Make Bradford British - Maura

14 February 2012

Former Magistrate Maura, 66, was born and raised in Northern Ireland. Now grandmother of four she has spent the past 40 years living in one of Bradford's wealthiest and whitest suburbs. "One of the most important values that Britain has to give the world is its tolerance and I think we should be intolerant of intolerance." she says.

 

Why did you decide to take part in the series?
Firstly, they found my name on a website - I helped to run a campaign to stop a huge Tesco being built in Ilkley [we lost!] so when the programme makers approached me, I just assumed it was about Tesco. It wasn't until a couple of the researchers arrived at the house that I discovered that the subject was race. I grew up in a family where we read books, newspapers and watched/listened to what was happening in the world.  My father was adamant that any form of racism was abhorrent.   We were always very interested in the South African question and loathed apartheid.   I get very, very upset when I hear racist remarks.   I just thought this was an important programme to take part in, and also a chance to meet people I wouldn't normally meet.

 

Why is Bradford segregated?
What I discovered when I went to stay with Mohammed in Keighley? Bradford was that their community likes to live near each other because of mutual support.  They look after their elderly people, and neighbouring families who are in distress, in their own community.  Our history has led to a different outcome.  During the industrial revolution here people had to leave their rural way of life and travel to the cities to find work.  This broke up communities and society became more fragmented.  Many, many people travel to work and to get work.  For example it's very common for your kids now to head to London to get jobs.   I think if you were a foreigner coming to a strange place, you'd want to be near people who are like yourself, particularly if you felt different and lonely.  The Irish did that - I'm Irish - when they came to London and Liverpool and places like that.

 

What did people in your community think about you doing this?
They thought it was quite brave. My family thinks it's an important thing to do, an important statement to make.   Just because you're white, middle class, live in a nice house, in a nice town, (which is overwhelmingly white) that you are a racist. These are the assumptions that some people might make. But all of my friends would absolutely loathe and detest the idea of accepting racist remarks.

 

Was the project what you expected?
It was much, much more difficult than I expected.  It was small things - the lack of organisation in the Channel 4 house, the fact that we all had to run it ourselves.  I'm a bit of a ‘hausfrau'!   Even though I'm a feminist, I'm still a homemaker - and I found it really difficult when the kitchen was in a mess and all that sort of thing. You'd try to cook a meal and not be sure who would or wouldn't turn up.   Our diet was terrible - we never made it to a real supermarket, we were just grabbing bits and pieces from the convenience store across the road.   We were much busier than we'd expected.   Also, when I went to Mohammed's house, because he was a bloke, and because his wife didn't speak English, the whole guest bit was a bit more difficult to negotiate. Whereas I would say "Would you like some laundry done? Here are your towels. This is where the bathroom is..." and so on, a bloke wouldn't even think of that. I felt that was tricky, to begin with. But Jasmine and Maria were so gorgeous to me, and so kind and loving, that I had to get over it, really.

 

Do you feel like you were fairly represented in the programme?
Yes I do, yes.

 

What were the high and the low points of the whole project, for you?
I suppose the high points were meeting all the people. I felt like I was learning something new every single minute, and I love learning new things and having new experiences. When you're 66, you can't climb Kilimanjaro - well, I can't - but I can have different kinds of adventure. I felt like I was having an adventure. That was great. The low point was when Mohammed left. I was so disappointed. I felt such a failure.

 

What do you think you learned from the project?
I learned how different we all were, yet how exciting the differences were. Sabbi and I are from totally different generations and backgrounds, but we had so many things in common, like a love of English literature, we love kids and so on. I would never have thought that we'd have clicked like that.

 

What do you think it means to be British?
It means that I am part of a country whose values I mostly approve of, and if there are some aspects I don't like, I know that there are systems I can use to challenge them.. I feel that here, I would be free to try to change things if I wanted to.