I recently drafted the Watford Liberal Democrat Statement on the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report.
It’s sad that it still needs to be said that racism is bad, racism exists, and it is the moral duty of those with power to take action to end racism.
The Government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities missed the opportunity to make a clear, bold statement on the state of race equality in this country, to expose the real issues and to make recommendations that would address them in a decisive and comprehensive manner.
Racism in the UK in 2021
The evidence and impact of racism in the UK is overwhelming - ethnic minority communities are at a disadvantage in almost all sectors of society:
In education, the difference in attainment between white working-class children and black Caribbean (British) heritage children is negligible. However, after leaving school, white working-class children are significantly more likely to be taken on into work and will likely earn more while in work.
Black Caribbean and mixed-race students are three times more likely to be expelled from school, when found to have committed similar offences to white students.
In healthcare, black women in the UK have a mortality rate which is five times higher than the UK average and have an infant mortality rate which is twice that of the UK average.
In the justice system, black men are nine times more likely to be stopped and searched. Young black people (under 16s) are more likely to be given a criminal record for the same crimes as white children.
Also overlooked are the disproportionate impacts of Covid on black communities, and the hostile environment which deported the Windrush generation who came to our country to help us rebuild after the war.
This is especially significant to me, as I am a child of the Windrush Generation. My father was born in Barbados when it was still a British colony. He moved to the UK and served our country as a Commando in the British Armed Forces. The hostile environment – where the government instructed it’s agents to assume that people exactly like my father aren’t British unless they can prove it through a convoluted and extensive process – is outrageous and should be considered a national embarrassment.
All Lives Matter
This report has echoes of the expression that because “All Lives Matter” we don’t need to say that “Black Lives Matter”. Do all lives matter? Yes. Clearly. 100%. As a Liberal Democrat I absolutely believe in equality.
The problem is not the principle that all lives matter. The problem is that we don’t treat all lives as if they mattered equally. The sad truth is that black lives in the UK are not treated as if they have equal worth. And therein lies the problem with the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report – it refuses to acknowledge the lived reality for many people in the UK.
Whilst some of recommendations made in the report are helpful, they fall far short of what could have been achieved.
While I am deeply disappointed in our government, I am not surprised given that our Prime Minster literally called Black People “piccaninnies with watermelon smiles”.
It’s sad that it needs to be repeated: racism is bad, racism exists, and it is the duty of those with power to take action to end racism.