Mumtaz: It's our first careers lesson tomorrow. D'ya know, my Dad says when he first came here people actually said to his face 'You can't have this job because I don't like your colour'. There was nothing he could do.

John: That's definitely out of order. There's no way you should have to take that. It's stupid saying someone's colour effects the way they do a job. They might be turning down someone who's really good.

Nat: I dunno about laws against prejudice. You can't stop it can you?

Mumtaz: I 'spose not, but why should people be allowed to get away with it? There's houses too. If you're racist about not letting someone have your house you can get reported to the race relations thingywhatsit...

Nat: I just can't imagine it - going somewhere for a job and being told to your face that only white people can have it.

Mumtaz: It's funny isn't it? I mean, today no-one would dare to say to me 'You can't work here because you're a girl', but they used to be able to just say what they liked....

Nat: Yeah, but we all get equal chances today ...not! I just think there's ways of doing it now. Like, if you write to people for a job and you have an Asian name they can say the job's gone, or if someone black comes in they can say there isn't a job any more. If it was happening to you, you wouldn't know, would you?

Mumtaz: Yeah, I know people who have gone for jobs the day the advert came out, and they were still told it had gone already.

Nat: Sometimes I don't know if I'm being paranoid.

Mumtaz: It's not about being paranoid, it's just that you don't know. It doesn't take many people to be prejudiced for you to start being suspicious. If you had loads of nose rings or something and all your friends were getting jobs when you weren't, you'd start to think people didn't like your rings.