By Victoria Mckeown-
Downing Street has released a progressive report on racism in the UK, in which the relative gains of accomplished black professionals are highlighted, and the achievement of ethnic minorities in British schools are noted.
The report led by education consultant, Tony Sewell (pictured), noted improvements in racial disparities in professional participation, and acknowledged the better performances in education of children from many ethnic minority backgrounds than their white counterparts.
The report said that the UK should be regarded as a model for other white-majority countries on race, as Downing Street called for the narrative to be changed, while acknowledging that more needed to be done to tackle racism in the UK.
The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities found social class and family structure was more of a contributory factor to outcomes in people’s lives.
While crediting ethnic minorities for doing better than their white counterparts in compulsory education,(primary and secondary, excluding private education), it highlighted black Carribeans as not performing as well.
Children from ethnic communities did as well or better than white pupils, the report said, but overt racism remained, particularly online.
This success in education has “transformed British society over the last 50 years into one offering far greater opportunities for all”, it said.
It added that diversity has increased in professions such as law and medicine, but said some communities continue to be “haunted” by historic racism, which is creating “deep mistrust” and could be a barrier to success.
The commission was set up after Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests across the country last summer triggered by the killing of George Floyd in the US conducted an analysis about race relations in the UK.
Post Racial Country
The commission’s report concluded that the UK is not yet a “post-racial country” – but its success in removing race-based disparity in education and, to a lesser extent, the economy, “should be regarded as a model for other white-majority countries”.
Tony Sewell, an education consultant and ex-charity boss who led the review, said while there was anecdotal evidence of racism, there was no proof that there was “institutional racism” in Britain.
“No-one denies and no-one is saying racism doesn’t exist”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“We found anecdotal evidence of this. However, evidence of actual institutional racism? No, that wasn’t there, we didn’t find that.”
Dr Sewell added that the term “institutional racism” is “sometimes wrongly applied” as a “sort of a catch-all phrase for micro-aggressions or acts of racial abuse”.
“In fact what we’ve done is we want to almost protect the term, we want to almost say that, look – what you have do is look at this thing in terms of the evidence, where there is robust assessment and evidence of it, then apply it, deep-seated racism in institutions, yes.”
He said creating a “successful multi-ethnic society is hard, and racial disparities exist wherever such a society is being forged.
“The commission believes that if these recommendations are implemented, it will give a further burst of momentum to the story of our country’s progress to a successful multi-ethnic and multicultural community – a beacon to the rest of Europe and the world.”
Let Down
Dr Halima Begum, chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, said she felt “deeply, massively let down” by the report, and that the government did not have the confidence of black and minority ethnic communities.
Asked for her view on the commission’s suggestion that the UK is not institutionally racist, she said: “Tell that to the black young mother who is four times more likely to die in childbirth than her young white neighbour, tell that to the 60% of NHS doctors and nurses who died from Covid and were black and ethnic minority workers.
“You can’t tell them that, because they are dead.
“Institutionally, we are still racist, and for a government-appointed commission to look into (institutional) racism, to deny its existence is deeply, deeply worrying.”
Disappointed: Halima Begum
She added: “We feel that if the best this government can do is come up with a style guide on BAME terminology, or what we should do about unconscious bias training, or extend a few school hours, then I’m afraid this government doesn’t carry the confidence of black and ethnic minority communities any longer, certainly not on race.”
Recommendations
The 264-page report makes 24 recommendations which include:
Extended school days to be phased in, starting with disadvantaged areas, to help pupils catch up on missed learning during the pandemic
Children from disadvantaged backgrounds should have access to better quality careers advice in schools, funded by university outreach programmes.
It said more research is needed to examine why pupils perform well in certain communities, so this can be replicated to help all children succeed.
The acronym BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) should no longer be used because differences between groups are as important as what they have in common
Organisations should stop funding unconscious bias training, with government and experts developing resources to help advance workplace equality
Matthew Ryder QC, the lawyer who represented the family of Stephen Lawrence and a former deputy mayor of London was less impressed with the report.
He pointed to a 2019 report by the University of Aberdeen which he said found that white working class boys with lower educational qualifications and a lower likelihood of going to university, still had higher employment rates and higher social mobility than those from minority ethnic backgrounds.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that this suggested “racism is in the system, and doesn’t suggest racism has been removed from the system”.
However, Ryder failed to point out the type of individuals in the report by University of Aberdeen from ethnic minority backgrounds who are apparently disadvantaged in employment than working class white boys with lower educational qualifications.
Unpublished (yet to be published)and evolving research by The Eye Of Media.Com reveals that hundreds of unqualified black youths in the UK choose a life of crime over search for employment. and will not take up certain jobs which their white counter parts will gladly take up.
Assessment of racial discrimination in terms of employment is best focused on qualified and educated individuals among ethnic minorities, instead of a blanket look at comparative employment rates between black and white unemployed groups.
Meanwhile, Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy said she wanted the report to recognise that “we’ve had report after report after report, but very little action has been taken”.
Exclusion
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “At a time when black Caribbean children are three-and-a-half more times likely to be excluded from school than their white counterparts, when black children are four times more likely to be arrested, we have got a problem and we’ve got to deal with it.
“We shouldn’t seek to downplay structural racism, we should seek to take it on and deal with it.
“I’m making a speech later today about what it means to be patriotic, it isn’t simply about waving a flag – although I’m very proud to do so . It’s about raising up the standards that we have for people in this country and giving people the ability to live large, rich, dignified, brilliant lives in this country.”
Change Of Narrative’
At the time of its launch, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that although there was much more to be done to tackle racism, he wanted to “change the narrative” to highlight stories of success among those from ethnic minority backgrounds and “stop a sense of victimisation and discrimination”.
Previous reports have been conducted on racism in the UK, but this is the first to focus on the positive achievements of sections of the ethnic minority community in the UK.
The Race Disparity Audit, published by then Prime Minister Theresa May in 2017, showed inequalities between ethnicities in educational attainment, health, employment and treatment by police and the courts.
However, most of the disparities in education were at higher levels of further education. Elite universities like Oxford and Cambridge Universities had been shown to be less likely to admit ethnic minorities with similar entry requirements.
The 2017 Lammy Review also found evidence of bias and discrimination against people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the justice system in England and Wales
Again in 2017, the McGregor-Smith Review of race in the workplace found people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds were still disadvantaged at work ,and faced lower employment rates than their white counterparts.
Those disadvantages evidence racism in the justice and employment system, but fails to acknowledge some of the positive and untold successes of many minority a=individuals and groups in both the educational and professional setting.
An independent review of the Windrush scandal, published in March, found the Home Office showed “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race was damning.
It calls for greater awareness of issues associated with race, which has to be said to be one of the positives in the report from Downing Street.