Race study chairman defends finding of ‘no institutional’ problem in UK

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Black Lives Matter protesters in Whitehall last year
AFP via Getty Images

The chairman of a study into racial disparities was forced to defend it today, insisting no evidence of “institutional racism” in the UK had been found. 

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, formed after Black Lives Matter protests last year, found the country has become a more open society, with racial inequalities narrowing in education and employment.

However, critics pointed to evidence of racism “in the system” and called for a clear strategy to address disparities.

Chairman Dr Tony Sewell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “No one in the report is saying racism doesn’t exist. We found anecdotal evidence of this; however… evidence of actual institutional racism, no, that wasn’t there, we didn’t find that in our report.”

Excerpts trailed from the study found Britain was a model for other countries as children from ethnic minorities outperform their white peers at school.

It states that the success of much of the ethnic minority population in education and, to a lesser extent, the economy “should be regarded as a model for other white-majority countries”.

Speaking before the report’s full publication today, Matthew Ryder, a QC who represented the family of Stephen Lawrence and served as a deputy mayor for social integration, said he was not optimistic it was going to be “helpful”.

He added: “The report seems to rely very strongly on access to higher education as being a determination of racial equality and it relies quite strongly, for example, on statistics that suggest working class white boys often have the lowest education attainment.”

He said that when white working class boys have lower educational qualifications and a lower likelihood of going to university they still have higher employment rates and higher social mobility.

“That suggests racism is in the system, it doesn’t suggest racism has been removed,” he added.

Kunle Olulode who is director of Voice4Change England and was  a co-opted member of the commission, said there had been “immense progress” in many areas but the report contained “disturbing” points that need addressing.

Labour shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said progress had been made and it was right to celebrate it, but “that shouldn’t mean we don’t see the very real problems in front of us and start to act on them. The Government has report after report after report ... what we really need now is some action to implement them.”

Communities secretary Robert Jenrick said ministers would “consider the findings very carefully”.

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