The campaign group, Inclusive Equal Rights UK (IERUK) has called for ‘constructive dialogue’ after receiving racist and threatening responses to its launch of a five-year anti-racism strategy for York. Local media outlets reported they had to ‘martial’ their comment sections, with one editor saying the comments in response to the story he posted on Twitter were ‘horrendous.’
The five-year strategy is a response to quantitative data collected by researchers at IERUK alongside a qualitative study by academics from York St John University. Chair of IERUK, Haddy Njie, put forward the motion for York to be the North’s first anti-racist city after experiencing a ‘life-altering’ racist attack in the city. A national tabloid ran articles in response to the strategy, with one headline declaring ‘outrage’ at the strategy, ‘funded by Labour council’ that concludes the city is ‘racist.’
Haddy Njie said: “We are disappointed and dismayed about some of the abusive responses we have had to the publication of the report. “
“We would like to make it very clear; we are not saying that all of the people of York are racist or that York is a racist city. But our evidence-based research has demonstrated that the city has some serious issues of casual and systemic racism.
The IERUK report states York has an approximate 14% BAME population (that is, non-white British) which includes White Irish, White Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller and White Other, but the tabloid says the 2021 census puts the figure at just 7.2%.
In a statement IERUK said their figures were correct as the statistics in their research were divided into White British and White.
It states: “White people are defined as people who are for example, Eastern European, Irish, Traveller/Gypsy, and individuals who may have one white parent. This category falls within the definition of a minority ethnic group and as part of the Black, Asian and other Minority Ethnicity (BAME).”
