ACP-UK Rapid Response to Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report

  • Dr Masuma Rahim and Dr Leila Jameel,
    on behalf of the ACP-UK EDI Committee and Board

  • April, 2021

ACP-UK wishes to make it clear that, as an organisation, we are deeply concerned by the findings of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report[i], published on 31 March 2021.

In summary, the report concludes that the system is “no longer rigged against ethnic minorities” and suggests that the term “institutional racism” should not be used unless it can be proven. There is also a recommendation that teaching on Britain’s colonial history should highlight not only the clear and detrimental impact of slavery on enslaved peoples, but reframe the topic as allowing for the formation of the “remodelled African/Briton” identity. This damaging approach has been reportedly experienced as ‘white-washing’ and ‘gas lighting’ by many commentators and members of the public.

We are disturbed by the findings of the report, and by the likely biases of its authors. Specifically:

  • Dr Tony Sewell, Head of the Commission, has previously suggested that the evidence that institutional racism exists is “somewhat flimsy” and described the Black Lives Matter movement as “a lower middle-class revolt”
  • The report diminishes the systemic factors that limit people’s opportunities to participate meaningfully in the world around them; instead suggesting that people could “help themselves” to achieve academically and occupationally
  • It positions those who campaign on issues of race of “alienating the decent centre-ground”
  • It is broadly supportive of stop and search, despite the well-documented problems with this approach, and pays scant attention to the disparities in the wider criminal justice system
  • It dedicates just three of the 258 pages of the report to the well-established and significant inequalities seen within mental health care for those from ethnic minorities. In addition, it fails to explore how these inequalities might be related to over-representation of those from ethnic minorities within the criminal justice system.
  • It makes the assumption that the health inequalities experienced by those from ethnic minorities are due to “genetic, biological, cultural practices and social economic drivers” and/or issues of “attitudes” or “access”. It downplays issues of experience and unequal outcomes within health systems for those from ethnic minorities, and how institutional racism may contribute to or exacerbate inequalities.
  • It claims to use an intersectional approach to explore inequalities for ethnic minorities, such as ‘social-economic background’ or ‘geography’, which in principle we applaud. However, it then appears to uses these other contributing factors to overshadow and discredit the impact of race and racism: “We found that most of the disparities we examined, which some attribute to racial discrimination, often do not have their origins in racism”. This is not an intersectional approach that we support.
  • The latest NHS staff survey results showed that ethnic background continues to be the most common reason for discrimination[ii]; yet the report focuses on ethnicity pay gap and does not truly explore the interconnected issues of NHS staff experience or wellbeing.

In our view, the report fails to build a coherent and frank picture of the continuing scale and impact of racial disparities in the UK, and the ways in which structural and systemic factors perpetuate these disparities. We are disappointed that the authors of the report appear to have dismissed much of the evidence available to them, and have instead chosen to publish a report that is in keeping with their preconceived views.

It is a lost opportunity to make radical change, and serves simply to highlight the disparities that exist even more acutely.

Dr Masuma Rahim and Dr Leila Jameel,
on behalf of the ACP-UK EDI Committee and Board