British race relations thinking includes the assumptions that the black-white divide is the decisive determinant of the sociology of each of the non-white groups, who consequently have a worse socio-economic profile than whites, and that the remedy lies in political action. The Rushdie affair and the retreat from the concept of Black are referred to as counter-examples to these assumptions and it is argued that there are indications of a socio-economic mobility amongst Indians which, if true, challenge assumptions about the link between discrimination and disadvantage, and about the ends and means of racial equality.