In its new report on race equality, Runnymede Trust said legislation, institutional practices and societal customs continue to harm ethnic groups - who are "consistently more likely to live in poverty, to be in low-paid precarious work and to die of Covid-19."
Noting that these inequities are "sustained across the areas of health, housing, criminal justice system, education, employment, immigration and political participation," the group said the situation has "worsened" since the UK's last periodic report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination five years ago.
Comment: Inequalities are not necessarily the result of racism. But simple minds crave simple answers to complex problems.
Over that period, the report contends, the UK government has "failed to address" the issue and "is in breach" of its obligations under the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
Comment: Racial discrimination may not have much, if anything, to do with it. These are the kind of people who still believe the "wage gap" is a result of sexism.
The report, compiled by the Runnymede Trust in consultation with over 150 civil society organisations, claims that the government's approach to issues of equality will "fail to improve these outcomes for BME (black and minority ethnic) communities and may in fact worsen them".
It said this approach was exemplified by the government's controversial 'Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities' (CRED) report released earlier this year. The document concluded that the UK was not "deliberately rigged" against ethnic minorities and cautioned against overstating the problem of "institutional racism".
Comment: Inequalities can exist and the above be true at the same time.
Noting that this conclusion "misrepresents the scale and complexity of the issues and stands in stark contrast to the evidence" the trust received from civil society and race equality organisations, the Runnymede report accused the government of being "frustratingly slow" in implementing policies even in instances where "evidence of racism and discrimination in public institutions" has been highlighted.
Comment: Evidence of inequalities is not necessarily evidence of racism.
In recent years, a number of official reviews have made recommendations on such race-related issues as police custodial deaths, workplace discrimination, the treatment of BME individuals in the criminal justice system and how BME groups are treated by public service bodies.
The report also takes aim at several proposed laws that "pose a threat to the rights of BME groups", including the upcoming Electoral Integrity Bill, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, and the government's New Immigration Plan.
"There are very clear signs that things are much worse in certain areas than they were before, and also upcoming legislative choices that are being put forward have real implications in each of these areas in terms of the rights of BME groups," the report's lead author Alba Kapoor told the Daily Mail.
However, an unnamed government spokeswoman told the paper that the report "contains many errors and is too simplistic in saying that structural or systemic racism is driving all the disparities outlined in their report."
Stating that the CRED report recommendations would form the government's action plan to tackle inequalities, she said, "We have made significant progress and in fact have gone far beyond our commitments to the ICERD since our last report in 2015 and will provide an update in due course."
The report drew a mostly critical response from social media users with many people commenting that the trust "seems determined to stoke division in Britain". Others said the group needed the report to have a "convenient conclusion" in order to justify its continued "relevance".
However, some called the report timely given the tide of racial abuse directed at black footballers in the national team following its defeat in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday. One person said it was "time to listen".
Reader Comments
They're determined to say that Britain is racist and what better way than to attack the English footy team that literally everyone in the country was supporting? On Sunday 11th July EVERYBODY had nothing but support for the England team, saying how nice it was for the country coming together even though we lost. Fast forward to the next morning and we are a nation of white supremacists. Yet nobody can link BLM and their pathetic movement and the constant cries of racism in every single little thing over the pond to this sudden outcry over here. Its fucking shocking just how thick the masses have become and to keep buying this shit.
If I have to listen to Lewis bloody Hamilton tell me how hard his life has been again I'm going to lose my shit. The sad thing is that he believes it. If that's racism in action then I'm gutted no one is racist to me, cos from where I'm sitting it's looking pretty swell to be black at the moment.
A good example is the Parkland shooting. Everything flowed into the anti-gun agenda. The lone gunman, always lurking with his AR16, did it again. End of questions, but there are many. Then a short time later a "real" shooting occurs in Texas. Not part of the plan, and not part of the narrative.