Britain is again in the grip of a race debate, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s racial disparities commission is reportedly deciding to recommend scrapping of the usage of the acronym BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) by public bodies and companies.
It is a key proposal in a report to be published this week by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities.
The Daily Telegraph quoted an unnamed source saying the term has become "unhelpful and redundant", and too broad to describe the experiences of individual groups.
The report is to be submitted to Mr Johnson, with a government response coming “in due course”. Though this step has been broadly welcomed, campaigners are wondering what is next?
Abolish BAME, a campaign geared towards ending the use of this acronym reportedly said, “‘BAME’ is a problematic term that allows organisations to lump minority ethnic communities into one tidy group. Cultural heritage shouldn’t be treated like a box-ticking exercise, so we welcome the recommendation to 10 Downing Street by the racial disparities commission.”
However, Dr Halima Begum, the chief executive of the Runnymede Trust charity, has held senior leadership positions across policy, programmes and research with a range of organisations including the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the British Council and LEGO Foundation.
She reportedly told the Guardian she was deeply concerned that the commission, which was originally meant to report its findings in December, would end up doing little to tackle structural inequalities.
This also comes right after UK schools have recorded more than 60,000 racist incidents in the past five years. Experts have reportedly accused the government of failing to meet “basic safeguarding” measures by hiding the true scale of the problem.
Britain’s hostility towards race
A Muslim female GP who suffered racial abuse at the hands of social media trolls due to her race, faith and gender recently spoke out about discrimination she has faced over time.
Dr Nighat Arif, tweeted a clip of her speaking on BBC Breakfast where she said, “As a doctor who has worked across the pandemic, gives me support and confidence to call out discrimination…
“We all have some unconscious biases but check in with yourself now and then what you do not understand about that person. It is about education and learning and asking questions. If anyone wants to ask me about Islam or why I wear a hijab, I am more than happy to have that conversation.”
David Lammy MP on LBC radio addressing a listener who dialled in said, “Don’t ever tell me I’m not English.”
The listener who asked David, how he could be Afro-Caribbean as well as English at the same time, also called immigration as “polluting” the world. Mr Lammy who referred to Britain’s history of colonisation explained how whites settled in the Caribbean are treated as part of the country, and “are more Caribbean than I am”, touched upon his Scottish DNA- probably referring to the atrocities of the slave trade. He added that there is nothing called absolute ‘Englishness’ in a country which has had “Huguenots and Danes” passing by.
Mr Lammy said, “Britain 400 years ago went out colonising the world. My parents are part of that generation who came from the Caribbean. When I took a DNA test, I had Scottish ancestry. I have grown up in this country and was born here, I am very comfortable saying I am Black British…People meet each other, fall in love, they have kids, cross borders, sometimes through wars, sometimes for economic reasons, and they become what they become. Just like in America you could be African American, or you could be Irish American, how is that in England you could claim ‘Englishness’ only if you are white?”
Challenge the police to recruit more ethnic minorities
Ever since the Black Lives Matter movement, there has been an increase in awareness against racial disparity, more as Covid-19 reveals inequalities across communities. The question remains what are authorities actually doing to iron out the differences?
“If advice on the use of the term BAME is the extent of the commission’s findings, or the most pressing of its recommendations, then Britain’s ethnic minority communities are being insulted by this report and its authors,” Ms Begum added.
Though Britons think their society is less racist than America, the Economist in a poll has pointed out that last year found that 31% of white Britons reckon Britain “a racist country” and 46% of ethnic minorities do. There is a similar difference in attitudes towards the behaviour of the police. Stephen Lawrence’s brother has recently talked about his own ‘racial profiling’, though one of Britain's most senior police chiefs has warned that the race crisis is damaging the fight against crime.
With the Kill Bill protests across Bristol, the community has come forward asking more recruitment of ethnic minority in police force to combat racism. The City of London Police Authority Board (PAB) has agreed proposals to work with the City of London Police to ensure that the force is representative of the community that it serves.
Under the plans, the PAB will challenge the force to recruit at least 40% ethnic minority officers for the remainder of the Home Office uplift programme and to use other recruitment processes to address gender imbalances and ensure representation of all protected characteristics.
The Board wants to ensure that in the recruitment of the next City of London Police Commissioner it will apply the Equality Act 2010 when shortlisting candidates, in order to encourage applicants with protected characteristics who are underrepresented to apply.
The PAB will urge the force to consider doing the same for all senior appointments with immediate effect.
It agreed to monitor the force’s Equality and Inclusion Strategy, to ensure that commitment to diversity and inclusion is reflected in its workforce and its community engagement.
