There has been furore recently about the government’s report into institutional racism in the UK, and how terribly white-wash-y and inaccurate it is. To read the press, you would imagine that this is a report that’s been written by a bunch of white men in suits whose only qualification was that they had met a black person once, and that the report utterly denies that anyone in the UK is in any way racist.

I thought it was worth going to the source, and reading the report itself, to form my own opinion. This morning I read the chairman’s statement and introduction, plus one of the recommendations (number 8) before I had an overwhelming urge to go and do something else (have breakfast, make a brew, then write this, it turns out). 

An aside: this is one of the reasons I fear I may not be cut out for a life in politics – my stickability for ploughing through documents like this is not great. Give me the executive summary every time…

I think it’s possible that the report has been a victim of the spin our dear government has attempted to weave around it on its publication. For a kick-off I was surprised that the report’s authors were mostly BAME, with one exception. Steve tells me these are, however, people who are not learned experts in the field of race relations (apart from, presumably, living the life of a BAME individual in the UK for every day they have lived here)(that sounds like a counter-argument now that I write it: I don’t meant to imply that this makes them experts per se, just more experienced than a non-BAME person).

Reading through the sections I did, I didn’t encounter any obviously denying or upsetting statements. It felt like nuance included in the report was lost in translation in places, and in others, the language of the report was maybe unhelpful in the context of current discussions around race. For example “we are acutely aware that the door may be only half open to some, including the White working class” in a paragraph about how racism may not be the only factor disadvantaging certain people would have been far less objectionable without the word “White”. 

The report reserves the right to use the phrases institutional and systemic racism only in places where such can be demonstrated as opposed to racism/bias being shown in a range of microaggressions and minor disadvantages which pile up to constitute barriers to BAME colleagues. Is this a denial of the existence of institutional racism? I may have missed it, but I’m not aware of  concrete definition of such, and it feels like fostering an atmosphere where microaggressions and minor barriers are OK could be interpreted as at least semi-institutional acceptance. Institutions are made up of people, after all, and if those people are a bit racist, then so is the institution.

Recommendation Eight, which wants to stop unconscious bias training and support more conscious attempts to foster talent from a wide range of backgrounds, feels misguided in its optimism to me. It’s my belief that we are still at the stage that the majority of white people are still blissfully unaware of the problems encountered by non-white people, and could do with having it pointed out to them. If unconscious bias training disappears, then I think a valuable foot-in-the-door conversation-starter is being removed. Having just read “Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge (would recomend, review coming in another blog post near you soon(ish)) I’m keen to engage with a non-defensive attitude and find out how I might be unwittingly perpetuating the effects of my white privilege. If unconscious bias training helps to kick-start that conversation, then bring it on, I say. 

All this is to say, I don’t think the bits of the report I’ve read warrant quite the horrified reaction it’s had so far (although, caveat: I haven’t read it all and I’m not a person of colour, and I have enormous respect for Doreen Lawrence and others, who have slated it) – I get the impression there is more nuance and helpful recommendations than the press reaction would suggest. I really hate to attribute value to anything issued by our current government, but I want to believe that this could be further manipulated into having a positive effect on UK society. When I’ve had some recovery time (maybe after I’ve done the ironing) I’ll dive back in and read some more…