January/February 2010

New year, old inequalities

By Words of Colour’s Creative Arts Director Paul Macey

The New Year started with a salutary reminder as to the fragility of life and the horrendous impact of poverty and discrimination. The truly awful events still unfolding in Haiti throw into sharp focus the true meaning of crisis and the fact that for all our efforts, the aid reaching the embattled island will do nothing to address the root causes of inequality.

Which is why the recent ‘race v class’ speech by Communities Secretary John Denham when launching a new Government document - Tackling Race Equality, was so very poignant.

Denham said that as Britain had changed immeasurably for the better over the past decade a new ‘more nuanced’ approach to the issue was now needed. He called for the ‘debate about race’ to move on to embrace the tackling of discrimination and inequality by taking account of the importance of social class in holding people back.

Denham claimed that it was no longer enough to make simple judgments or assumptions which equate 'race' with disadvantage, and he highlighted the way that many pupils from Asian backgrounds were achieving in the education system while some of their white working class peers underachieved.

Few would disagree with Sir Herman Ouseley, former chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, when he said in response to Denham’s speech ‘that maintained socio-economic status and poverty affect people's chances in life regardless of race or ethnic background’.

However the fight for race equality has never ignored other forms of discrimination be it on the grounds of social class, gender, disability, sexuality, age or disability as we all have multiple identities which shape our lives. Denham is kidding himself if he thinks that being a ‘middle class achiever’ prevents people from BME communities from experiencing racism in the form of limited employment opportunities, racial harassment and over zealous policing.

He needs to take a closer look at his own profession to see the reality of this situation as there are only 15 non-white MPs in parliament which equates to 2.3 per cent of MPs, compared with the 8 per cent non-white population in the UK.

Evidence of deep rooted race discrimination is everywhere. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that ethnic minorities are more likely to live in low-income households while the Equal Opportunities Commission (now part of the Equality and Human Rights Commission) found that African Caribbean women are twice as likely to be unemployed as white British women, despite there being only a 10 per cent achievement gap between them at GCSE level.

Dawn Butler, one of only two black women MPs, recently made the point that the achievement of black boys continues to be undermined by low expectations on their part and on the part of teachers as well as a low estimation of their own abilities.

Of course Denham will argue that the government has introduced the Race Relations Amendments Act 2000, but how rigorously has it been implemented? Not much, particularly when one looks at the race discrimination still prevalent in our prisons, youth custody centres, mental health institutions, police service, health services and life chances. Institutional discrimination has not been effectively tackled; the causes remain untouched.

In fact the rise of the BNP and the discriminatory rhetoric and policies of the mainstream political parties, particularly with regards to immigration, indicates once more how fragile the so called ‘progress’ towards race equality really is.

BME people do not get better treatment over the white working class and there is a need to tackle both areas separately and together and as Ouseley said: ‘Marginalising an already mythical debate on race with a complacent message about a society now “comfortable with diversity” will only lead to further scapegoating of black and minority ethnic communities’.

Denham is making a play for the section of the white working class vote which has fallen into the BNP’s clutches. By connecting class with race discrimination in this way he is implicitly suggesting that race has taken unfair precedence over challenging class inequality. It would be interesting to see where he believes that has happened. He would be better served addressing the real causes of inequality which Labour lets pass, for example direct discrimination and pandering to big business.

As the images from Haiti fill our screens, it is well worth us remembering just how far there really is go in having an honest debate as to why little has really changed.

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