Thread by @genellealdred

Not that anyone is particularly waiting for my thoughts, but, you're going to get them on the #RaceReport and the #RaceCommission

I have quite a few and they may be a bit rambling and without a sense of order, but, that's the style of the report.

Where to begin??

The title. Language matters and that this commission and therefore report is called Race and Ethnic Disparities, rather than Race and Ethnic Minority Disparities, is a small point BUT it does set us up for what's to come.

Which is essentially a lot of divide and conquer.

The expectation that this report, coming in the wake of Black Lives Matter, was a chance to look at the racial disparities is unmet.

Therefore just as a starting point we cannot take this report seriously.

Data is fixed but you can use it to tell any story you want to tell.

In this case the data seems like it has been retrofit to tell the story that the commission wants to tell.

We see many of the report's participants hobby horses popping up time and again.

So we see little objectivity from the reading of the data, even though they ask us to be dispassionate about issues around race and equality. The passions of the participants shine through.

There are instances where data is cited, then contradictory data is cited and expanded.

"Overall percentage of White British people living in the 10% of most deprived neighbourhoods is 9.1%, which is disproportionately low and below several groups, most notably Pakistani (31.1%), Bangladeshi (19.3%), Mixed White and Black Caribbean (17.4%), Black African (15.6%)."

Then it goes on to say:

"There is a sense of stagnation about the fate and life chances of poorer White groups, which is less the case with ethnic minority groups."

In essence, the data says it's bad, but there are others suffering so move on... there is much more of this.

The language is interesting throughout.

They are right on board with this government's tactic of let's blame the public!

They talk about an era of 'participation' (what have we been doing if not participating in society since my grandparents arrived)

They speak about 'optimistic immigrants' as opposed to 'increasingly strident' protesters and 'idealistic young people'

All of it infantilisation. All. Of. It

They talk about no 'deliberate rigging'

Devil's advocacy there...

They praise 'new African communities' as doing better than the naughty, belligerent and uneducated Caribbeans.

All very colonial

Which leads me (literally zig zagging - too many thoughts) onto the new curriculum they imagine where they tell us we need to learn about the 'influence' of the British during the time of the empire, so we can stop being negative.

That is a very nice way of saying it.

They try to rebrand the term 'institutional racism' whilst saying it's us that's rebranded it. See what they did there. Even McPherson was very clear on what it meant, but apparently we should use it less, UNLESS, we can PROVE it.

Sir William Macpherson's definition of institutional racism for context 'The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin.

It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racial stereotyping.'

In my opinion this kind of behaviour is alive and very well in many institutions.

Ah social media is a problem apparently!

Because of hard core racists online we all think the world is more racist.

Next!

But, what they do frame in both online and institutional racism not being a big problem in their eyes is that it's one or two hardcore people.

More crimes are being reported to the police so they can't be institutionally racist.

Like Trump's: 'We're counting more cases' line.

Back to my title thinking and it's very clear that although it's meant to be about race, what is said it that everything APART from race is the problem.

Intersectionality says it's all important and means something.

Race + Class + Gender = very different outcomes

But them wanting to show us that race is the least important thing is quite telling about where they want this report to go, which is a big fat nowhere.

Privilege is indeed multifaceted, but, if you dismiss race you're missing a part of the pie.

I can be self-determined and hopeful and still some will not see me that way because of my skin colour and others will try to hold me back.

That's not all on me.

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

This societal contract of trust has to go two ways. If trust has been broken then you must go someway to prove you're trustworthy.

Too many tweets and as the Church Mothers would say:
"I'm coming down brethren, I'm coming down."

I wanted to show some of the sentences in this thing that show the complete whataboutery nature of this report.

"If not enough young Black people are getting the professional jobs they expected after graduating, then we need to examine the subjects they are studying and the careers advice they are receiving."

Nothing about the work ecosystem then!

A bit of doublespeak so we don't know which report is actually valid.

The reporting of hate crime figures, which is touched on more than once in the report, should, for example, make clear that recent increases are in incidents reported to the police...

...and more reliable national survey evidence suggests that actual hate crime incidents are falling.

Maybe it's more accurate to say they invalidate the report they don't agree with!

This one is just, I don't know....

Another example could be one in which most members of an institution are not personally prejudiced, but feel social pressure to act in such a manner towards the minority...

because they believe that most others are prejudiced and their workplace expects them to discriminate.

People think other people or their organisation might be racist, but of course not them! So, they do racist things against their will in the non-institutionally racist org...

HOW are these points connected?

The gravitational force of dominant narratives tends to point our attention in negative directions, such as racist abuse on social media, and away from positive ones, the fact, for example, that 40% of NHS consultants are from ethnic minorities.

I could go on about all the inconsistencies. Does the evidence from this show there is no institutional racism in the UK?

Er, no it doesn't.

So either bring a proper, well written report that speaks to the facts or stop wasting everyone's time.

End

(for now)

#RaceReport

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