Saturday 3 April 2021

Racism? No Racism Here

It is great to hear that the latest report on racism in the UK has found that there is no racism in the UK although it may come as quite a surprise to the many victims of racism in the UK.
In response to the Black Lives Matters protests last year, Boris Johnson instigated the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities to compile a report on inequality in Britain and it's findings along the lines of 'Move along, nothing to see here' has not gone down well with many people, including the people who were referenced in the report who have accused the report of misrepresenting them, cherry picking the evidence and including quotes from people who were not even consulted.
It didn't help that Boris Johnson's most senior black adviser for civil society and communities resigned due to the lack of action on the previous reports which found the opposite to the reports findings and found that race discrimination in the UK is very real and very much still ongoing.
The report states that the team found no evidence of 'institutional racism' and the term 'racism' had become a 'catch-all phrase' and probably the most controversial section which states that there should be a 'positive spin on slavery and empire when teaching history in schools', a view the right Wing Daily Mail trumpeted on its front page.
I guess if you if you ignore the UK’s racist prime minister, its institutional racism, the many other reports citing racism and the right wing media's long history of racist propaganda, then yes we can all agree that the UK is not institutionally racist as the blinkered, willfully ignorant, deludedly patriotic flag waving anti-woke warriors will now claim.

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