First black Miss England crowned

[Number23]

First black 'Miss England'

LONDON - THE athlete niece of British Olympic 100 metres gold medallist Linford Christie was celebrating Tuesday after being crowned the first black Miss England.

Rachel Christie, 20, specialises in the heptathlon and the 400 metres and is hoping to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

...Kat Hodge, a 21-year-old soldier decorated for bravery in Iraq, came second in Monday's Miss England Grand Final, which was decided after a public vote.

In 2009?? With England's diversity???? Wow.

[dipsydoodle]

1. I'm surprised this hasn't happened here before.

:thumbsup:

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Not that surprising, given the demography

Percentage of children under 16 in 2001 census source (figure is for Great Britain, but England is by far the largest part of that):

White 88
Asian or Asian British 6
Black or Black British 3
Mixed 3
Other 1

And that seems a fairly relevant age group for those now entering a beauty contest. There has been one non-white winner before that I can see: Hammasa Kohistani in 2005.

[dipsydoodle]

3. From your figures I am surprised

that Black, Black British and mixed are not a higher percentage. Maybe its because you used the under 16 figure or could just be the crowd of all ages that I mix with when I'm out dancing or just for music whatever. I was born in Wembley during the war and Wembley is adjacent to Harlesden/NW10 where a substantial proportion of the assisted passage immigrants from Jamaica etc settled mid 1950's. Partly as a result of that black or white doesn't actually mean much to me. If the OP hadn't been on the subject of a black girl winning I wouldn't have attached any significance to her being black - just a beautiful girl.

As an aside - I wiki'd Lindford Christie. I'd never realised that some of the thirty bob assisted passage immigrants left their children with their grandmothers for some years until they'd settled properly over here. Even now I don't understand how they got initial accomodation on reaching here unless it was some sort of deal between the old LCC and the Middlesex whatever local borough councils. :shrug:

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Figures for all ages groups are more 'white' still

Figures (for England this time) for all ages from the 2001 census:
White 90.1%
Mixed 1.3%
Asian 4.6%
Black 2.3%
Chinese 0.5%
Other 0.4%

Immigrant populations in any country overwhelmingly go to big cities first (farm workers being the main exception, but immigrant farm workers to Britain have mainly been white), and it can take generations for them to spread out elsewhere; the mixture in London can be very different from elsewhere. For London, all ages, from 2001:

White 71.2%
Mixed 3.2%
Asian 12.1%
Black 10.9%
Chinese 1.1%
Other 1.6%

[Brewman_Jax]

5. Congratulations!

and well done! :applause: :toast: :woohoo:

[Control-Z]

6. Beautiful!

Congrats to Miss England!!

[Kind of Blue]

7. Well, it's about time. She certainly is pretty!

I'd have thought, the U.K. being the gateway to the West for many of us from ex-colonies, there would have been more instead of 2 women of color so far. Thanks for posting, Number23!

[dipsydoodle]

10. It's an oddity

we got some real pretty girls here :

Check out the Noisettes singer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvBNFNC_vxE

[Kind of Blue]

11. Absolutely adorable and she knows it, too!

:rofl: Too cute. Thanks for the link. They are charming :hi:

[dipsydoodle]

12. She deserves to know it.

:)

Here they are doin' a Killer's number : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD_F0E4CXJ4 When they were on tv last Friday night I wasn't paying any attention until I picked up on her voice and looked up expecting to see Duffy or Ami.

It's always been good to see and hear blacks and whites playing together right back to Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson one of whom I believe quoted "in music there is no colour". Here's The Specials 30 years ago : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVcD1xAMTo8 Long live Ska ! :hi:

[Kind of Blue]

13. Dipsydoodle, I'm so glad that I

responded to this thread. Had no idea I'd be getting such a treat. Thank you so much. Yes, long live Ska that I fell in love with while in London. And long live Britain for struggling to work it out, as we here in the States are doing the same working out our racial divide, as well. :hi:

[Number23]

15. She is GORGEOUS! And I love the name of the group, "Noisettes"

But the country that brought the world Naomi Campbell should be the last place that should have to have the beauty of the black woman explained to them. :) And Thandie Newton.

And wasn't that Leona Lewis girl British? She was a pretty girl too.

[Raineyb]

8. Damn! Just now? What year is it again? n/t

[Fire1]

9. Wow, is right! What took them this long? Better late than

never, I guess. Great news!

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bliss_eternal]

14. Brave and beautiful soldier...!

Great pick! :thumbsup:

[HopeOverFear]

16. Awesome

[Political Tiger]

17. Kick!

:kick:

[BumRushDaShow]

18. Wow. Congrats to her!

Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

So... kick! :kick:

[vaberella]

19. Little by little we're getting there. I'm still waiting on a Black Labour Party Parliament leader.

n/t

[ffellini7080]

20. Britain is diverse

But they have fewer blacks than in America