2025: A Vision for Race
Equality in Britain
Authors: Mr Lee Jasper and Ms Zita Holbourne
National Co-Chairs Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC)
UK
A
strategy paper, setting out a strategic framework focused on the goal of
substantive reduction of racial disproportionality and inequality in the United
Kingdom.
Background
BARAC UK [1] was
established as a social movement and campaigning organisation in 2010 after the
General Election of that year, in direct response to the anticipated politics
of austerity and the likely disproportionate impact of cuts on black workers,
service users, and deprived communities. We believed that the planned austerity
cuts would inflame and exacerbate racism, poverty and social-economic injustice
faced by black and migrant communities.
We use the term black in its inclusive and widest political
sense, including all non-white ethnic minority communities living in the United
Kingdom.
Our core belief is, as research has shown, racial disparities on
socio-Reconomic indices expand dramatically during economic recession.[2]
We believe that the combination of the 2008 global economic
crisis, the pursuit of ideological austerity and the decision to leave the
European Union have combined into a perfect storm hugely amplifying and aggravating
racism in Britain.
We believe that these factors have made the vision of a
fair and just Britain, a nation that is a free and equal society for all its
citizens, increasingly remote as rates of racial socio-economic inequality,
religious and racist attacks, alongside xenophobic hate crimes, continue to
rise.
We note with both alarm and extreme concern the publication
of the Equality and Human Right Commission’s recent tri-annual report “Healing a divided Britain: the need for a
comprehensive race equality strategy’. The report called for the
introduction of an urgent and immediate Race Equality Scheme, noting the
widespread and growing rate of racial inequality across the United Kingdom.
The Chair of the Commission, [3]Mr
David Isaac warned in his foreword to the report that, “widespread racial
inequality risks further increasing racial tensions".
We agree and support the Commission’s call for Government
to adopt a "comprehensive race equality strategy".
Further we believe, as stated in a recent published report,
assessing the state of racism in the UK, the United Nations Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) [4]
stated that protracted economic decline in Britain has led to the targeting of
popular scapegoats, ramping up racism for short-term political gain, led by
sections of the UK’s right-wing media alongside some irresponsible British
politicians.
This traditional political scapegoating is being used as a
means of popular distraction; diverting attention from the real authors, and
those primarily responsible for our current economic decline, the banks,
financial service institutions and parliament itself.
We believe that in the current economic and political
context, we will continue to see the growth of racism and religious hatred in
many towns and cities across the UK, an increase as highlighted in the Equality
and Human Rights Commission’s most recent report.
Britain’s ethnic communities continue to grow in size and
the palpable and continued failure of Government to tackle racism and religious
hatred, we believe. invites the development of European style democratically
elected fascism, in an increasingly racially hostile, post Brexit Britain as
exemplified by the success of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in
pandering to racist sentiment and of and the election in growing numbers of a
range of extreme right-wing parties [5]
across the European Union.
Things
are getting worse
A report “A
Portrait of Modern Britain” [6] released by the UK think tank, Policy Exchange, a centre-right research
institute based in London, identified significant population growth of some
ethnic communities. The authors of the study looked at the UK’s five largest
distinct ethnic groups including Pakistani, Black African, Black Caribbean,
Bangladeshi and Indian, their findings found that some of these groups
accounted for as much as 80 percent of the UK’s population growth with Black
Africans being the fastest growing group and White and Black Caribbean groups
the slowest.
We believe that we must urgently address the growth of systemic
racism, race and religious hatred and inequality, if we are to avoid a
dystopian future, leading major cities in United Kingdom, to follow the
trajectory of many deeply troubled, major US cities over the last 30 years,
resulting in huge racial tensions, endemic poverty, increased crime rates, huge
damage to property and potentially loss of life.
This strategy paper seeks to focus political discussions
within mainstream political parties, trade unions, civil society and
non-governmental organisations on the goal of achieving substantive reductions
in race inequalities and social injustice faced by black and ethnic minority
communities in the United Kingdom.
We believe the Government’s Race Equality Strategy (RES)
approach should be bespoke, targeting local regional areas in particular
employment sectors, like the media, with specific and sector specific goals and
targets designed to tackle the problem where it is greatest.
Across the UK and its multicultural cities, there are huge
regional, ethnic variations in the particular experience of discrimination, the
extent of racial inequality experienced between ethnic groups themselves and
different regions, towns and cities. The
extent of racial inequalities experienced by individual ethnic communities
around the country, varies for each individual ethnic group and with strong
regional variations, any effective RES strategy will require local targets and
differing regional approaches.
Any attempt to seriously reduce substantive racial
inequality across the UK will need to target discrimination amongst the largest
employers. In order to achieve the kind of society that can be a beacon for
multiracial nations around the world, we must first tackle job discrimination
in the UK labour market and that means specifically targeted employment
legislation capable of achieving a representative workforce.
It is
also important that the demand for race equality by 2025 should be from civil
society campaigns in which individual institutions and organisations not only
sign up in support but also adopt their own race equality strategies in line
with the demands on government. It is extremely important that organisations,
institutions, businesses and faith groups all lead the demand for greater
effectiveness from government in tackling race equality by way of example. This
is an extraordinarily important aspect of this campaign.
Prolonged and sustained racial
inequalities are symptoms of profound economic and social exclusion. Racism,
discrimination, prejudice and bigotry all deny human potentiality and
negatively affect the lives of millions of Black, Asian and other non-white
minorities living in the UK.
The
strategy.
The
achievement of this important strategy relies on the success of two important
objectives;
1. The need to secure broad support and adoption of this
2025 strategy, across large sections of British society, including political
parties, trade unions, faith communities, business and civil society groups and
all race equality and ant -racist campaigning organisations.
2. The agreement of government on the development of a
realistic RES strategy and broad policy framework, developed in consultation
with black and ethnic minority communities and designed to help Britain secure
the achievement of genuine racial equality and improved social justice within a
decade. A radical plan that sets out bespoke targets within various sectors of
British society that focuses on the reduction of all major areas of substantive
racial inequality by 2025.
We hope that the obvious requirements demonstrated in this
paper of the urgent need to develop a broad policy consensus and agreement
across British civil society around the goal of substantively reducing racial
equality in Britain by 2025, will deliver majority and significant support
around a clear set of detailed campaign objectives and thereby increase our
chances of convincing government to engage in the consultation, development and
ultimately agreement of this important strategy.
What
we believe
We believe it is now absolutely critical for the future
economic, cultural and political success of post Brexit Britain, that where
racial and religious hatred and the wholly negative effects of
institutionalised racism, continue to blight the lives of many black and ethnic
minority citizens, that such discrimination is tackled head on.
What is now required, we believe, is a profound paradigm
shift of focus and approach in achieving a more equal society. It is absolutely
beyond doubt that the goal of a fair, just and equal society is receding into
the distance becoming a distant and increasingly unachievable goal.
In this post Brexit Britain context, tackling racism
becomes a matter of national interest. It is now vital that structural racism,
demonstrated and evidenced by a plethora of in-depth academic research, illuminating
profound social, race and ethnic inequality, is substantively reduced over the
next decade.
Failure to do so, will we believe, lead to growing and
increased ethnic, religious and racial tensions in a multiracial Britain, where
continued acute economic disadvantage and discrimination will lead to deep
social unrest, and increased tensions among Britain's ethnic communities and
ultimately civil disorder. Educated black and ethnic minority young people are
becoming increasingly impatient for access to social mobility and career
development opportunities.
We believe that a decade-long plan provides a realistic
framework and timescale for real and sustainable progress to be made.
We believe this requires the adoption of a clear and comprehensive,
ten-year RES, that outlines a series of proposals, targets and milestones, designed
to achieve substantive race equality within a finite period. Black British and
ethnic minority citizens must secure substantive commitments to race equality
in their lifetimes.
The consequences in not doing so will condemn future
generations of black and ethnic minority British citizens and the country as a
whole, to a grim, angry and uncertain future where racism, racial and religious
tensions, social discord and civil unrest all continue to rise.
This strategy paper presents a brief political and academic
analysis of where we are today in terms of racial and ethnic discrimination and
inequality, outlines key findings of academic statutory or community based
research, and suggests the development of a coherent and consensual approach to
making a once in a generation determined attempt to substantially reduce and/or
eliminate racial inequality.
What
the research tells us
Racism in 2016, is significantly worse today, than the crude
racism faced by migrant communities in the mid-50/60s. Whilst this generation
ended the horror of extreme racial violence and colour bar racism, the sad fact
is that their grandchildren today suffer lower levels of social mobility than
their parents, higher levels of unemployment and homelessness and yet are more
educationally qualified than their parents.
These facts are confirmed in an important and significant
report published in August 2016 by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The
Commission has analysed the state of race discrimination, inequality and
disadvantage in the UK.
Their report cites the huge rise in hate crimes,
racist abuse and violent attacks against migrants, Muslims and black people in
the aftermath of the EU referendum. The report also found significant growth in
rates of racial inequality and a widening of the life chances differentials
between white, black and ethnic minority citizens.
These results as very worrying and fundamentally
threaten Britain's social cohesion, economic prosperity, social solidarity in
very many multicultural cities and towns across the country.
This substantive research review, undertaken by the
Commission, focused on the areas of education, employment, housing and living
standards, health, criminal justice and civic participation.
The report follows a similar report published by the
Commission in 2010 entitled How Fair is
Britain? This report, also came to similarly
worrying conclusions as the Commission’s more recent review. We have seen no
effective policy or campaigning response to either of these reports, from
Government, trade unions, and campaigning groups or indeed from wider civil society.
The impression given is whilst racism remains a "concern", it does
not constitute a real political priority for many.
Since the publication of the Commission’s initial
report in 2010 yet another generation has grown up under the cloud of continued
racial and ethnic disadvantage.
The findings of both these important reports are an
indictment of the grand political failure of successive governments of all
parties, civil service administrations and wider civil society, in making real
progress in ensuring that the dream of Britain becoming country that affords
equality to all its citizens, becomes a reality within the lifetime of this
current generation.
Today Britain is commonly described as a meritocracy,
however we will argue that is no longer true and that Britain offers it’s
growing black and ethnic minority communities third class citizenship in what
is regarded the first-class democracy. Britain is an increasingly racial and
religious discriminatory society where the current generation of black and
ethnic minority citizens face more racism in terms of socio-economic exclusion
and lack of social mobility than that faced by their parents, a damning
indictment for any society.
We are not moving towards the goal of full race equality,
the goal is moving away from us, condemning millions of black and ethnic minority
citizens to continue to live under the long shadow of racism.
This report is not alone in identifying such gross
racial inequality.
The Runnymede Trust an independent race equality think
tank published its second annual report entitled "Ethnic
Inequalities In London: A Capital For All’[7] which captured the growth of racial inequality right across the capital.
Its findings were equally conclusive that "ethnic
inequalities are persistent and widespread, particularly in employment and
housing." Its findings identified the south London borough of Lambeth
as the most racially unequal and divided borough in London. This annual
snapshot of London also confirms that the gap between black and white Londoners
in terms of life chances, quality of life and opportunities is widening.
Runnymede’s report also found, as did the Commission’s
review, that black and ethnic minority pupils were out performing their white
counterparts, and yet suffered huge discrimination within the UK labour market.
This successful trend within black and ethnic communities of a growing and
confident, educated, young, black aspiring workforce, faced with systemic
racism within the labour market and the routine denial of opportunity, presents
the UK; both with a unique opportunity and a real and present threat.
Black and ethnic minority young people; qualified,
ambitious and ready to work are finding themselves unemployed, on the streets,
unable to get a decent home to live in, unable to get a job commensurate with
their skills and education, and living in a society where they will find
themselves repeatedly racially profiled and harassed through discriminatory
application of police Stop and Search powers.
The
combination of widespread racial inequality, racism and discrimination means
our communities are both contained and under pressure, with no obvious social
mobility routes out of this incredibly hostile environment and no real access
to secure race equality and justice.
Where
do we go from here?
This paper sets out BARAC’s key concerns and seeks to build
public debate and political consensus on the urgent need for the development
and adoption of a comprehensive Government and civil society RES action plan
that identifies the goal of substantially reducing all areas of racial
inequality and disproportionality by the year 2025. A plan that should be
developed through, timely and ethical consultations with black and ethnic
minority communities, with a goal of developing a 10-year RES definitive plan
with annual targets and public reporting mechanisms.
We hope this paper’s recommendations will be considered by
all political parties, civil society organisations and community groups with a
view to formally supporting a statement, such as the draft produced below, by
way of example;
We wish
to live in a Britain that provides equality of opportunity and freedom from
race, religious and ethnic discrimination. Our ambition is for Britain to
become a modern multicultural democracy where all our citizens can live, thrive
and prosper, without the fear of racial or religious discrimination and bigotry.
We
call upon the UK Government to ensure ethical and formal consultation and
partnership with black and ethnic minority communities, organisations faith
groups and wider civil society in the development of a radical and fully
comprehensive Race Equality Strategy (RES) focused on the substantive reduction
and where possible, elimination of all substantive areas of racial inequality
and discrimination in the United Kingdom by the year 2025.
We
individually commit to leading by example by initiating the development of our
own public, comprehensive, national 10-year Race Equality Strategy (RES)
developed in partnership with black and minority communities. This will include
targets in employment and service delivery that work towards reducing current
levels of racial and ethnic underrepresentation and inequality and commit to
publishing an annual report, outlining our progress each year until the year
2025.
This BARAC UK strategy paper sets out some of the key
statistics demonstrating racial disadvantage, disparity and disproportionality
that affect black and ethnic minority communities within the UK. Effects of
racism are nuanced so not all communities experience the same effects in terms
of racism and racial inequality. Each distinct black and ethnic minority
community is defined by its particular historical, political and cultural
experience that ensures a range of differential outcomes for many distinct
British ethnic communities.
Notwithstanding this important distinction, it is
nevertheless true to say that the major negative effects of growing race and
ethnic inequality and its impact, is demonstrably greatest upon Britain's
African, African Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, and of late
we have seen the terrible xenophobia directed towards Eastern European and in
particular Polish communities.
Any race equality strategy would need to take account of
these real differentials in the lived experience of distinct ethnic communities.
That requires very specific targeting of individual groups and communities that
suffer the greatest disadvantage. This approach recognises the reality of
racial disadvantage as it impacts upon distinct ethnic groups and provides a
credible and coherent response to those in the greatest need. This moves away from
a broad "black and ethnic minority" categorisation and adopts
entirely specific ethnic targets focusing on specific disadvantage and
disproportionality, where such disadvantage clearly exists.
Current
initiatives
The Prime Minister recently announced her intention to
conduct a Race Equality Audit across
all Government Departments and public services in an effort to reveal
"difficult truths" about the extent of racism across and within the
public sector. This audit will highlight differences in outcomes for people of
different racial and ethnic backgrounds in areas of health, education,
childcare, welfare, employment, skills and criminal justice.
Whilst this is to be welcomed, it is vitally important that
the detailed remit of such an audit, the evaluation of the resources required
and the timescale for its delivery and completion are all agreed in partnership
with a broad range of credible black and ethnic minority organisations and
communities. A simple 1980s style race equality snapshot across government
cannot be, in and of itself, viewed as real and substantial progress. This has
to be much more than just a bean counting exercise.
Despite these concerns, this initiative is to be welcomed.
The real test will be the extent of public consultation and engagement with
black and minority communities. This audit must enjoy the confidence of our
communities and that will require genuine government and civil society
partnership in the development of the specific terms of reference that will
inform the work of this audit.
However, there remains a fundamental weakness in what is currently
being proposed by government. The reality is that discrimination in wider
society goes well beyond the realm of public services. If the UK private sector
is to be excluded, then a critical area where racism's social economic effects
are endemic will be ignored.
Failure to include discrimination in relation to goods and
services will result in a keyhole examination of racism in Britain rather than
a comprehensive full-scale enquiry. We must work together to make sure that the
remit for the planned audit is substantive and capable of tackling these issues
in a sustainable and effective way.
The
‘fire next time’
What we believe is required, is a Judge led public enquiry
on a similar scale to the 1967 United States, National Advisory Commission on
Civil Disorders also known as the Kerner Commission and was established to investigate the causes
of civil disorder that took place in the aftermath of the assassination of Dr
Martin Luther King.
We believe that as a consequence of austerity, heightened
levels of race and ethnic discrimination, disadvantage and inequality, civil
disorder is not just likely, it is inevitable. We believe there is a failure in
government to recognise the driving factors that led up to the civil
disturbances of 2011[8] and
that many of the issues that gave rise to those events have not just remained
unaddressed but have become substantially worse over the last five years.
By
establishing a much broader inquiry now, the country can save itself millions of
pounds in avoiding the huge costs that would be associated with yet another
outbreak of national civil disorder and riot damage. We believe that for all British citizens to flourish and for our
economy to prosper we must be better able to compete in an increasingly
globalised world.
Britain as a multicultural democracy must
utilise all the talents available to the nation in an effort to enhance social
cohesion and promote economic prosperity.
There is simply no need to wait for the ‘fire next time’
politicians, trade unions, civil society groups and campaigning organisations
need to all coalesce around and campaign for the establishment of a judge led
public enquiry and the production of a comprehensive race equality 10-year strategy.
2025 Racial
Equality Campaign
BARAC UK
2025 Race
Equality Campaign Draft Objectives
BARAC will work with others to develop a
project/campaign framework that has the potential of attracting wide spread
support whilst providing the necessary public pressure needed to reverse the
current trend of widening inequality and race discrimination.
Power concedes
nothing without demand.
The importance of establishing the issue
of race as a political and policy priority within both central and local
Government and wider civil society, requires a mass movement and a broad based
campaign, capable of keeping the issue high on the media and political agendas.
Key to achieving this important objective
is creating the broadest possible alliance of black and ethnic minority
organisations, trade unions, community and civil society groups and faith
communities.
The key aim
of the campaign is to;
Challenge
Government, business and wider civil society to substantially reduce persistent
racial inequality and disproportionality in both employment and service
delivery in addition to improving levels of ethnic representation in public
life by 2025.
The
2025 Race Equality Campaign will seek to encourage British society to adopt
the objective and goal of ending significant
racial inequalities within 10 years.
This will involve, clearly identifying
current rates of race inequality, disproportionality and ethnic under
representation through a base line Race Equality Audit (2017) and setting
challenging annual public targets for substantial reductions to be achieved by
2025.
The Campaign is designed to encourage a
broad range of institutions, businesses and organisations to support the
statement and sign up for the
2025 Race
Equality Challenge committing to working, within their
specialist sectors, toward the elimination and or reduction of major areas of
racial inequality, disproportionality and ethnic under-representation by 2025.
We have five initial developmental
objectives for further discussion;
a)
To publicly campaign for Government,
businesses, institutions, civil society organisations, faith groups and
individuals to accept and sign up to the 2025
Race Equality Campaign.
b)
To work with others in seeking to
significantly challenge, reduce and where possible eradicate all major areas of
racial inequality, disproportionality and ethnic under-representation in
Britain by 2025.
c)
To promote, campaign and advocate for
better public understanding of the reality and scale of racial inequalities,
disproportionate treatment and ethnic under-representation and its effects on
British society and economy.
d)
To highlight the financial cost to
Britain’s economy and prosperity of continued racial discrimination and
economic exclusion and injustice.
e)
To bring public pressure to bear on
governments, businesses and institutions to sign up to the campaign, reserving
the right to initiate social action where there is resistance to race equality.
Signing up
to the campaign.
Political parties, business and civil
society organisations from all sections of society, who agree with our stated
aims and objectives to join with us in helping Britain to become a vibrant,
multiracial democracy by 2025 are invited to sign up.
Sign up to 2025 Race Equality Challenge and commit to publish a five-year
Race Equality Strategy that sets out yearly targets for the reduction or
elimination of all areas of racial inequality, disproportionality in employment
and service delivery and targeted improvement of ethnic representation.
Commitment
to the publication of annual Race
Equality Audit reports identifying progress against annually agreed targets
aimed at reducing rates of race inequality, disproportionality and ethnic under
representation.
Help promote the campaign nationwide.
Support the
public launch of the campaign group which will take place on Saturday 15th of
January 2017 on the occasion of the birthday of Dr Martin Luther King.
Campaign
Structure
The 2025
Race Equality Campaign Group will be
the national co-ordinating group providing input and guidance to the
campaign. We expect this group to meet
no more than 4 times a year.
This group will be made up of specialist
organisations committed to tackling race inequality that will then be utilised
for their sector specific expertise.
BARAC UK will convene a national
campaign-planning group, that will help focus early negotiations with
government about the remit and resources needed to undertake a comprehensive
race equality audit across the UK.
If you are interested in becoming one of
the initial, founding signatories and supporters of this important campaign, contact:
BARAC UK
Email: barac.info@gmail.com
@baracuk
End.
[2] Economic scarcity alters the perception of race. Amy R. Krosch and David M. Amodio http://www.pnas.org/content/111/25/9079.abstract
[3] Equality and Human Rights
Commission
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/our-work/news/widespread-inequality-risks-increasing-race-tensions-warns-ehrc
[4]
United
Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racism. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/26/politicians-rise-hate-crimes-brexit-vote-un-committee
[7]
http://www.runnymedetrust.org/projects-and-publications/equality-and-integration/london-ethnic-inequalities.html
[8]
Reading
The Riots London School of Economics. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/46297/1/Reading%20the%20riots(published).pdf
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