Not all Skin folk are Kinfolk-The 2021 Race Report Whitewash
In 2020, Boris Johnson, in light of the success and militancy of BLM (Black Lives Matter), and his ears still ringing from being humiliated by Extinction Rebellion, made a grand announcement of a panel that would look into racism in the UK. But it was clear that; (1), In commissioning the director of the no10 Policy Unit executive Munira Mirza to put the Race and Ethnic Disparities Commission panel together, showed a lack of seriousness.
(2) The wide spread dismay, as archives revealed that based on her past record her narrative and choices for the panel were going to be right-wing POC (People of Colour). The Guardian noted on June 15th 2020 “Munira Mirza has doubted existence of institutional racism and criticised ‘culture of grievance’” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/dismay-over-adviser-chosen-set-up-uk-race-inequality-commission-munira-mirza Bizarrely, Munira Mirza stated in 2000, and Inews picked it up again on June 26th 2020 as to questioning whether the “N” word was really still offensive in the UK. https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/munira-mirza-boris-johnson-race-equality-commission-worse-slurs-n-word-457396
(3) Given that there have been no less than about 6 (?) race reports over the last decade with few of the recommendations implemented, it was more about hoping to kick the can down the road, rather than addressing institutional racism in the UK.
Before we go any further, lets be clear there IS institutional racism in the UK, as well as pockets of individual racism and prejudice. Those upon whom it affects are not wallowing in “victim culture”. It seems however that Boris Johnson/Munira Mirza have learnt something from their past bruising encounters with anti-racist organisations, such as BLM. By that I mean, this time round, in the Tory version of “Identity Politics”, they’ve now decided to get People of Colour (POC) conservatives in and outside of the Tory Party to get out the whitewash brush.
Since the report came out, a number of those whose name was on the document have complained that they were not actually consulted. Others have seen fit to resign from government anti-racist committees such as Sam Kasumu. Ian Watson and Jennifer Scott on April 3rd 2021, stated in a BBC report “Those close to Mr Kasumu say he resigned as Boris Johnson’s adviser for civil society and communities — with a remit to reach out to ethnic minority communities — in anticipation of the report hitting the media. He was already known to be unhappy with the direction the government was going in on race” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56578839
In a February 20th 2021, a blog post by Ray Campbell, an academic and lecturer a Teaching Fellow at Royal Holloway and an Associate Lecturer at Goldsmiths, makes a very sharp edged but accurate point about how in the past POC collaborated with their oppressors and of how this has not changed in the 21st century. “Today, I found this tweet from Katharine Burbalsingh, who has been collaborating with the Tories for more than a decade. Burbalsingh, who writes for the Daily Telegraph and Spiked Online, has offered her services to white supremacists in government and the media.
Here, she not only claims that anti-racists are “the real racists”, she also quote tweets the far-right TURNING POINT UK site.” (*Her tweet can be found in the link) https://buddyhell.wordpress.com/2021/02/20/collaborationists-an-age-old-problem
The race report was NEVER intended to address the problem of institutional racism. The true purpose was to solidify the narrative, first started by Spiked (an online right-wing media organisation, started by degenerated, former members of the RCP gone over to the dark side, from 2012 (?) That narrative was an open hostility to what it termed “multiculturalism”, and (in a manner that would have made Schrödinger proud) that racism had disappeared as a social force in the UK, and yet the real racists were anti-racists.
One irony is that those on the right have used the report to state that class and social mobility barriers are more important. Which might have been more credible had not so many of them been vitriolic against a young working class black footballer that wanted to make sure working class kids got free school meals in and out of term time.
Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Centre, noted in an article for Left Foot Forward on April 1st 2021” Highlighting class inequality is vitally important, provided it isn’t done cynically in order to obscure racial disadvantage and then forgotten after serving that purpose. The report does not augur well in this respect” https://leftfootforward.org/2021/04/the-race-report-uses-class-inequality-as-a-smokescreen-but-has-no-plan-to-fix-it
Writing for the left-wing organisation Counterfire, Sean Ledwith said on April 1st 2021 “Sewell and his acolytes have absurdly submitted a report denying the reality of institutional racism to a PM who has condemned Muslim women as looking like “bank robbers” and once described black people as “picaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”. They have consciously sought to downplay the impact of a scourge on British society, which is created by the very establishment they faithfully serve” https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/22205-sewell-report-racist-government-exonerates-itself-over-racism-counterblast
The race report panel has stated for example that “Put simply we no longer see a Britain where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities. The impediments and disparities do exist, they are varied and ironically very few of them are directly to do with racism.” Marc Wadsworth, co-founder of Grassroots Black Left, writing in the Morning Star April 5th 20201, was particularly scathing, stating that “Sewell’s views chime with conservative elements in the black community. That’s why the equally backward Trevor Phillips also used to have a column in the paper, before I was brought in to edit and revamp it” https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/countering-sewage-report
The Morning Star also reported in April that, “Two historians said they were “horrified” today to find their names included on a list of stakeholders thanked for giving evidence to the widely condemned report. Stephen Bourne, who has published books about the history of Britain’s black community, claims he was “manipulated” into being involved with the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities’ 258-page report” https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/academics-disavow-torys-divisive-race-report
Conclusion: There are those POC who it seems never left the plantation and far from going against (one of their supporters favourite phrases) “group think”, have been saying precisely what the forces of reaction want hear. They seriously seem to think that this in turn makes them daring, jaw jutting, iconoclasts, who “tell it, like it is”. They are grifting bull shitters, who’ve cancelled their gym membership, as it’s cheaper to get beach body ready by carrying water for reactionaries, racists and white supremacists.
Although individuals can be racist, it’s really not about them, rather it’s about (I’m in danger of repeating oneself here), challenging the state and social structure of inequality that see’s POC as being lesser.
POC were tired long before this report, on having to re-prove that racism is still real, despite the excuses we’ve been hearing since the mid 70’s of; “can’t you take a joke”, “if you don’t like it here, you can always leave”, “you’re imagining it. But if racism is not institutional and structural, then maybe those willing to grift for white supremacy can answer this;
· What are the chances that Richard Okorogheye, a 19-year-old black boy, with sickle cell anaemia and mental health problems would still be alive, if the police had not told his mum to look for him herself?
· In just over three months, over 20,000 young POC were stopped and searched in the Summer of 2020
· African Caribbean’s make up 3 per cent of the population but are 8 per cent of police deaths in custody
· Black women are three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women, also less likely to be given pain killers during birth.
· Sixty per cent of the deaths of doctors, nurses and other front-line health workers at the beginning of the pandemic were of black people.
· The Prevent programme, Windrush Scandal, and the 2014 “Go Home” vans sent out by the then Home Secretary, Theresa May
Below is a link to “Black Woman’s Hour”, an hour-long programme on Youtube that has two WOC presenting and leading the discussions on issues that affect our community. They tear into, on one of their programmes the idea that having POC in positions of power is always progressive, especially if they are also right wing and Tories. But they and their guests also pull to pieces, in the latest show, the whole premise of this Race Report whitewash. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fplqalqH53M
When Martin Luther King, said in his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech about (and let’s face it, it’s probably the only bit right wingers know, as they like to quote it, as some sort of “gotcha”), “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” The context was that he envisioned this happening in a post-racial world, grifters and shucksters like Calvin, Tony, Kemi, Pritti, Trevor, etc. ensure we’re still far away from the “promised land”
