According to a newly published study by the Runnymede Trust, Who Cares about the White Working Class?, poverty is the biggest cause of discrimination against white working class people not race.

The report states “The white working classes are discriminated against on a range of different fronts, including their accent, their style, the food they eat, the clothes they wear, the social spaces they frequent, the post-code of their homes, possibly even their names. But they are not discriminated against because they are white,”.

The Guardian writes the report attacks middle class media commentators for simultaneously defending white working class interests against the false attack of politically correct multiculturalism whilst they simultaneously deride and ridicule the feckless and undeserving poor, who have squandered the opportunities offered by the welfare state.

The BBC’s The White Season and Channel 4’s Immigration-The Inconvenient Truth, come in for particular criticism. Of these programs the report says “The interests of the white working class are habitually pitched against those of minority ethnic groups and immigrants, while larger social and economic structures are left out of the debate altogether.”

Are the media really concerned with the white working class or are they just jumping on the scapegoating bandwagon?

Why do the media focus on race instead of class?