Windrush: There is no black in that Union Jack. A Letter to the Prime Minister.

Dear Prime Minister, 

I'd like to personally invite you to, provide the keynote speech and answer questions at our national Windrush Justice Conference that will be held on Saturday 27th October 2018 in Nottingham. 

When it comes to all things Windrush Prime Minister, there is some things you should know, the when it comes to the Caribbean descent communities resident in the UK, we don't come to beg for equality, far from it, we come to demand that which is rightfully ours. 

Britain historically profited on a gigantic scale from, 400 years of forced labour, through the enslavement of millions of Africans, 100 or so years of land and resource theft, through settler colonialism. Today when we seek to enjoy our five minutes of so-called "freedom”, as free born, British citizens Prime Minister, we are denied out inalienable human rights. 

Prime Minister, be advised that we, the black and brown peoples of Britain’s former colonies, have already paid an enormous cultural, economic and psychological, price for our British citizenship and passports. Most of all we have paid a heavy blood price for our citizenship. We have  being murdered, raped and sometimes even sacrificed our lives, blood, bone and suffered  ignoble humiliation and permanent pain of British enslavement  that saw the massacre and capture of  millions of freeborn Africans. No one has a greater price of this entitlement

Such was the unprecedented injection of capital into Britain during the period of slavery and colonialism, that the vast profits of sugar, spice and cotton, provided the capital
investment necessary, for the rapid expansion 
and development of this country throughout 
the Industrial Revolution, and beyond. 

Prime Minister, let me remind who we are; we are the people who suffered the greatest crime in human history, centuries of sadistic, psychological and sexual violence. We are the people who were sold like cattle, whose children and cultures were scattered to the wind, and who endured unbearable torment at the hands of the agents of the British state, and all without apology, acknowledgement or reparation. 

When it comes to reparatory justice for the Windrush victims, listen to me and listed good, we don't come begging for justice, we come to take it. 

I want you to be very clear about what I’m saying Prime Minister, the right to citizenship, of every British black and brown person in this country, whether born in Britain or in a former British colony, prior to that country's independence, should be granted automatic citizenship. 

And quite frankly , Prime Minister, we don’t care what the law says; clearly the law doesn’t apply to us. We live in a parallel universe, where our ‘blackness’, excludes us from being considered to be ‘authentic’ British citizens and when we challenge the profound discrimination and inequality that results, then our third class citizen status is doubly confirmed, when we are consistently and routinely denied access to justice. 

So whatever the law says, British history and the Windrush scandal dictates that your government, has an implicit moral duty to award automatic citizenship to the Windrush generation, and all their descendants, and beyond that, all those living in Britain, born in former colonial nations, prior to their country of origins independence. 

Prime Minister, what is clear is that Britain refuses to remember the atrocities and brutal exploitation of its colonial past and we refuse to forget.

We financed the building of British armies, navies, schools, council houses, hospitals, cemeteries, palaces and pavilions from Lands End to John O'Groats.  The great building of state, the Queens Royal palaces, the parks, roads, motorways and rail network were all design, developed, financed and built with the iniquitous profits of our forced labour and hundred of years of our ancestors sweat equity. 

The success of modern Britain is deeply cemented in the historic and contemporary blood sacrifice of millions of oppressed and exploited African and Asian peoples. However reading curriculum notes on this period in British history that is presented as "education" in our schools, it is no wonder so many are confused and ignorant the black contribution to m making modern Britain.

We have earned the right to British citizenship, whatever the particulars of our wretched, domestic politics, which saw the ruthless political exploitation of popular racist sentiment, to achieve cheap, short-term election success. 

The British public, driven by a relentlessly racist media, who over decades, slowly stoked and manufactured British xenophobic sentiment, with lies, smears and racist propaganda, was pummelled into submission over decades., You, and to be fair even the Labour Party whilst in government, aided the development of that false perception that has now become a "social reality" for many. Even areas of Britain with zero diversity now fear being "swamped" by migrants.

This cynical exploitation of the British public, by you Prime Minister, and others, that determined the adoption of the explicit policy of creating a "hostile environment" for ' iillegal immigrants' was a cynical means of electorally, mining the rich British seams of popular racist sentiment, propaganda and xenophobia that ironically, through Brexit, has led the nation to the brink of a catastrophic economic cultural social and political abyss.

Today, with the reality of our unacknowledged grievous historic assault ringing in our ears, and suffering the continuing predations of modern day racism, we now find ourselves concluding that the implicit trust our parents had in Britain being at fair country, being the mother country, has being revealed as nothing more than an illusion, a now shattered illusion.

All the hopes and dreams of being accepted as British, that our parents so yearned for and cherished, are now broken, smashed underneath the jackboot of racism, inequality and injustice, perpetrated by your government Prime Minister.

There can be no more serious an injustice, Prime Minister, than when the state so fundamentally, fails its own citizens.  And this is not without serious extraordinary consequences for millions of black people living in Britain, who believed they were British citizens, but who now suffer the psychological trauma, and insecurity that occurs when democratic Governments breach the fundamental ‘social contract’, that results in societal norms and social order breaking down, a nation, undermined having been rotted from within by the  implicit and unacknowledged guilt related to its imperial past.

And today contemporary discrimination does not come without cost to the perpetrator, far from it, such lies and deceit begins to eat away at the nations moral centre, leading eventually to collapse.

This all  important "social contract" represents the fundamental philosophical and legal basis of most modern liberal, social democracies; in exchange for the guarantee of individual citizens rights and liberties, we the people agree to abide, observe and uphold the rule of law, as determined by government and the courts. 

This is the quintessential ‘contract’ between government and citizens, where we agree to obey the law, and government agrees to stand as guarantor of our individual rights and protects us from iniquitous injustice. 

Citizens are empowered to go about their lawful business and government has the grateful compliance with the rule of law of the majority of its citizens.

This the perfect functional contract and one that has provided citizens, throughout the ages, with confidence, security of tenure, and freedom from arbitrary abuse of the state and criminals,, freedom of expression and a lawful contacting environment in which to conduct business and ensure democratic accountability. It is, in essence the very basis of one of the world's oldest legal documents guaranteeing the rights of citizens, the British Magna Carta.

British 17th-century philosopher and physician, John Locke, often described as the "father of liberalism" expressed the idea of the "social contract" very well, in stating that ‘citizens gain civil rights when they accept the obligation to respect and defend the rights of others.’This provides the basis and the origin of the legitimacy of the authority of the state overall its citizens

For any state, to achieve a majority consensus among citizens, about the need to observe laws and respect institutional processes of justice, requires strict adherence to this social contract. 

“ Any people who are abandoned or targeted by the state, whose liberties are endangered by institutions that are designed to protect them, and who are routinely subject arbitrary arrest, detention and malicious prosecution, cannot consider themselves, neither are they considered in reality, to be citizens in the formal sense of the word.”

What we see today Prime Minister is the idea of an inclusive modern and diverse Black British citizenship is in fact, no more than a legal for romantic fiction. 

The concept of being Black British and equal before the law, is a theoretical legal concept, with no application outside confines of politics or academia and with virtually no or very little application in the real world. 

We are Prime Minister, by definition of our experience, no more than third class citizens, living in a supposedly first class, democratic meritocracy. 

The implications of this implicit breach of the "social contract " are far-reaching and profound; respect for the rule of British law and its legal agents, respect for the courts, civil servants and politicians, are all under threat and with it the promise of inclusive and representative democracy,

Critical race analysis of British society and the classic “social contract” model, actually reveals the underlying nature of British society, Prof Charles W Mills in his seminal book "The Racial Contract" argues that racism, not equality, is at the core of the modern day "social contract". 

What that means, in effect Prime Minister, is that many whites will act in a racially discriminatory manner, whilst at the same time fully believing that are acting in accordance with moral principles. This means whites acting in a racist way, will at the same time believing they're doing the right thing. Because of the all-consuming power of racism many whites experienced genuine cognitive difficulties in recognising racist behaviour.

Prime Minister this is a book you should read, as Mills argues that;

"Racism and racially structured discrimination have not been deviations from the norm; they have been the norm." He goes on to argue that the racial contract actually underwrites the social contract so as to ensure but all duties rights and liberties are routinely assigned on the ethnicity and race.

His argument Prime Minister, and US President Donald Trump is but one example of the rising incidence of the election and popularity of openly racist and fascist, ‘social democrats’ right across the countries of Europe. He argues that there exists a tacit, open agreement, sometimes covert sometimes explicit, among most European and North American leaders to maintain and promote the idea of global white supremacy.

Prime Minister, here in the United Kingdom, even you have acknowledged the burning injustice of racism, extending from unfair exclusions of black children from school, to the iniquities of racist stop and search by police officers, and the apartheid culture of differential and disproportionate justice identified in David Lammy MP’s critically important  report on racism in the criminal justice system. 

However Prime Minister, the real reality is that the culture and nature of British popular racism is overarching and omnipresent in all branches of government and civil society. 

We suffer racism everywhere, retail shopping, on public transport and from immigration deportations to job interviews, these are the grave realities that black British citizens have to face, time and time again, realities that deeply corrode and undermine the extent to which we, and our children can truly feel British. 

And one of most dangerous and subversive implications of this reality, is that the routine denial of justice, in the end, always invites resistance and sometimes extremism.

Prime Minister, I'm not sure you've read the recently published House of Commons, Home Affairs Committee report entitled "The Windrush Generation" that summarised the situation faced by many of the Windrush generation;

"Members of the ‘Windrush generation’—people who came to the UK from Commonwealth countries after the Second World War and before 1973—have been denied their rights. Many have been treated as if they were in the country illegally despite being lawfully resident for many decades.

People have lost their homes and their jobs and been refused healthcare, pensions and access to social security. In some cases, people have been subject to immigration enforcement measures and held in immigration detention; others may have been removed or deported from the UK.

Some, having left the UK on holiday or for a similarly short period, have been refused re-entry and had their settled life in the UK unjustly taken away from them. Many of their children and spouses, who joined them in the UK after 1973, or who were born here, have also been affected."

Manchester Windrush Meeting Tues 11th September 2018 

We have heard many explanations and apologies from your Ministers that seek to use the clinical anaesthetic language of "hostile environment" and point to administrative error and mistakes. 

No one believes that for one moment Prime Minister, such a uniquely targeted policy approach resulting in so many black deportations, points to high-level coordination, and this I believe came from the very top, you Prime Minister. 

We note, as I'm sure you have Prime Minister, that there have been no reports of any white former Commonwealth citizens being stripped of their citizenship and subject to deportation. This policy of the detention and illegal removal of British citizens appears to be a policy specifically reserved black people.

I believe, that when you introduced the now infamous "hostile environment" policy, despite critical objections and resistance from senior members of your own Cabinet and senior civil servants and, despite the fact that you were repeatedly warned of its potential discriminatory effects, nevertheless you cynically calculated, purely for electoral purposes.

You chose to employ old President Clinton political tactic of triangulation. You knew austerity had ramped up racism and that this was becoming problematic, so you chose to highlight the issue of stop and search as a means of demonstrating your commitment to equality and justice. 

This, Prime Minister, provided you with a convenient two pronged strategy that allowed you to cynically use the issue of stop and search as a battering ram to bludgeon the police in order to drive through huge cuts to service, and at the same time provided political cover, from the fact, that your government was cheerleader in chief, leading the public scapegoating and demonisation of asylum seekers, black people, immigrants and refugees. 

In short Prime Minister, you used the fig leaf of stop and search for political cover, whilst you unleashed immigration deportation squads and your now infamous "Go Home vans”. I believe, though I have no concrete evidence as yet, that you gave explicit instructions to civil servants, to target black people; those people that you calculated would be least believed by the wider community and in the courts.

And despite, a whole tranche of apologies from Home Office Minister Sajid Javid, and notwithstanding the fact that, some small progress has been made in resolving, what can now be described as catalogue of injustice, the culture of marginalisation, disbelief and mendacity of your government continues to prosecute Windrush injustices, to this very day. 

We have countless examples of your government's failures in this regard; chief among them is the fact that, after "investigations" your government claims to have found less than 20 people, that you claim were affected by these illegal deportations. Quite frankly Prime Minister we think that figure is a joke. 

Prime Minister, on the issue of immigration, we trust neither you nor your government. For justice to be done and to be seen to be done, what we now need is a an independent, public enquiry that will shine the light of transparency of how black British citizens were illegally rendered from the streets of Britain, held in detention and then deported to a country of your choice. 

Prime Minister, that you and your Ministers can so cynically play with Black people's lives, offering apology without justice, simply constitutes the repeat victimisation oh black communities. 

What this illustrates, is that despite your warm words on tackling racism, what we have seen is the profound moral bankruptcy of your governments position on this issue.

‘What the Windrush scandal illustrates is that unacknowledged racism is a moral cancer, at the heart of government and is sapping the moral authority of British government and its many institutions.’

Prime Minister, we've also learned that at least three people, who were wrongly deported, have subsequently died in Jamaica alone. People deported without any money, with no recourse to public funds, denied of their citizenship, denied their passport and country, they were slung out, like the garbage and left destitute to die in foreign lands. 

These three cases should be considered, alongside the case of Dexter Bristol whose Inquest procedure resembled a Colonial corners court in Jamaica circa 1865 not London in 2018. The coroner’s actions further reinforce Black perceptions, that justice in Britain remains resolutely white and implacably opposed to acknowledging institutional racist policy and its effect.

The treatment of the Bristol family by the coroner Prime Minister was an abomination. 

We believe that coroner concerned should be subject to immediate disciplinary action and investigation, and if found guilty (highly unlikely given the institutionalised racism of the judiciary) should be sacked.

In a racist society, no one hears black people screams for justice.

We live our lives in Britain Prime Minister, our ensconced in permanent stereotypical context, surrounded an enveloped by a culture of disbelief, in which our very identity, personal integrity, authenticity, credibility, legitimacy is constantly, critically questioned and disbelieved. 

Rashan Charles: Still no justice

Even when we bring substantive evidence, to support our claims of citizenship, or evidence of racism and discrimination, what we see, Prime Minister is the soulless eye’s of white officials, staring at our documents, looking at us and blinking their soulless eyes in obvious and contemptuous disbelief. 

Have we not witnessed the recent coroners inquest verdict on the young Rashan Charles which found the officer involved in his arrest to be acting lawfully, despite compelling video evidence that to the ordinary lay person on the street points to totally different conclusion. 

These matters are not unrelated Prime Minister they form part of the on-going black narrative of discontent and anger that is rising  day by day. That we are not believed is a constant theme. 

No one believes us in the police station, no one believes us in school, no one believes us in the courtroom, no one believes is in the job interview room, no one believes us, when we say we did do it, and no one believes us, when we say we didn't do it.

 We are British citizens, in name only, unable to access law, justice and equality, and unable to rely on the state to protect us from abuse, and largely unable to rely on our fellow white citizens to fully support our call for justice

Prime Minister and ministers of government, this issue has without doubt provided the most serious existential threat to the 'on nation" idea of a modern, inclusive, diverse and representative British democracy, where fair play and justice before the law are applicable to all. 

That Prime Minister is a damnable lie, a malicious falsehood, a romantic dream. 

The only path to begin the process of serious reconciliation, proper reparation and affected justice requires you to do two things, not which will have the moral courage to deliver; one you should formally apologise and begin the process of consultation on the payment of reparations for the enslavement of millions of Africans; secondly you should announce, with immediate effect a fully independent, a public enquiry that can identify and hold to account all those responsible for the illegal deportation of black British citizens.

And so Prime Minister, we cordially invite you to our national conference, in the hope you will respond to, and answer these and many more questions. 

@leeJasper

Windrush Action For Justice.

BAME Lawyers for Justice. 

---

[1]House of Commons Home Affairs Committee; The Windrush generation,Sixth Report of Session2017–19

Lee Jasper speaks on the Windrush scandal

My brutally uncompromising interview on the whole #Windrush scandal can be seen right here.
I don't pull my punches. #Racism 

Racism is dividing Britain and denial is not just a river in Egypt.

The recent publication of a detailed review: Race Report: Healing a divided Britain that asses race inequality in the UK by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, highlights the extent and breadth of systematic, entrenched racial discrimination that the reports states is deeply embedded within all aspects of British society.

The report cites the huge rise in hate crimes, racist abuse and violent attacks against migrants, Muslims and black people in the aftermath of the EU referendum result as very worrying.

This was a substantive review undertaken by the Commission, focusing on the areas of education, employment, housing and living standards, health, criminal justice and civic participation. The report follows a similar report published way back in 2010 How Fair is Britain ?  

It too came to similar conclusions as the recent review and back then, just like today, we saw no effective response from Government.  Since the publication of that report yet another generations has grown up facing stark racism.

As a long-standing activist this report is most welcome, clearly identifying, as it does the gross reality of racism as it impinges on the daily lives of black and ethnic minority people throughout the country. I am particularly pleased with the Commission's review given the consistent criticism of the Commission in relation to its past failures to highlight the growing problem of racism within Britain under the disastrous chairmanship of Sir Trevor Phillips and the current lack of credible black representation on the Commission itself.

The new Commission chair David Isaacs has returned the Commission to its most essential mission and has refused to be politically intimidated by government to remaining silent on the issue of race. Both he and the Commissioners are to be commended for providing us with the detailed information that gives concrete evidence and credence to the repeated claims that consistently point out the deterioration and toxic nature of increased and widening levels of racism and racial inequality.

The real test of the Commission’s commitment to race equality is whether or not it will take legal action against the government for its repeated and consistent failures in tackling racial inequality and discrimination across major areas of British society. Otherwise whilst this may be an interesting debate it will fade as quickly as its resonates simply adding to the litany of failure that constitutes 'success; in this area, After all wasn't much the same said ben the Comission in 2010 ? 

The review highlights our ugly and brutal reality, a reality that denigrates and destroys the lives of millions of black ethnic minority peoples who face systemic racism on a daily basis. This real reality in Britain represents the destruction of hope and opportunity of millions of black Britons whose only crime is the colour of their skin and being a British citizen.

No doubt we will now hear much in response labelling black communities as 'morally, intellectually, culturally deficient' by way off explanation of their evident lack of success. The voices they will send to deliver such messages will be black. Take this exchange between Mishal Hussien on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme broadcast Thursday morning18th August, including David Issac EHRC Chair and Black Conservative, Shaun Bailey to get a full appreciation of the extent to which some black people will go to seek assimilation. Both Misha and Shaun are abysmal. The only voice of sanity is that of Birmingham's black community activist Desmond Jadoo.
Britain: The most ‘tolerant’ country in the world.

We are repeatedly told Britain is a post-racist country and the most ‘tolerant country in the world” where the scourge of crude racism has largely been removed from society. In reality, the truth is today; we are witnessing the worst racism we’ve faced in a generation.

A tolerant country 

Personally, I’ve never been comfortable with that phrase. You tolerate a virus, a foreign invading body or an abhorrent sickness. You do to not tolerate your fellow citizens. I don't want to be tolerated. I don't see it is a virtue, I see it as vice.

I’ve had all the British tolerance I can handle. The very notion that I as a black man should be tolerated in the country of my birth and be thankful is frankly reprehensible and a fundamental insult to my birthright.

I along with others have written many articles seeking to highlight the reality of worsening racial inequality for black and ethnic minority communities in the UK. I have sought to issue warnings to government, local authorities and institutions about the real and present dangers of leaving festering racial injustice, sweltering in the fetid heat of massive and disproportionate discrimination, poverty and police violence.

Condemned as a ‘professional race baiter’ by white and black liberals alike, I like many others have maintained my position under constant fire, whilst being routinely attacked and cast as an extremist comparable with the odious former British National Party fascist, Nick Griffin. That's how absurd and perverted debate about racism has become. Those that raise issues of racism are now the new racists in post Brexit Britain.

When accused of racism deny, deny, deny.

We should be worried. Racism is routinely denied in this country. Let me ask you this real quick, just take a moment to think back to any major allegation of serious racism to which the response has been serious acknowledgement, apology and remedy? I’ll wait…..

In Britain claims of racism are routinely denied and that runs deep. So embedded has racism become within the cultural fabric of the nation that racism has now become ‘normalised’ and almost routine. 

So endemic is this racism, that some black people now echo these sentiments or worse. A minority becoming violent bigots themselves, attacking Muslims and migrants. Such is the power of racism that none ( neither Muslims, migrants or Blacks) can escape its insidious effects to the extent that even its victims can become infected in misguided attempts to seek white approval and acceptance. These are that people quite literally out of their minds.

This is not just the denial of racism or political spin it’s much more insidious than that, its a form of white supremacy madness, a profound cognitive dissonance that defies any logic and is designed as  psychological destabilisation to deny black reality in favour of maintaining white privilege and destroy black resistence and resilience. 

Racism and riots. The fire next time.

I’m on record having predicted 2011 disturbances following killing of Mark Duggan by Metropolitan Police Service as early as January of that year and in the immediate aftermath of the killing of  first legendary reggae MC star Smiley Culture and then again in April in relation to the death of Kingsley Burrell in Birmingham. 

In the aftermath of those widespread disturbances in 2011 I made my views clear on Sky TV much of what I said is now echoed in the Commissions review.

In response to this hugely important report I issue a new stark warning and one that is repeated in the report by the Chair of the Commission citing ‘ increasing racial tensions’.

I’d put it much more strongly than that, I say there will be widespread and ferocious urban uprisings in reaction to the constant political failure of successive Governments and that of British societies to recognise racism and adopt policies and strong ant discriminatory legislation to ensure its eradication. 

Black communities are under no illusion that they are discounted and discarded as equal citizens within this disunited kingdom. We have made the political calculation that Government will only offer cosmetic and tokenistic solutions and will consistently refute the disturbing reality identified in this report, that  racial inequality is widespread, growing and systemic.

Findings of the report conclusively prove that black people in United Kingdom are living their lives, as third class citizens in a supposedly first-class democracy.

The report condemns government policy and legislative responses to racism as patchy and inconsistent, yet another consistent criticism levelled at government by black communities and one that has been consistently denied.

It is remarkable that the vast majority of such criticisms and claims have been flatly rejected and those that have been accepted as genuine cause for complaint by government are highlighted but for a fleeting moment, subject to a token policy response and then routinely ignored. 

That‘s the stone cold black reality we face. I can already hear the banshee wails of reactionary white discontent reading this, so let me make this crystal clear.

 Can’t we all just get along?

Racism evolves, its changes shape and focus to fit the circumstances of the day that why its survived the last 5oo years. Contemporary British racism is not the brutal legal apartheid of South Africa. Britain’s pre Brexit racism was much more nuanced, usually polite and smiling in its countenance, almost pleasant in its demeanour, whilst wrecking havoc, tragedy and misery and all with a smile, an apology and warm reassurance using words such as ‘ deep regret, isolated incident, learning the lessons and moving on’.

Despite this wonderfully polite appearance, racism in Britain is no less deadly, no less a destroyer of people lives, for all its apparent lack of offence. Post Brexit the mood music for black people, migrants and Muslims in Britain has become distinctly hostile. Gone are the polite pretences of an inclusive Britain, the newest racial epithet/insult directed toward us is “ You’re next”.   The racism we face destroys talent, eviscerates hope and aspiration, rejects meritocracy and replaces it with a pigmentocracy, a society, where colour and ethnicity, race and religion all determine your life chances, not industry and talent

Racism is systemic.

This report is not alone in identifying such gross racial inequality. The Runnymede Trust and independent race equality think tank published its second annual report entitled "Ethnic Inequalities In London: A Capital For All” captured racial inequality right across the capital.

Its findings were equally conclusive that "ethnic inequalities are persistent and widespread, particularly in employment and housing."  The report also found, as did the Commissions review, that black and ethnic minority pupils were out performing their white counterparts, and yet suffered huge discrimination within British labour market.

Black young people qualified, ambitious and ready to work are finding themselves unemployed, on the streets unable to get a home, unable to get a job and racially profiled and harassed by the police.

The combination of widespread systemic poverty, racism and discrimination means our communities are both contained and under pressure, with no obvious routes out of this incredibly hostile environment.

As a result we are not simply denied opportunity as a consequence of these circumstances, our communities, particularly our young people also live in fear of crime, facing an epidemic of violence that comes in the wake of acute poverty one that has seen the explosion of open drug markets, controlled many instances by violent young men who, given the opportunity would take a job in the city any day, over a life plagued with stress and violence.

Too many of our young people have nowhere else to go, nothing else to, see no incentive to achieve because of the relentless racism they face on a daily basis.

A recent report by the UK newest social movement Blaksox has eloquently and succinctly highlighted this problem of poverty, racism, drugs and rampant violence in Black communities.  The Commissions report captures our vulnerability as victims of crime, poverty and racism.

In short we we’re under policed as victims of crime and over policed as law-abiding citizens,

Add to this hellish context the reality of police brutality, deaths in police custody such as those of Sean Rigg, Sarah Reed and Dalian Atkinson, stop and search harassment and the constant Metropolitan Police Service covert campaign to undermine and close down black cultural events like Brixton Splash  , Notting Hill Carnival and black-owned night clubs then you have an inflamable cocktail of toxic issues simply awaiting a spark to ignite.

Final Call. It’s Justice or Else.

The Commission concludes if the government is to heal a divided nation then they need to take these issues seriously publish a robust and comprehensive race equality strategy and put race back onto the agenda.

This is a call that has been echoed by many over the last eight years and has been consistently ignored and rejected by government even in the aftermath of August 2011. There can be no escape from the conclusions of this report that will, if ignored lead to white widespread civil urban uprisings in response to the constant denial of both justice and opportunity. I foresee no other outcome if things remain the same. There is no other possibility other than this stark inevitability. Left unattended these issues will erupt making 2011 seem like a walk in the park. 

Britain has to decide whether it's rhetorical paper-thin policy commitments to race equality are sufficient to meet this crisis or whether it is intent on ignoring racism and is happy paying the exorbitant costs such malign ignorance will incur.

Racial profiling by the police of black communities within the context of an increasingly privatised prison system has lead to huge increases in the number of black people arrested, charged and jailed for offences for which white Britons receive cautions, suspended sentences or community orders.  

This reality was highlighted by the recent research conducted by the Young Review and Release: The Drugs Charity.  Though not touched in by the review its important to state that there is a growing perception that black youth are seen as nothing more than commodities, low hanging fruit for a rapacious criminal justice system driven by profit, a trend identified by African American academic Michelle Alexandra in her seminal work exploring this issue in the U.S. entitled; The New Jim Crow.

The challenge we now face is how do we collectively respond to this devastating review?  It is incumbent upon us all as fully awoke, sentient human beings to secure the future for our children.

What has been demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt, is that our children's future as black citizens in Britain, is one that will inevitably require a gargantuan effort akin to the Civil Rights struggle in 1960’s America, in a determined effort to secure real sustainable equality and justice through community protest, pressure politics and civil disobedience.

This cannot be simply a repetition of the failed tactics of the past.

The politics of state sponsored grant aid. Divide, silence and rule.

The black voluntary sector decimated as a consequence austerity, intimidated silenced by grant aid organisations and local authorities willing to pay a quick buck to anyone prepared to collude with their pernicious and systematic racism. Grant aid funding from state institutions to organisations that claim to be fighting racism has resulted in the context that we see today where racism has thrived and succeeded despite millions of pounds being given to these organisations. In turn these organisations lost site of their essential mission that is to mobilise communities in a mass campaign exposing discrimination rather than being than being a funded fig leaf for institutionalised racism and casual racism.

This important sector, once a radical mouthpiece for equality  black aspiration is now become silent witness to our tragedy. Content publish reports nobody reads, sit on a range of government taskforce’s, conduct academic research no one ever reads, mouthing mild critique of Government scared of biting the hand that feeds it and refusing to lead the fight against racism.

The reality is in my view we have far too many disparate organisations. Black organisation serving the same clientele in different towns less than 10 miles apart don’t have a clue what each is doing, hell sometimes even in the same town.  How the Asian elders organisations fairing? Unless we are Asian we have no clue.  Surely if were all facing a common problem we should agree a common solution?  If we’re all facing austerity cuts maybe we should merge these organisations, consolidate our strengths and fight together?

Racism in the workplace. Trade Union Congress absent without leave.

Trade Unions (TU) are also falling to tackle racism in the workplace. When is the last time you heard of a Trade Union taking legal action against Government or an employer, challenging work place racism?  The fact is like Government itself Trade Unions are strong on rhetoric and weak on action. Black members groups are cowed and intimidated refusing to challenge the lack of black representation at all levels of the TU movement and incapable of being able to challenge the institutional racism of their own TU much less that of Government.

The charge is that the TU's much prefer the issue of gender to that of race. Race is just too difficult, in their eyes, for them to deal with. We should also note that the TUC representation on the Equality Commission had consistently supported Sir Trevor Phillips's (Its only a matter of time, grease and pole) deprioritisation of race equality as an issue and had colluded with the disproportionate sacking of black workers at the Commission without so much as a whisper. While the TUC highlights terrible effects of austerity on countries like Greece, they seem to ignore the fact that UK black youth suffer the highest youth unemployment rate in Europe.  Meanwhile post Brexit racism in the workplace is going through the roof and with each separate race employment tribunal case costing £1,200 to submit the number of workplace racism cases brought by black workers has collapsed by around 85%

When al; said and done, the conclusion  I draw from both the Commissions and Runnymede Trust research is that austerity economics amplified racism and inequality and the Brexit vote has put racism on blast.  Right now were moving towards approaching peak racism. This has been BARAC’s main campaign priority since 2010 that austerity promotes racism as public sector cuts if they’re to be accepted by Britons have to readily identifiable scapegoats. The sentiment that targets Migrants, Muslims and Blacks is the new No Dogs, No Irish, No Blacks. 

Where do we go from here?

With black communities facing such an uncertain future, a post referendum racism a possible economic recession and Government intransigence on race it is time for community, the voluntary sector, progressive trade unions and campaigning organisations to agree to back a campaign that targets the elimination of all areas of substantive race disproportionality and racial inequality by the year 2025. This gives us a pragmatic strategy that can be achieved in a realistic timeline that can dramatically reduce racism provide a level playing field all sections of British society for all Black and ethnic minority citizens.

I'm suggesting a national race equality summit in UK is convened to in order to develop and agree a comprehensive race equality strategy that can be the focused priority campaign of all black and minority community organisations, trade union's and wider civic society. In order to achieve its goals such a campaign would need to significantly resources.

We need a nationwide campaign that may take 2 to 3 years to emerge as a substantive issue on the political agenda. The very future of our children and the social fabric of Britain is now entirely dependent on the extent to which we, this generation can come together in a unified attempt to secure a future free of racism, a future all British citizens deserve regardless of their race or religion.

Britain is a multicultural democracy, however not all citizens are equal. If we Britain it is to avoid the tragic history of major black cities in the United States then the country must prioritise the elimination of racism, race inequality and injustice.

These goals will not be achieved easily. As the great African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglas in a speech entitled ‘If there is no struggle, there is no progress’ given on the August 3^rd 1857 where he stated,

‘Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.’

If you’re interested in being involved in organising or would like to register an interest this summit email us on barac.info@gmail.com using Race Summit in the title.

Lee Jasper Co Chair of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC)

Here is a quick summary of the reviews key findings:

Black Unemployment

·      Unemployment rates were significantly higher for ethnic minorities at 12.9% compared with 6.3 % for White people.

·      Black workers with degrees earn 23.1% less on average than White workers.

·      In Britain, significantly lower percentages of ethnic minorities (8.8%) worked as managers, directors and senior officials, compared with White people (10.7%). This was particularly true for African/Caribbean/Black people (5.7%) and those of Mixed ethnicity (7.2%).

·      Black people who leave school with A-levels typically get paid 14.3% less than their White peers.

Black Education

·      Just 6% of Black school leavers attended a Russell Group university, compared with 12% of Mixed and Asian school leavers and 11% of White school leavers.

·      Black Caribbean and Mixed White/Black Caribbean children have rates of permanent exclusion about three times that of the pupil population as a whole. 

Black Crime

·      Rates of prosecution and sentencing for Black people were three times higher than for White people –18 per thousand population compared with six per thousand population for White people. For sentencing it was 13 per thousand population for Black people and five per thousand population for White people. 

·      In England and Wales ethnic minority children and adults are more likely to be a victim of homicide. The homicide rate for Black people was 30.5 per million population, 14.1 for Asian people and 8.9 for White people.

·      White women are more at risk of domestic abuse than ethnic minority women.  7.4 % reported being victims of abuse compared with 4.4 % of ethnic minority women.

·      Race hate crimes on Britain’s railway networks have risen by 37 %.

·      In England, 37.4% of Black people and 44.8% of Asian people felt unsafe being at home or around their local area, compared with 29.2% of White people.

Black Living standards

·      Pakistani/Bangladeshi and Black adults are more likely to live in substandard accommodation than White people. 30.9 % of Pakistani/Bangladeshi people live in overcrowded accommodation, while for Black people the figure is 26.8% and for White people it is 8.3%.

·      If you are an ethnic minority person, you are still more likely to live in poverty.  Our evidence shows that 35.7% of ethnic minorities were more likely to live in poverty compared with 17.2% of White people.

·      In Scotland, ethnic minority households are more likely to experience overcrowding. This was 11.8% for ethnic minority households compared with 2.9% for White households.

Black Health and care

o   Black African women had a mortality rate four times higher than White women in the UK.

o   There is a significant disproportionate number of ethnic minorities detained under mental health legislation in hospitals in England and Wales – Black African women were seven times more likely to be detained than White British women.

o   Gypsies, Travellers and Roma were found to suffer poorer mental health than the rest of the population in Britain. They were also more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression.

End.