suffer from are the same in the UK. Black men are always complaining that BW are aggressive, hard to talk to, unattractive etc. There's no positive images of black women in the UK and a lot of black man follow the white beauty ideal push out to them by the mainstream media. Unfortunately no one in the black British community are looking at the ways white beauty standards are having effect on BM/BW relationships and most importantly black women themselves. I would like to see a movement occur in the UK where Black women views, issues are addressed and not sideline.

4. Orville Says:
15/03/2008 at 02:54
Aulelia I am so glad you're pointing out the issue of blackness for blacks in the occidental nation of the UK. I was thinking about the issue of IR. Aulelia, do you remember an article in Essence Magazine** a few years ago by a black British woman? The woman was educated, smart, young and pretty, and a white male co worker suggested she should go marry white. The black British woman refused. I think in the UK that some blacks are desperate to belong to fit in. But I wonder if non white people will ever "fit in" and completely assimilate in the UK? I am not straight so I don't know the whole issue about black heterosexual men desiring white women. I guess perhaps this has to deal with the entrenched image of whiteness being the symbol of beauty. Perhaps some black British men are into IR because they also want to fit in? One question Aulelia, really 50% of the black men in the UK are into IR? Wow that sounds like a dramatic number!


10. Melissa McEwan Says:
12/03/2008 at 23:53
Scotland is thin on the black population factor

That's a nice way of putting it!

My husband is Scottish, and, when we met, I was living in Chicago, in the most diverse neighborhood in the (famously segregated but getting better) city. I lived in a condo association of several six-flats, and the only other apartment in my building that was all-white was two gay men.

So when I visited Iain in Edinburgh for the first time, it was a total color shock. It was unnerving to me to be in a place so devoid of diversity. After about an hour of walking around, I said: "Don't you have any brown people in this country?!"

Later I met a black Scotsman in a pub, and we had a lovely and amusing chat about his lonely existence as "The Official Black Man of Scotland."

-snip-

* "Colorism" refers to Black people and other People of Color (PoC)having color preferences regarding other Black people or other PoC. Usually this is expressed as preferring lighter skinned PoC to darker skinned PoC. In the USA, an earlier term for "colorism" is [being] "color struck".

** Essence is a monthly magazine published in the USA which is directed toward African American women.

**

By the way, for the life of me I couldn't figure out the dates   23/05/2008, 21/03/2008, and 15/03/2008. But I finally got that the month is placed in the middle and not in the beginning of the date as it is in the USA and I think also in Canada. You Brits have such quaint customs!***

*** Written with much love :o)