Racism IS a UK Problem – Here’s Why

Millions of people have shown their support and solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement over the last few weeks. Crowds are gathering all around the world, in the middle of a global pandemic, to challenge the inequality, injustice and racism that has been at heart of our society for far too long. And we’re actually seeing results. Justice is finally being served. Policies are being amended or revoked. Centuries of whitewashed history are being scrutinised. But there’s still a long way to go.

Fighting for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the hundreds of similar deaths of black people while in police custody is only one part of the problem. The big picture reveals that systemic racism puts black people in danger – just for the colour of their skin. They are still not afforded equal rights and attitudes towards black people have changed very little over the decades. Our media, our politicians, our people are still racist and when they’re called out, they push back arguing it’s “political correctness gone mad.”

It’s these same people who challenge the Black Lives Matter movement now, asking what the UK has to do with it because “racism doesn’t exist here.” So today I’m going to debunk that statement because racism does exist here and we have a responsibility, as human beings, to take action and instigate long overdue social change. Why? Because black lives do matter and we have not done nearly enough to support them. We have not listened. We have stood idly by for far too long.

Hate Crimes

If the UK is “not racist”, why have there been 414,585 racially motivated hate crimes recorded by the police between 2011 and 2019? These high figures are often put down to “triggering events” such as terrorist attacks. But when the terrorists are white, you don’t see a general increase in crimes against white people do you? Of course not, that would be ridiculous.

The most recent report is for the 2018/19 period and shows us that 78,991 racially motivated hate crimes were recorded in just one year. This accounted for more than three-quarters of all hate crimes recorded that year.

But what makes it so much worse? Only 12% of racially or religiously motivated assault and harassment cases even result in a charge or summons. Almost 90% of racists get to walk away scot free.

Crime Rates

On the flip side, let’s take a look at crime rates. When black people make up only 3% of the population in the UK, it’s evident that crime rates are disproportionate. Here are some figures that I found that:

• Black people are over 3 times more likely to be arrested than white people (35:1000 compared to 10:1000 white people)
• Black people are nearly 4 times more likely to be imprisoned than white people
• 9% of defendants prosecuted in court are black
• Young black males are almost 3 times more likely to be arrested than young white males
• Black men are more than 3 times more likely to be arrested than white men
• Black women are more than 2 times more likely to be arrested than white women
• Black men are:
  – 8.4 times more likely to be arrested for robbery
  – 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for sexual offences
  – 5.4 times for drug offences in comparison to white men

Sources: Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic disproportionality in the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales (2016) and Arrests (2019) – both from the .Gov website

With regards to that first statement, those figures were for 2017/18. In 2010/11, the statistics were even more disproportional – 61:1000 black arrests in comparison to 22:1000 white arrests. In fact, out of the years shown in the report, the figure for white people never went above 24:1000.

Another interesting thing to note was that here in Dorset, the disproportion was even higher – 108:1000 compared to 9:1000. Only 5% of the Dorset population are black.

In regards to stop and search stats, there were only 4 searches for every 1000 white people compared to 38:1000 when it came to black people. This increased to 100:1000 for those classified within the ‘black other’ group. And guess which area had the highest stop and search rates for black people? Yep, Dorset. (SMH)

Police Brutality

I heard someone say (or maybe I read it) that we’re lucky that we live in the UK where police don’t have guns because they can’t kill anyone. George Floyd wasn’t killed by a gun though, was he? And in any case, people do die while under police custody in the UK.

In fact, 183 BAME people have died while in police custody since 1990. I’m going to talk a little bit about some of them but it’s important to note that there are many, many more.

• Jimmy Mubenga (2010) – restrained on a plane in Heathrow by G4S guards and died crying out “I can’t breathe.” The guards were cleared of manslaughter charges. 
• Sean Rigg (2008) – pinned down outside Brixton police station and left to die in a cell. No convictions were made.
• Mzee Mohammed Daley (2016) – an autistic 18 year old who was experiencing a psychotic episode and died of cardiac arrest while in police custody. Judges concluded that he died of natural causes. 
• Sheku Bayoh (2015) – died under very similar circumstances as George Floyd. Sheku was teargassed and restrained in Scotland, again crying out that he couldn’t breathe moments before he died. 
• Leon Patterson (1992) – found dead, naked, bloody and beaten in his cell 6 days after being arrested under suspicion of stealing. The initial case found Patterson’s death to be an ‘unlawful killing’ but this verdict was later overturned by the courts. 
• Cynthia Jarrett (1985) – Died during a police raid on a housing estate in Tottenham after police suspect Jarrett’s son to be in possession of a stolen vehicle. No warrant had been signed prior to the search taking place and this incident took place in front of two young children – one of whom being the deceased’s 2 year old grandchild. Evidence from the coroner suggested that Cynthia had been pushed by one of the police officers which resulted in her death. A jury found this to be “accidental”. 
• Joy Gardner (1993) – Detained to be deported but fell into a coma after being bound and gagged by the police. They used 13 foot of tape as a gag around her mouth/head and bound her with handcuffs, a body belt and two leather straps. Her cause of death was found to be brain damage due to asphyxiation. All of the officers present stood trial for manslaughter but all were acquitted of these charges. 
• Mark Duggan (2011) – Fatally shot by police when the taxi he was in got stopped by police and was wrongly believed to be in possession of a firearm. Courts found his death to be “lawful” despite Duggan being unarmed at the time of his death. 

Education and Employment

We’re all equal nowadays, right? So why are we still seeing racial bias and discrimination in education and employment?

In a study by the National Union of Students (NUS), it was shown that 18% of BAME students experienced at least one racial hate incident during their time at university. Only 13% of these incidents were ever reported.

And that’s not all – we can also see racial disparity in the grades that are given to black students in comparison to white students. Only 14% of black students will graduate with a 1st class as opposed to 30.9% of white students and at the other end of the spectrum, lower 2nd class and 3rd class degrees are awarded to 42.5% of black students compared to only 19.1% of white students.

After graduation? Only 20% of BAME graduates will obtain a graduate job in comparison to 40% of white students. In fact, data shows that BAME groups have higher unemployment rates and are more likely to be living in poverty than white people. And when they do get a job? They have to navigate large pay gaps and other forms of racially motivated discrimination in the workplace. (Source: Runnymede Trust, 2020)

A study by UNISON revealed that almost a third of BAME staff within the NHS have been racially bullied or abused by their colleagues with many of them leaving the NHS as a result. But this is not just an NHS issue – inequality in the workplace is a nation-wide problem that requires major improvements immediately.

Racism in the Media and Sport

The mainstream media is equally complicit in the oppression of minority groups. You don’t even need to look back too far to find it.

One of the biggest and most obvious examples here is the media’s constant scrutiny of Meghan Markle. While the abuse might have gone unnoticed by some, the side by side headlines of Meghan compared to those of her sister-in-law Kate Middleton paint a very different picture. In fact anything that Kate is praised for, Meghan is later criticised for.

And in a similarly racist manner, the BBC shared footage of LeBron James during its news segment on the death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant – despite the former wearing a jersey that spells out his name quite visibly on the back.

As for sport? Earlier this year, it was reported that there had been a significant increase in racism within football. This came from match attendees, referees and even team mates. This post from Musa Okwonga, a journalist and sports writer, on racism and football is a heavy but important read whether you have an interest in sport or not.

Racism in UK Politics

Isn’t it ironic how most of the people claiming that there is no problem with racism here are the same ones who voted to leave the EU to “get the immigrants out”? The large majority of the Leave campaign was centred on immigration, using racial prejudices and pushing an “us vs. them” to further their agenda. And it actually worked which says a lot about our supposedly great nation. 

And let’s not forget that we often elect racists. Boris Johnson has used several racial slurs and said some horrible things about certain ethnicities – and we still, somehow, voted him in? But racism from the top goes back a lot further. Thatcher couldn’t believe that black people would fight for their rights and wanted to maintain superiority of white people – even in places like South Africa. 

And even Winston Churchill, who is a huge part of our country’s history, was a racist. He said barbaric things about the races he looked down on; the Indians, the Palestinians and let’s not forget that the Jews were partly to blame for the terrors they faced in Germany. I mean, seriously? You couldn’t make this crap up. He used chemical warfare against “uncivilised tribes” and also wanted to campaign with the line “keep England white.” 

Could it get any worse? Yes, probably. There are two parties in particular that are notorious for their right-wing policies. One has policies pertaining to “reversing Islamisation.” And the other wants to abolish the hate crime guidelines as they take innocent people to court for being politically incorrect. Oh and they also claim that Islamaphobia does not exist. It’s entirely fictious. There are over 26,000 members of the later party as of last year. (I mean seriously… are you still arguing that racism does not exist in the UK? Really?)

And let’s not forget that Diane Abbott, a black female MP, receives more than half of the hate mail sent to female MPs. There are 220 female MPs. Since the recent protests began, Dawn Butler, another MP, has also reported a surge in racist hate mail.

What I’ve spoken about here barely scrapes the surface in terms of evidence of systemic racism in the UK. So please continue the conversation. Keep reading, keep learning, keep fighting against our whitewashed history. Talk about race with your children, your family and friends. Call out racists and challenge the opinions of those who are indifferent. Sign petitions. Donate to organisations and charities that fund social change, justice and equality.

For more information on how you can support Black Lives Matter, check out the Black Lives Matter website.

Featured Images: Benedikt Geyer (header image) and Taylor Simpson (post image) – both from Unsplash