Thread by @drmeenalviz

THREAD/

I've now read all 258 pages of the #RaceReport, so you don't have to.

It bats away issues of great significance and infantilizes those from ethnic minorities.

Here are my highlights/lowlights:

There are multiple bizarre attempts to underplay serious issues.

"Fear of hate crime among ethnic minorities is greater than its likelihood of occurring."

Well, yes. Just because you didn't get hit by a car on the way home doesn't mean you were wrong to look before you crossed.

On historical racism:

"We understand the idealism of these well-intentioned young people who have held on to, and amplified, this inter-generational mistrust."

"One highlight was Dizzee Rascal belting out his hit Bonkers."

I don't think that one black performer singing at the Olympics ended racism.

More on the Olympics (yes, we're still mad for London 2012):

"...there was a joyful expression of the contribution made by the Windrush Generation"

You mean, the same guys we deported? 🤔

There's a weird bit where the #RaceReport criticizes groups on focusing on "lived experiences" over "objective data."

This is the report's own lived experience and not representative of my objective data.

"There is no consensus on the meaning of fundamental words like 'racism' and 'discrimination.'"

"It is now possible for any act, including those intended to be well-meaning, to be classified as racist."

This is insulting to the point of its mere presence on the internet being a waste of our bandwidth speed.

There are repeated claims about the new generation being too sensitive to racism: "...stretching the definition of racism without objective data to support it."

What objective data would the #RaceReport accept? 🧐

"Why are black women 5x more likely to die in childbirth?"

This question is fundamental to our understanding of structural racism, and the #RaceReport dedicated a full three paragraphs to it.

It recommends "more research." 🤬

"More research needed" is the classic cop-out.

This reads like an op-ed rather than a balanced report:

"Most of us come from an older generation whose views were formed by growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. And our experience has taught us that you do not pass on the baton of progress by cleaving to a fatalistic account..."

CONCLUSION:

The 2021 #RaceReport is fatally flawed. Denying the existence of structural racism is to deny the lived experiences of millions.

Leaking headlines like "BRITAIN'S RACE REVOLUTION" in an institutionally racist tabloid tells us all credibility is shot.