Race disgrace?

At the door of their BelfastThe capital of Northern Ireland. house, Cal Ellis turns on his mother. "You have no idea what I go through day after day after day," the mixed-race teenager tells Grace, a white police officer, before running through some of the things routinely said to him: "'Where are you from? No, I mean where are you really from? It's so weird that you have a bit of Belfast accent... Can I search your bag?'"

This is a scene from the new BBC drama Blue Lights. For many people living in Britain it is all too close to their own experience.

Academics from three universities¹ have just published the results of a survey about racism and ethnic inequality. For it they interviewed over 14,000 people from 21 ethnic groups. Many of their findings are deeply shocking.

Nearly one in six people from minority groups had suffered racially motivated physical assaults. For Jewish people this rose to over one in five, and for travellersMembers of a community that traditionally move frequently and do not live in one place, in particular Irish travellers. over one in three.

More than a quarter had received racial insults, while 17% had had property damaged in racist attacks. One in six had suffered racism from neighbours.

Nearly a fifth claimed to have suffered discrimination when looking for housing, while 29% said they had experienced it in education, with a similar figure for employment. A quarter of Pakistani and Arab people live in overcrowded accommodation, and 60% of RomaA travelling community who are thought to have originated in India. families.

Over 20% complained of discrimination by the police - but in the case of travellers this rose to more than a third, and in the case of Black Caribbean people to 43%.

The conclusion, said the survey's director Professor Nissa Finney, is that "The UK is immeasurably far from being a racially just society."

This contradicts a report published two years ago by the government's Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. One of its findings was that many children from ethnic minorities do better at school than White children, and a higher percentage go to university.

People of Irish, Indian and Chinese heritage are likely to have higher than average earnings, though those from Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Caribbean backgrounds are more likely to be unemployed. The report concluded that that Britain had an "attention to race equality" that was seldom found in other European countries.

Another survey carried out by the EU in 2019 agreed. Though it found that 15% of people of African descent in the UK believed they had suffered racial discrimination, this was lower than in any of the other 11 countries studied. The average was 39%.

A positive finding of the new report was that most minority groups have a strong sense of belonging to British society, and a high level of trust in the government.

They are also very politically engaged, though they put their faith in different parties. Black and Pakistani voters are most likely to support Labour; the Conservatives are popular with Jewish voters and the Liberal Democrats are favoured by Chinese, Irish and eastern European people.

Yes: Most people are good-hearted, but many are easily influenced. What the country needs is leaders who set a strong example in promoting fairness and emphasise the importance of mixed communities.

No: No country in history has ever been completely just. Even in the fairest societies some people get a raw deal: if Britain manages to stamp out racism there will still be victims of other malaises.  

Or... The greatest injustice in the UK is the disparity in wealth between richest and poorest, which affects all ethnicities. The first step should be to increase the earnings of those in badly paid jobs.