Essay on Ethnicity

Media OCR Ethnicity essay – Hotel Babylon

 The clip I have been shown generates a lot of racism and ethnicity issues against immigrants living in the UK. After seeing the clip a few times, I have noticed that the cooks and most of the people who work in the kitchens and as cleaners are mostly black and European.

 At the start of the clip, a man is standing in a warehouse and as he looks behind him, there are two police officers. As soon as he turns around, the camera angle and the lights are focused on his face, this shows us that he knows what is wrong and what is about to happen. The camera angle is pointed straight towards him and the police which may show us that they think they are superior due to their skin colour and their position in the system of work. When the police walk in, the lady at the reception and a black man sitting at the side look up at the authority and present a scared and “get everyone out of there” face which portrays something bad is about to happen. She then goes off track and says, “ooh while I remember, Ben did you take those purple acquisitions forms down to housekeeping like I asked you to?”, this gives the authority a hint of how they are trying to get everyone out of there before they catch them.

 As the two men run down, one being white and the other being black, there is tense music which represents they are in a hurry and the camera is also following them in a fast pace which also represents something bad is about to happen. The angle of the camera is pointing up to the people at some stages and at others there is just a ruffle which shows the chaos being caused when trying to get the immigrants out of bounds from the authority and into a ‘staff only’ room where they are unable to come in. At that time they notice that one man is missing and they realise how he is going to get caught no matter what happens. This causes more tension and worry for most the people who worked with him and upsets them the most when he does get caught and reality sets in about his absence there. As the lady who is diabetic collapses, the black man who gives her the sugar boost in her mucus membranes says, “I wasn’t always a cleaner”, this shows how in their country they are respected as professional business workers but as soon as they immigrate over to the UK for example, people think they are unworthy and unintelligent just because of their skin colour or where they come from and so place them in low end jobs like cleaners, or cooks.

 As the people in the staff only room are around the lady who is diabetic, there is a knock on the door. At this point, the camera scopes in towards the main woman and the tension rises again as she slowly but firmly walks her way towards the door praying that it is one of the team and not the authority, the camera at this point is towards the key hole which represents a sense of should I open the door or not. There is a sense of relief as she opens the door, but then the tension and worrying rises again as she gets to learn that Ibrahim has been caught.

 The end of the scene shows the grieving of Ibrahim being gone and the worry of if they may get caught again. The racism in this clip is beyond anything and is shown through arresting or taking away immigration because of their skin colour, or how smart they are made out to be and in reality this would not be acceptable because most people these days have learnt to overcome racism and be equal within society.