Britain: “An Institutionally Racist Free Haven For Black People”
Image via Third Sector | Website
As society develops, the form racism takes changes. Gone are the days where racists tried to use science + religion to justify blatant racism (e.g the slave trade & the colonisation of Africa). Instead, black people are subject to psychological torture and belittlement. We are gaslit when we talk about the treatment we receive. Dismissed when we complain about being followed around a shop like a naughty child waiting to run off with stolen merchandise.
For matters of this magnitude, discussions around racism need to go beyond the name calling and individual prejudice faced. Our zeroed in focus on the individual prejudices that occur minimise the importance of how they develop on a systemic level.
From the treatment we receive in the medical field (or lack of) to the daily racist comments many of us have to face in the workplace. For example during this pandemic, media outlets have frequently publicised that Black people are most vulnerable to COVID-19. Easily leading you to assume that we are more genetically susceptible to the disease, when it’s simply racist bias and attitudes being manifested in the medical field. Alongside these biases, we are affected by poverty, poor housing, and health literacy. Statistics show that Black women are four times more likely to die during childbirth than white women.
This is one of the many harsh realities birthed out of institutional racism. A term originally coined in 1967 by (Trinidadian) civil rights activist Kwame Ture (formerly known as Stokely Carmichael). Institutional racism affects various parts of life: employment, housing, health, education, and treatment in the justice system.
Two weeks ago, a review by the Commission on Race and Ethnic disparities deemed the UK institutionally racist free. The report is a blatant slap in the face. A microaggression in itself. Dr Tony Sewell, chairman of the commission, argues that the report is not denying the existence of racism but rather stating there’s a lack of evidence “of actual institutional racism”.
It’s funny the evidence Tony Sewell couldn’t find for his report is all over google. Even closer, it’s in your local area, round the corner from you. You can see the lack of support in education, the lack of youth centres, the lack of adequate health facilities. The evidence of institutional racism is in your little sister’s classroom where she is 3.5 times more likely to be excluded than all other children whether or not she’s in primary, secondary or a special educational needs school. It’s in your little cousin's multiple stops and searches ; institutional racism (and nothing else) is why he is over 4x more likely to be arrested than his white counterpart. Your uncle's workplace where he is just as equipped for the job as his white co-workers yet he gets paid less. Institutional racism legally allows for us to be treated inferior to others in almost every aspect of life.
The rise in young black people missing only provides more evidence for Mr Sewell and his comrades. Five months ago when Blessing Olusegun was found dead on a beach at 6:20am, the outrage was frighteningly silent. For a case this eerily mysterious, the mainstream news did not run the story enough. I personally was only informed of her untimely passing from social media. The 21-year old, business student from Eltham, South London was on a week-long placement on the East Sussex coast when she was found murdered. A Sussex Police spokesman has reported that Blessing's death is “not suspicious at this stage”. More recently, the treatment shown towards the mother of now deceased teenager Richard Okorogheye is shameful. The attitude police officers and higher authorities have is obviously clear.
Richard’s mother, Evidence, was told by a police officer that if “you can’t find your son, how do you expect police officers to find your son for you?”. Her complaints and worries were completely dismissed. One police officer even suggested that Evidence should give her son some privacy as he is over 18 years old. Yet, only two days after 33 year-old Sarah Everard was reported missing, the police tweeted and nationally televised their concerns appealing for any news surrounding her disappearance. However, when handling Richards disappearance, the police took almost a week before they made a public appeal for his return.
The lack of empathy from these public workers who are supposed to protect the community is not unwavering or surprising. There is a consistent callous attitude towards Black lives that has been going on for generations. The UK has been embroiled in a 50-year old debate over the accuracy of the term ‘institutional racism’. This debate is intrinsically linked to Britain's historic denial of racism.
In 1981, after the Brixton riots, judge Leslie Scarman presented a report to Parliament encouraging citizen involvement in police policy making and more sensitivity from police officers in dealing with a new-found multi-racial community. While these happy-go-lucky comments were made by Scarman, he went on to strongly assert that "institutional racism does not exist in Britain”. Scarmans refusal to accept institutional racism is a reflection of Britain's post-colonial crisis. Almost two decades after Scarmans report, British High Court Judge William Macpherson published his enquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence concluding that institutional racism could easily be applied to Stephens' case. Macpherson admitted that institutional racism is strongly upheld by the refusal to acknowledge its existence.
The audacity in which our government handles such a matter is comical. No protests can amount to the fact that our lives do not matter in this white supremacist society. Government officials ignore our complaints. Teachers stamp on our dreams.
Too often, we excuse America for being worse. An attempt to make ourselves feel better about the covert racism we experience or us wanting to live life in denial. Essentially, the blame we collectively shift onto America is dangerous. We are making a scapegoat for the UK. We must acknowledge that the apple never falls far from the tree. Where Africa is the cradle of civilization, Britain is the mother of racism. So why expect this British government to publish a report on how they’re going to deal with institutional racism when they are too busy resting in their coffin of denial - too busy deeming it “unhelpful” (Met Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, July 2020) and rejecting the idea altogether?