If you want to talk about something then you need to actually study it properly. If you don’t then you should shut up. I am thinking about the government’s report on race issued last week which has been seized on to say that racism isn’t that bad and young people should shut up and be grateful they don’t live in 1970.
The government were incredibly disingenuous releasing an 800-word summary of the report (that runs over 200 pages) the day before the report so that they could spin the direction of the conversation. The media, being the media, covered it and then when the whole report was released the news cycle had moved on.
The recommendations in the report are mostly good, though many are repeats of the over 300recommendations from reports on race that have not been implemented after many years (over 20 in some cases).
The report accepts that institutional racism exists still, despite the summary saying almost the opposite. It contorts itself to try and prove that it is not race but geography or class that is the issue – then ignoring why some ethnicities are overrepresented in those groups. It also does not make clear that levels of poverty (that they blame for levels of disparity) have soared under the last ten years of Conservative government and are forecast to keep rising.
It spends time rubbishing stop and search statistics in Dorset (where there were under 50 in the year that they had data for) and then does not dig into why the Metropolitan Police vastly overuse the power against people who are not white. Then the report, after concluding there are no problems with stop and search, makes recommendations to improve it.
It makes a point that there does not seem to be an issue in sentencing disparities – ignoring the fact that certain crimes (minor drug possession for example) where the Police make the choice of who to stop and who to let off with a warning. I will be writing a separate post about the Police.
It acknowledges that genetic differences between races are a fraction of the genetic differences between people but then skirts round why certain groups have been more affected by COVID.
It quotes many people who say they were never part of the process of writing the report, someone is lying.
In a report of horrible things maybe the worst is the attempt to change slavery into a positive Caribbean experience. Really? Learn about the third passage and what life was like on a sugar plantation.
It does say that things are better than they were. Big deal – if someone told you that your parents had an arm chopped off, but for you it is just a hand would you celebrate?
This is totally at odds with the people who the report is about have as a lived experience.
Ultimately the report is aimed at Conservative voters and white people and is trying to say that you should not feel any guilt about racism anymore. The Conservative party is worried how many young people protest now – not just BLM, but also XR and other issues that affect them. They want to try and gaslight those young people into thinking things are ok.
Oh – I have read the whole report and it is a bloody mess and I would be ashamed if my name was on it as it is so badly thought through and put together. The foreword and conclusions do not agree to the report and the recommendations. It is almost as if the conclusions were written by someone who had an agenda and the report and the evidence were irrelevant.
This song seems appropriate from the late, great Sam Cooke.
Five Miles Out 