Redefining 'whiteness' in multicultural London..

I had a conversation with a man in the week who said he was an ethnic minority.
He's white.
I'm paraphrasing here but he basically went on to say he understood the plight of ethnic minorities because he's an ethnic minority in his own area.
I asked him where he lived and he explained that he lives in a predominately Asian ... Bangladeshi area in East London

I wanted to ask him what made that area 'his own' but didn't want to agitate him.. I understood what he meant, but I also picked up an underlying resentment in what he said.. and how he said it.
In this context I feel I cannot accept his claim to ethnicminoritydom.
No.
Whilst he may feel like an 'ethnic minority' in a square mile, in reality, he resides in the 'dominant majority' section in the UK.. I'll be specific .. London.

He has no idea what 'ethnic minorities' have to deal with, and I was a bit disgusted at his desire to cry fowl play.. yet oddly intrigued.

He made me consider for a moment the dominant minority and the minority rule governments of Zimbabwe and South Africa..
Now that was some messed up stuff.. backed by the British Government ( but I don't want to stray down that road.. this evening)

There are parts of London where the white population do feel subjugated by 'culturally dominant minorities'.. but to be honest in those cases other minority groups are also often excluded alongside.. .and to be fair, it can be an issue.

Still, the use of the term ethnic minority remains a useful tool in the fight against racism, if only as a means of identification; and racism, is experienced far more by people from Black and Asian backgrounds...

In short, In London, a white man is not an ethnic minority. Nice try. but no.