Racism in Britain

Hasan Suroor

THE test of our sincerity as law makers is not how well we can express sympathy (with victims of racism)... but to make sure this type of thing never happens in our country again."

That was Tony Blair in 1999 arguing that simply tut-tutting about racism was not enough; the government needed to get off its haunches and do something about it. Yet, 18 years later, we still only hear mea culpas but little by way of practical solutions while racial discrimination continues to blight the lives of millions of non-white Britons. The latest is the government’s damning race audit revealing a deeply entrenched racist mindset at the heart of Britain’s public institutions. It was commissioned by Theresa May in the first flush of her prime-ministership and has been hailed as an “unprecedented” official acknowledgement of racial disparities and “burning injustices” that ethnic minorities face in Britain.

But, for all the excitement around it, the report sounds like another Groundhog Day all over again. It offers no new insights and reveals nothing that was not already known. The term “audit” may not have been used before, but there’s no dearth of similar studies. Indeed, barely days before it came out, Operation Black Vote, an anti-racism campaign group, and The Guardian published a withering report on racial discrimination suffered by ethnic minority groups. Despite accounting for nearly 13 per cent of Britain’s population, barely three per cent were in any position of influence.

“In some sectors — the police, military, supreme court and security services as well as top consultancies and law firms — there were no non-white leaders at all,” it noted. As Omar Khan, director of Runnymede Trust, an anti-racist charity which itself has produced a number of similar reports, pointed out, “We have had decades of reports into the problem — many from the Runnymede Trust. The time for talking is now over, we must now move to debating solutions.” 

Data, no doubt, is important. And it's good to see a willingness to ask uncomfortable questions and acknowledge the problem. In my early days in Britain, I found all this a refreshing contrast from back home in India where the first political instinct in the face of a problem was (still is) to sweep it under the carpet and pretend that it doesn’t exist. But over the years, I’ve become more sceptical. All this flaunting of transparency — and handwringing seems more like an attempt to create the illusion of a government engaged in addressing the problem while actually doing little. Talking about racial disparities has become a substitute for real action. At best, gesture politics, and at worst bluffing: psyching race victims into believing that relief is coming while continuing to pursue policies that hurt them the most.

Particularly galling is the pretence that nobody knew what was going on until Theresa May so bravely commissioned this “unprecedented audit”. And it's specially rich of May to appear such a bleeding heart and so concerned about the effect of government policies on blacks, Asians and other vulnerable groups, considering she was Home Secretary for so many years and — as prominent black writer and comedian Ava Vadil pointed out — under her, the Home Office followed “some of the most racist policies.” Even as Prime Minister, she has done precious little beyond offering platitudes to inspire confidence in her ability to lead on the issue — more so at a time when she is so distracted by the Brexit chaos and is fighting for her own political survival. 

May has given no indication of what her government plans to do with the audit findings. There seems to be an assumption in Downing Street that now that the data is out in the open, public services have “nowhere to hide” and will be forced to act on it. Clearly, the government sees the audit as an end in itself with much being made of the fact that for the first time sector-wise data on racial disparities will now be available for anyone to access through a newly set up “Ethnicity Facts and Figures” website launched personally by the Prime Minister.

A good idea, no doubt, but critics are right to argue that there’s no point collecting data unless it is put to good use. People are saying, “No point telling us the findings. We want to know what’s being done.” 

“I recognise there is value in putting all of the data together in one portal. Yet what truly matters is what the government is going to do about the problems identified. This audit will be worthless unless it leads to action and new policies, pursued with determination and conviction,” said Labour MP and shadow minister for women and equalities Dawn Butler.

Amid all this, though, it would be churlish to not acknowledge the vast improvement in race relations compared to the 1970s and 1980s. Arguably, Britain is perhaps the most culturally diverse country in Europe today: the mayor of London is a Muslim, there's a fair sprinkling of high-profile brown and black faces in Parliament both on treasury and opposition benches, some of Britain’s most successful business people come from minority ethnic groups, especially Indians, and — unlike in India — nobody asks your religion and cares about the colour of your skin when renting or selling their home. New Labour, under Blair, famously declared that it was “cool” to be ethnic in Britain; chicken tikka masala was elevated to the status of Britain’s favourite “national dish”.

And, it was not all rhetoric. Some real effort went into challenging racist attitudes both through legal means and social pressure. This yielded mixed results. The upside was that any public display of racism became politically and socially unacceptable; even legitimate criticism of immigration came to be seen as a sign of racial prejudice. The downside was that racism went “underground”, and over the years, covert racism has grown, fuelled mostly by immigration and its impact on public services, jobs, and crucially, the country's cultural landscape. It is this hidden racism that underlies the audit’s findings, and like all things covert, it would be harder to tackle than dealing with more explicit forms of prejudice. The difficulty is compounded by a resurgent populist nationalism with its whiff of racism, some of which also lay behind the Brexit vote. So, in a sense, the real battle begins now. 

To end on a cheerful note, however, it seems Indian immigrants have managed to break through the glass ceiling and are among the most economically and educationally successful of all ethnic groups, according to the audit. 

Racism? What racism?

The writer is a London-based commentator