Darcus Howe faces a threat to break his legs

My journey to find out the state of play between ethnic groups has begun. I am returning to areas of the UK that I visited as a campaigning journalist 20 to 25 years ago and have just spent what seemed a long week in a few small towns draped around Birmingham. In years gone by, the foundries, copperworks and engineering works swallowed large inflows of Punjabi and Caribbean immigrants. The Pakistanis had left the agricultural life because the small plots of land in the Punjab could no longer support their families. The West Indians were escaping endemic unemployment on their home islands.

These new workers were involved in a cultural revolution: Pakistanis were meeting West Indians for the first time. They lived in the same rooming houses, worked the same shifts, shared the same cuisine. They battled against unsympathetic union representatives, racial antics in the communities where they lived and hostile politicians. "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour" was reported to be the unofficial slogan of one successful Tory in the 1964 election.

Despite all this, the new citizens, some of whom could not speak English, eventually achieved an ease of presence. Then the basis of their whole existence was suddenly undermined. The factories that had helped to establish them disappeared, leaving a new generation shorn of work opportunities. The Pakistani and West Indian communities drifted apart - and I have found them at each other's throats, literally.

In these small towns, young Pakistanis travel around in cars flying the Pakistani flag. They claim to be inspired by Islam and ready to demolish any force that stands in their way. And all of this is delivered in street language pioneered by West Indians. The Pakistanis boast of being "on top now", and West Indians are the new targets in these racial attacks.

I went to interview a group of them and they threatened to break my legs, demanding that I stay put when I wanted to leave. In this area, they can match the West Indians physically by sheer force of numbers. Factory work placed their parents at the heart of the modern world, but for this generation there is nothing but religion-inspired violence.

The religion does not appear sincere. It seems as if it is used only to mobilise people and to excite their passions. It is a frightening prospect.