Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Two people were charged.

all the charges against them had been dropped,

the only witness to the crime, was not re...

A year on, the Crown Prosecution Service chose not to prosecute any of the suspects, again saying that there was insufficient evidence to do so.

police surveillance saw the same men suspected of murdering Stephen Lawrence using violent and racist language.

evidence from Stephen’s friend Duwayne Brooks, was not valid.

‘significant weaknesses, omissions and lost opportunities’ in the way that the police dealt with the investigation of Stephen Lawrence’s death.

‘I deeply regret that we have not brought Stephen’s racist murderers to justice and I would like to personally apologise again today to Mr and Mrs Lawrence for our failure,’

Met is racist.

I acknowledge that we have not done enough to combat racist crime and harassment.’

‘was marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers’.

‘the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.’3

officers be trained in racism awareness and cultural diversity.

On 4 January 2012, nineteen years after Stephen’s death, two out of the five suspected men were finally found guilty and sentenced for his murder.

People feel that if a racist attack has not occurred, or the word ‘nigger’ has not been uttered, an action can’t be racist. If a black person hasn’t been spat at in the street, or a suited white extremist politician hasn’t lamented the lack of British jobs for British workers, it’s not racist

We tell ourselves that racism is about moral values, when instead it is about the survival strategy of systemic power.

But this isn’t about good and bad people.

The sharpest rise in those self-admitting were, according to a Guardian report, ‘white, professional men between the ages of 35 and 64, highly educated and earning a lot of money’.5

it lies in an apologetic smile while explaining to an unlucky soul that they didn’t get the job. It manifests itself in the flick of a wrist that tosses a CV in the bin because the applicant has a foreign-sounding name.

This demands a collective redefinition of what it means to be racist, how racism manifests, and what we must do to end it.

According to the Department for Education, a black schoolboy in England is around three times more likely to be permanently excluded compared to the whole school population.

research indicates that he will be systematically marked down by his own teachers –

The evidence suggests his fortunes might drastically change as a greater proportion of black students than white students progress to higher education after sixth form or college.

Between 2012 and 2013, the highest proportion of UK students to receive the lowest-degree ranking – a third or a pass – was among black students, with the lowest proportion being white students.

It’s worth looking at the distinct lack of black and brown faces teaching at university to see what might contribute to this systematic failure.

70 per cent of the professors teaching in British universities are white men.

Although he won’t know it, outside of education, the drastic racial disparities continue.

The researchers found that the applicants with white-sounding names were called to interview far more often than those with African- or Asian-sounding names.11

More broadly, ethnic minority people in England and Wales have historically dealt with lower rates of employment and higher rates of unemployment than white people.13

you’ll see that black men have had consistently high rates of unemployment – more than double those of their white counterparts.

disadvantage is echoed in black Caribbean women and black African women c...

young black man’s social and personal life?

stopped and searched by the police.

black people are twice as likely to be charged with drugs possession, despite lower rates of drug use.

(being five times more likely to be charged rather than cautioned or warned)

roughly 30 per cent of all black men living in Britain are on the National DNA Database, compared with about 10 per cent of white men and 10 per cent of Asian men.

black men are about four times more likely than white men to have their DNA profiles stored on the police database.

‘there is a uniformity of findings that people of African and

African Caribbean backgrounds are more at risk than any other ethnic group in England to be admitted to psychiatric hospitals under the compulsory powers of the Mental Health Act’

‘[black people] tend to receive higher doses of anti-psychotic medication than white people with similar health problems. They are generally regarded by mental health staff as more aggressive, more alarming, more dangerous and more difficult to treat. Instead of being discharged back into the community they are more likely to remain as long-term in-patients.’17

The statistics are devastating. But they are not the result of a lack of black excellence, talent, education, hard work or creativity. There are other, more sinister forces at play here.

focus on equality of opportunity, without realising that levelling the playing ground is enabling equality of opportunity.

‘affirmative action enforces rather than overcomes notions of unequal racial abilities’.

In 2002, America’s National Football League introduced measures to address the lack of black managers in the sport.

method of opening up opportunities for people of colour.

A decade after the rule’s implementation, the evidence was showing that it was working. In those ten years, twelve new black coaches had been hired across the States, and seventeen teams had been led by either a black or Latino coach, some even in quick succession.

For some football bosses, it was considered a good way to quell the sport’s ugly history of overt racism, a way to heal the jagged wounds of monkey noises and bananas thrown at black players on the pitch in years past.

Despite overall black and ethnic minority representation of 25 per cent in both leagues, there was only one black manager in the Premier League, and just six black managers in the Football League.

no black managers in Scotland’s top four divisions, and just one black manager in Wales’ Elite League.20

In 2016, the English Football League opted to put forward proposals to implement the Rooney rule on a mandatory basis. The Premier League chose not to entertain the idea even on a voluntary basis.24