Both races cling on to prejudice in Oldham

The gulf between whites and Asians in Oldham has become wider, despite efforts by politicians and community leaders since the Lancashire town was hit by race riots last year.

The gulf between whites and Asians in Oldham has become wider, despite efforts by politicians and community leaders since the Lancashire town was hit by race riots last year.

Researchers from Mori, working for the Commission for Racial Equality, found that racial divisions were felt most keenly by young white working-class men.

They claimed to feel threatened by the town's minority Pakistani and Bangladeshi youths and, in contrast to their Asian counterparts, were unwilling to consider any attempt to integrate the two communities.

The report, commissioned as a personal briefing for the commission's chairman, Gurbux Singh, will unnerve ministers, local MPs and community leaders, who fear that the far-right British National Party could win seats in towns such as Oldham at next month's council elections.

Although the white youths showed little awareness of pre-election campaigning by the BNP, the survey suggests that general racism and alienation is ingrained among them.

A senior commission official said the findings suggested that deprivation and alienation were the strongest factors. The depth of white disaffection "poses a significant challenge for policymakers, because if they're so disheartened, it will require very, very strong and clever leadership at local level," he said.

The commission is launching a campaign tomorrow on Manchester commercial radio stations, with two ads which attempt to confront "us and them" attitudes. One plays on a comedian's joke in a working men's club and the other shows that daily life is full of foreign influences.

As part of the commission's attempts to gauge the national mood after the riots, which hit Oldham for three days in May last year, and after 11 September, Mori questioned eight Asian men and nine white men, all under 25.

The interviews uncovered deep stereotypes on both sides. The Asians saw whites as socially crude, untrustworthy, obsessed with heavy drinking, and unacceptably disrespectful to their own sisters and mothers.

They admitted to having no white friends but, in strong contrast to the white youths, the Asians supported integration. They generally accepted the demands of the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, that immigrants should learn English on the practical grounds that it would improve their job prospects and access to services. However, his proposal to cut back on overseas marriages was seen as an invasion of their privacy.

They also insisted that Oldham was a "good place to live", and blamed the riots on a minority, on outsiders and on boredom among youths. "There's a minority of people who cause a bit of trouble, but the majority of people are good people," said one.

To whites, Asian youths were arrogant, roamed around in threatening gangs, and were too flashy, with expensive cars, such as BMWs, and gold jewellery. One interviewee contrasted them with Afro-Caribbean Britons and other immigrants he liked. Younger Asians had an exclusive culture based around a rap-style patois and street fashions, while others were "smelly" and wore "pyjamas". One youth said: "We don't want to feel threatened. We don't live the same lifestyle as them. We'll never mix."

The Mori researchers believe, however, that some positive signs emerged. The white youths admitted enjoying the Asian comedy show Goodness Gracious Me, regularly eating curries and kebabs from Asian businesses, liking some Asians they met and fancying Asian women.