Description: The film opens with the intertitle ‘Several of the black groups and individuals invited to appear in this programme declined the offer’. The screen scrolls up to say, ‘Generally their reasons were: - It won’t change anything – it’s not our problem’.

The narrator, Trevor McDonald, tells us that Southwark has a black population of 40, 000, nearly 20% of its total population. The narration describes how ethnic minorities are concentrated in Peckham and East Dulwich while other areas such as Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and Dulwich Village remain almost exclusively white, described as "well-established close-knit communities". The centre of the borough is where black people are allocated housing and map visuals show this segregation.

The film interviews people from the borough who express their views about whether Southwark is racist. The narrator says racism is felt to exist but how it is perpetuated is much more difficult to identify. The narrator tells us that Southwark has set up a Race Equality Committee and a Race Unit. Graham Geddes from the council says that generally black people have worse service from the housing department. Getting a job is harder and unemployment is over 20%. A young Asian man says lower qualified people will get the job over “coloured” people.

Narration: "It’s at school that black and white people really get together for the first time". We see footage of young children at Brunswick Park School. Interview with Diana Kennedy, acting Headteacher at Brunswick Park Junior and Infants School who says that the school won’t tolerate it but out of school there is a lot of racism. The narrator tells us that the LEA thought the issue of racism in school so serious that it had to be looked at in every part of school life from textbooks to playtime. According to Diana Kennedy, for the most part children mix together without issue, and while occasionally there are "brushes" the issue is generally not about race although the language or insults used may be racial. Kennedy says that the school has got rid of texts that are racist and that they try to help children reflect on outdated and offensive language. Another teacher talks about how they try to encourage respect for different ethnicities. In many London schools there are no black teachers so anti-racist teaching is carried out mainly by white teachers. Over footage of Brunswick Park School children singing, the narration reflects that "if racism is to be overcome attitudes must be changed dramatically" and poses the question of how these children will regard racism in the future.

The film then looks at discrimination in employment. Southwark’s Mayor during 1983-4 Sam King talks about unemployed and its emotional impact. We then hear from two Southwark residents about the issue of employment, including a south asian man who explains that he considered becoming a lawyer but was discouraged by being told that most people would have a racial bias towards white lawyers. Presented as an employment success story, we meet Margery Francis and Carol Bright, black women founders the Capital News Agency - operating out of Bright's front room and supported by Southwark council. One of the women explains how as journalists they have a different perspective to 'run of the mill journalists' in Fleet Street.

The film then explores why, despite being an 'equal opportunities employer' Southwark is accused by many of being discriminatory. Sid Hercules, Southwark Council for Community Relations says there is a long way to go and Southwark’s Unemployment and Housing policies will have to be looked at. Graham Geddes says most people within local government don’t see themselves as racist and don’t believe the institution is racist but the council’s equal opportunities and employment policies show a lack of development.

The film then looks at housing. The narrator says that no council can achieve miracles overnight, meanwhile community grievances grow. Southwark controls nearly 70% of all properties in the borough so it’s in a unique position to influence where people live. Nearly 1/3 of its properties are classified as 'hard to let' and these are concentrated in Peckham and East Dulwich, areas with large ethnic minority communities.

The film visits North Peckham Estate, which has 1010 flats and 30% of the tenants are black. The council controls housing allocations and the film tells us that many black people feel that there is a council policy of putting members of ethnic groups in unpopular, rundown estates.

Tony Ritchie, leader of the council, strongly asserts that there is no deliberate policy of discrimination but admits there are problems in the council’s allocations policy, suggesting that it places too much weighting on residential qualification and not enough on housing need. Councillor Aubyn Graham believes there is a deeper problem, suggesting that black people feel that they have to take bad housing because they know they are not going to be offered anything else.

Southwark’s Director of Housing John O’Brien said there are 18 – 20,000 properties classified as 'hard to let'; some will be given to “coloured people” but the council has no "ethnic records". Aubyn Graham says that the evidence of discrimination in housing policy is clear to see in how obviously segregated the borough is and that "you don’t need figures". O’Brien admits that council workers could theoretical discriminate on the basis of the housing applicant's name, but states that he does not believe that this happens. The narrator tells us that The Commission for Racial Equality on Housing in Hackney came to the conclusion that the borough's "ethnic population" gets put in the worse housing, "conclusions that have now been generally accepted as true for all London boroughs".

The film then discusses how different diaspora populations in Southwark maintain their languages and cultural traditions. We see footage of different cultural events as well as an English language class. According to the narration "perhaps the strongest and most resilient ethnic group in this country are the Asians, for them the retention of culture in Britain is vital". One young Pakistani woman says, "We are more Pakistani than we are English [...] we want to learn about our culture and to share it with the English people".

The narrator says that Afro-Caribbean traditions are close to British ones but the community experiences rejection by white society, and states that this leads to the formation of black only groups that need both money and premises from the council. The film interviews members of a black social group called Unity based on Peckham High Street which lacks funding.

The narration speaks about the "proliferation of similar groups" which it suggests speaks to the "alienation" of minority communities. Southwark has a network of these organisations which function as a "second level of social services": "Some have funding from the GLC or Southwark: nearly all of them are run by volunteers and run on a shoestring". The film meets the head of one group is the Southwark, the Muslim Women’s Association (MWA) which meets in a former school (Warwick Park School, Choumert Road Annexe). She speaks about the need for this group, as the council fails to meet the needs of its users.

The head of Southwark’s Race Equality Committee says that the council should give ethnic minorities equal share of facilities and that it is trying to redress the imbalance. The narration speaks about how the Committee has given grants and appointed race equality advisors in the housing, employment and social services departments to advise department heads on the best ways to satisfy the needs of ethnic minorities, but suggests that this is just "scratching the surface". Graham Geddes says that overt racism within the council is rare, but the problem is finding ways of addressing the more "insidious" forms of racism which result in the way services are distributed.

The narrator sums up by saying some people feel that Southwark is wasting its time, while others in community believe "you have to start somewhere". Final thoughts from several film contributors.