In producing a website on an issue as political and emotive as race, I was aware of several dilemmas. These dilemmas were further highlighted in the feedback received on draft versions. It is the nature of the topic that clear resolutions are difficult (sometimes impossible), and I have had to make some choices between contradictory options and advice. My thinking about some of these choices is summarised below.

Audience

The intended audience is young people who do not live or go to school in areas which are ethnically mixed, so I am aiming to engage and inform a group which is mostly not from minority ethnic groups themselves. Young people who have personal daily experience of multicultural Britain may find the site interesting, but it is not intended to address the details and complexities of those experiences.

I hope that for users who are from minority ethnic communities, the site will provide some support in terms of points of view and familiar experiences. At different points in the website, there are opportunities for users to access the sites of organisations that can provide more direct support for people experiencing difficulties or discrimination in relation to 'race'.

What is the website trying to do?

Since there are many minority ethnic groups in the UK, each with different backgrounds and experiences, I made the decision to try to address some main themes and issues rather than every group's experience. I was also aware that differing experiences and histories do not just exist between ethnic groups but within them. Thus, the characters I have created really exist as vehicles for the issues not as 'representatives' of specific groups.

Which groups are present (and not present)

On educational grounds I made the decision that nine characters was the maximum feasible - more would be confusing to the user. I created three south Asian characters, but left out Bangladeshis; there are two African-Caribbeans, but neither has roots in Jamaica and there is no mention of Indo-Caribbeans; I chose to have a Jewish boy but of northern European refugee descent - there are many Jews of different roots. The Welsh character also has an African connection, but there are no African characters and no Celtic Scot (though the Jewish boy feels Scottish, he says). Other groups which on numerical grounds might have been included are Travellers, the Irish, east African Asians, the Vietnamese, Cypriots, and refugees of many different nationalities.

I am, however, committed to developing the site and a priority will be extending the 'cast' in some way to address the most significant absences, perhaps by alternating existing characters with new ones or via a visit to another town, (and then there's Eurokid...).

Stereotyping

Having only nine characters makes oversimplification and stereotyping a constant risk. I have tried to avoid this by building in details which make the characters individuals, and illustrating some of the tensions and negotiations within their British identities: Balvinder, a Sikh girl, follows her faith but once cut her hair; Tzu Lee, a Chinese girl, wants to be a model against her family's wishes; David, a Jewish boy, is good friends with Mumtaz, a Muslim girl; Megan, a Welsh girl, is unsure about her African heritage.

At the same time, there are some contradictions in the decisions to use, or not use, statistical research to inform the characterisations whilst trying to avoid stereotyping. For example, one Chinese character can't 'represent' all British Chinese people. Research shows that until recently the majority have worked in the restaurant trade, yet it could be seen as stereotyping to have Tzu Lee's family in such work. Similarly, evidence shows that Chinese young people are highly successful at getting into Oxford and Cambridge but to portray Tzu Lee aiming for this would also, arguably, be stereotyping.

I could have attempted to subvert stereotypes in a more aggressive manner, by giving the characters no representative 'burden' at all (the African-Caribbean girl's mother could be a barrister, the Gujerati boy's father a road sweeper, the Welsh mixed parentage girl's father a soldier in the Household Cavalry) but this would have given an entirely untypical picture and failed to make some essential points about the social ramifications of racism.

Some feedback has queried the extent to which the characters from minority ethnic groups practice their respective religions in comparison with their majority white peers. This reflects research showing that religious observance is far higher amongst minority ethnic groups with roots in south Asia, Africa and the Caribbean than amongst the rest of the population. Nevertheless, I decided to make some characters vague about religious details because I wanted them to be characters rather than religious representatives. In reality not all young people would feel capable of giving a full account of all shades of opinion within their faith. Religion is also given some prominence because, (as with language) there is often confusion about factual details and both are often exploited in racist arguments.

Lastly, there was some concern about the characters doing anything which could be criticised (having relationships without their parents' consent, talking ungrammatically, being rude to adults, watching 18-rated films and so on), since it might be seen to be condoning the acts and/or reflect badly on a particular group. There is an inevitable tension between this and trying to create fictional but realistic individuals.

Development:

There is a facility on the site to send feedback. I hope the site will be on-line for some time and that it will be developed and improved. The feedback will be collated and reviewed regularly, and incorporated when appropriate.

A hard edge

There are several issues around how challenging and confrontational the site should be, and to what extent this conflicts with the objective of keeping the target audience on-line. This is an issue that has prompted the most contradictory feedback; some people thought the balance was absolutely right, and others thought it should be more challenging. Generally I've made my best guess, making some alterations, weighing up the material and stance I could take and the likely receptivity of our audience. You may think I've got it wrong, so let me know.

Racist sentiments and expressions on the site

A good deal of the site consists of dialogue between young people. If they are to be realistic, it is hard to avoid some expressions which are offensive, and to avoid them completely might 'sanitise' the site too much. The final edit got down to one use of the word 'nigger' (which has since been cut out) and two mentions of the word 'Paki' which are 'said' by Asian characters in a way which clearly conveys their dislike of the word.

Users' responses

Users may well have made different choices faced with these dilemmas, or indeed they may have seen others which I have missed. Please let me know if you have any comments, and the revised versions of the site will attempt to respond.

Chris Gaine (c.gaine@ucc.ac.uk)