Politically motivated, inaccurate and lacking empathy: the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report

Published on 31 March 2021, the report of the UK-government appointed Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities has fuelled controversy, incredulity and indignation. In an open letter to the Prime Minister from organisations including the Runnymede Trust, Liberty, and Black Lives Matter UK, Johnson has been urged to withdraw the derided race disparity report on the grounds that the report “whitewashes” daily challenges faced by minority communities. 

What does the race disparity report say?

The report stresses the progress made in the UK levelling disparities between the white majority population and some black and minority ethnic communities. It argues that ‘most of the disparities’ examined ‘which some attribute to racial discrimination, often do not have their origins in racism.’ The commission argues that factors such as geography, social class, culture, religion, and family circumstances play a much larger role in explaining ongoing social, economic and educational disparities than barriers presented by institutional or structural racism and the legacies of historic racism and prejudice.

‘When I first heard about the report my first thought was it has pushed [the fight against] racism back 20 years or more.’ - Doreen Lawrence

With its conclusion that anti-racist movements over-emphasise the impact of race and racism on the disparities in outcomes for members of black and minority ethnic communities, it is unsurprising that the report has faced sustained criticism over the past week. Doreen Lawrence, who has campaigned 18 years for justice after her son Stephen was murdered in a racist attack in South East London in 1993, says the report gives 'racists the green light'. 

Although the chair of the commission, Tony Sewell, suggests that ‘the spirit of BLM was the original trigger for our report’, it downplays any potential for BLM to inform the debate and prompt consideration of what change remains necessary. Instead the report criticises the ‘idealism of those well-intentioned young people’ associated with BLM, and claims that they ignore the progress that has been made in addressing racism over past decades. Indeed, the report chastises those dwelling on the prevalence of racism in British society and its institutions, instead of ‘seizing the opportunities’ presented in an open and tolerant UK.

Steering away from the suggestion that white privilege exists, the report sets out recommendations which are aimed at ‘everyone who is disadvantaged, not just those from specific ethnic groups’. The report is also keen to explain away institutional racism, presenting evidence of institutional and systemic failures as though these are evidence of cultural deficits of particular groups. The shadow women and equalities secretary, Marsha De Cordova, said: ‘To downplay institutional racism in a pandemic where black, Asian and ethnic minority people have died disproportionately and are now twice as likely to be unemployed is an insult.’ This denial of race as a key factor which determines the life chances of black and Asian populations has also led Lord Simon Woolley to suggest that there is an underlying desire to change the narrative on race. This is born of a denial of any problem rather than from the desire to correct underlying issues.

BLM protests in Nottingham 2020

What were the processes behind the Commission, and were these overly politicised?

There was dismay when it was announced that the new Government commission on racial inequalities was to be set up by Munira Mirza. She has been outspoken in her criticism of other inquiries, including David Lammy’s report on inequalities in the judicial system, and has regularly denied the existence of institutional racism. She has also condemned anti-racism as fostering a ‘grievance culture.’

Johnson and Mirza have been accused of establishing a Commission that would produce ‘politically convenient’ findings in keeping with the Government’s agenda. 

The report tries to demonstrate that the UK has made sustained progress ‘and a degree of optimism is justified.’ But many, including academics cited in the report, argue that the commission has been politically motivated in its highly selective use of statistics and evidence, in its attempt to undermine the credibility of those who have campaigned for greater racial justice. 

In 2020, long before the publication of the report, the Coalition of Race Equality Organisations (CORE) said that it had misgivings based on the Government’s failure ‘to listen to our concerns about the Commission’s terms of reference, its make-up and Chair, or our calls to address the issues of structural and systemic racism.’ Since the report’s publication, the Director of the Runnymede Trust, Halima Begum has said ‘the Sewell commission demonstrates the extent to which the government that sponsored it and shaped its findings is utterly lacking in any empathy or understanding of the lived realities faced by Britain’s ethnic-minority communities today’.

How does the report reinforce racism and structural discrimination?

As opposed to responding with any urgency to calls for change from last summer’s BLM protests, this report reads as the latest attack within a  deep-rooted Culture War. In dampening the momentum which saw collaboration and coalitions between people of all colours and classes interested in seeing change last year, the report seems a deeply cynical response to polls that suggest that there is retrenchment and a hardening of attitudes that has materialised since the summer. It belittles the immense consequences of racialisation and racism for people of colour interacting with many of the country’s institutions including the education system. 

The report serves an elite intent on obscuring the extension of structural disadvantage on the basis of race and class without any real agenda for overcoming the impact of disadvantage on the grounds of either race or class. It offers some insight into a Government perhaps more intent on a tactic of sowing division between people as opposed to pursuing the goals of equity and social justice. 

But rather than be derailed by the self-congratulatory complacency of the report, we should use it as an urgent call to redouble our collective efforts to continue BLM’s work building coalitions between individuals, groups and organisations who want and see a need for real and sustained change.

Written by Amirkaur - Conscience Collective

BLM protests in Nottingham 2020