Representation of Etnicity - Hotel Babylon

As the group of smartly dressed men come into scene near the start of the clip there is a black man sat reading a newspaper. When they come in he looks up from his newspaper looking very concerned and scared about the group of men who have just arrived. This shows how the group of white men are the more powerful ethnic in this scene. When the lady at the desk needs a job doing she looks to the same black man to do it. This once again shows that the people of white ethnicity in this scene are the more powerful as she is giving the orders. When he is asked to do this he is confused and she says “Brain like a sieve”. This shows a lack of respect for the black man.

 Once the staff are aware that immigration have arrived there is a big rush for them to hide. There is one black man Ibrahim the cleaner who is going about his work with his headphones on so is unaware of the situation. This once again portrays that the people of black ethnicity in this clip are more clueless than those who are white. When the group of white men bump into Ibrahim he is scared and tries to run but he falls and is instantly caught by the group of white men showing that they are the stronger more powerful ethnicity.

Another way that there is a contrast shown between the ethnicity groups is that the group of white men are shown to be very heartless. They are there to do their job and they don’t care whose life’s they are ruining because they believe that they are a higher more important people than the immigrants. This is a contrast to the immigrants who all treat each other as one family. Although they all come from different ethnicity groups they stick together to give them all the best chance at life and treat all people equally. This is shown throughout the clip as the white people show no respect for any of the staff at the hotel whereas the hotel staff all look out for each other to make sure that they are safe and show equal respect to everyone in the scene.

 The white lady on the reception has the same attitude as the group of immigration officers. Once Ibrahim has been taken out of the hotel she doesn’t show any remorse for any of the immigrant workers, she is just concerned about the business and customers to the hotel. The way she talks about the workers shows very little respect for them showing that she believes as she is white she is in the more powerful ethnicity group.