UK Brown People Call Each Other ‘Coconuts’, Too

We found an article today on a BBC poll that reveals many South Asian British people, (of Indian or Pakistani heritage), don’t quite feel British or Asian enough.

Over a third agreed that to get on in the UK they needed to be a “coconut”, a term for somebody who is “brown on the outside but white on the inside”. Yet 84% are satisfied with life in Britain and almost half think they have more opportunities here. Half of the South Asians and nearly two-thirds of the white people interviewed agreed it was too easy for immigrants to settle in Britain. Three-quarters feel their culture is being diluted by living in the UK and nearly half believe white people do not treat them as British.

It’s like bizarro America. Good to know cultural ambivalence is a universal thing.

Many Asians ‘do not feel British’ [BBC]