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People hold placards as they join a spontaneous Black Lives Matter march at Trafalgar Square to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and in support of the demonstrations in North America on May 31, 2020 in London, England.
Social media users have accused a UK race relations think tank of "promoting bigotry" after it warned that racism is "systemic" in England with ethnic minorities facing disparities in various areas, including education and health.
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.
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).
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".
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