EDITORIAL
Dear Readers,
Welcome back to the Black & Asian News!
The major reports out this week are:
- “Broken Ladders: The Myth of Meritocracy for Women of Colour”, commissioned by gender equality organisation the Fawcett Society and race equality think-tank Runnymede Trust;
- “Police Race Action Plan: Improving Policing for Black People” released by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing;
- Systemic Racism, Not Broken Bodies: an Inquiry into Racial Injustice and Human Rights in UK Maternity Care by childbirth charity Birthrights.
The report I am looking forward to reading is “The UK Race Class Narrative Report: Building Solidarity across Race and Class to Win Progressive Change and Inoculate Against the Powerful Few that Seek to Divide Us” by Class, the Centre for Labour and Social Studies.
Happy Reading!
Thushari Perera
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CULTURE, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT
The 2022 International Booker Prize, The Booker Prizes, 27 May 2022
“Tomb of Sand, written by Geetanjali Shree and translated by Daisy Rockwell, has won the 2022 International Booker Prize for Translated Fiction. Tomb of Sand is the first book originally written in any Indian language to win the International Booker Prize, and the first novel translated from Hindi to be recognised by the award.
Sabba Khan and Maisie Chan triumph in Jhalak prizes for writers of colour, The Guardian, 26 May 2022
“Khan wins for her ‘timeless’ debut graphic novel, The Roles We Play, while Chan takes the children’s and YA award for Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths.”
Children’s book withdrawn for its ‘Islamophobia’, Muslim News, 27 May 2022
““What makes this so bad is that this book is used in schools to teach kids to read. So they also get to learn how to be Islamophobic at the same time,” said one Twitter user.”
Why The Human Rights Act Matters To Journalists, Each Other, 23 May 2022
“The Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, recently took to the Mail Online to justify his plans to introduce a Bill of Rights replacing the Human Rights Act (HRA), the UK law that obliges the government to ensure our rights as citizens are upheld…It seems Raab is seeking to lower the threshold of privacy protection as a right (and indeed other rights) under the guise of protecting freedom of expression. This would, in reality, protect newspapers seeking to make money by printing stories that the public are commonly viewed to want to read rather than the more difficult and expensive investigations carried out in the public interest.”
Africa journalists decry racist monkeypox reporting, Trtworld.com, 23 May 2022
“African journalists have slammed media outlets using images of Black people alongside stories of the monkeypox outbreak in predominantly white countries, saying such reportage promotes “negative stereotype,” assigning the “calamity to the African race.””
CONSUMER ISSUES
Majority of black british women suffer side effects from hair relaxers such as burnt scalp, study finds, The Independent, 24 May 2022
“Major study into impact of products containing lye, a harsh chemical used in drain unblockers. A study of 1,024 Black British women aged 25-44, conducted by feminist group Level Up and Black hair care company Treasure Tress, found that over 95 per cent of Black British women do not trust big beauty brands to sell them safe products.” Find out more here. Read the Summary Report here.
Pontins under investigation over treatment of Travellers, The Guardian, 26 May 2022
“A whistleblower revealed the holiday park firm had drawn up a list of surnames apparently aimed at excluding Irish Travellers…Declining to provide services to guests because they are of a certain race or ethnic group is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010, which recognises Gypsies and Travellers as a distinct racial group.”
EMPLOYMENT & WORK
75% Of Women Of Colour Experience Racism At Work. Is Anyone Surprised?, HuffPost, 25 May 2022
“The report entitled Broken Ladders, commissioned by gender equality organisation the Fawcett Society and race equality think-tank Runnymede Trust, documented the experiences of 2,000 women of colour in workplaces.” Read the Report here.
Government refusal to back mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting shows ‘lack of will’ for fairer society, The Independent, 13 May 2022
“Companies that employ more than 250 staff are required to report gender pay gap figures and so are “already well resourced” to gather data on ethnicity and pay, cross-party MPs have said. The decision not to implement the plan comes after analysis by The Labour Party an first reported by The Independent found ethnicity pay gap data would not be widely published by companies in the UK until 2075 unless the government intervened.”
EDUCATION
Teaching union calls for action on Islamophobia in schools, The Scotsman, 21 May 2022
“A teaching union is calling for more action to tackle Islamophobia in Scottish schools, saying understanding the issue should be integrated into the curriculum.”
Ethnic diversity: report highlights disparities in school leadership, Personnel Today, 19 May 2022
“Research conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), in partnership with education charities Ambition Institute and Teach First, found that middle leaders from Asian backgrounds are three percentage points less likely to be promoted into a senior leadership role than their white counterparts, while black middle leaders are four percentage points less likely.” Read the Report here.
GOVERNMENT, MIGRATION & COMMUNITIES
The UK Race Class Narrative Report, Class, 17 May 2022
“Over the past year CLASS have been working in collaboration with ASO Communications on the Race-Class Narrative project, which captured the values and experiences of diverse working class people up and down the country. Through our research we have developed a new narrative that builds solidarity across race and class to inoculate against the powerful few seeking to divide us, and win progressive change.” Read the Report here.
UK’s first national Black civil rights organisation launched by cross-section of influential figures, The Independent, 24 May 2022
“A national and independent civil rights group, founded by some of the most influential Black people in the country, has been set up to advance justice for Britain’s Black communities.”
Top official at Foreign Office called upon to resign over Kabul withdrawal, The Guardian, 24 May 2022
“Sir Philip Barton castigated along with Dominic Raab in damning report by MPs into UK’s chaotic exit. The report found there was a “total absence of a plan for evacuating Afghans who had supported the UK mission, without being directly employed by the UK government, despite knowing 18 months before the collapse of Afghanistan that an evacuation might be necessary”.”
Taxi driver kicked to death by louts after asking them not to eat burger in cab, The Metro, 23 May 2022
“Two ‘drunken and entitled’ louts have been jailed after they beat to death a taxi driver who asked them not to eat a burger in his vehicle. Ali Ashgar, 39, suffered catastrophic head injuries after he was punched in the head by Connor McPartland, 20 and Martin Treacy, 18.”
FAITH & RELIGION
Senior nursing lecturer struck off for mocking his Sikh colleague, North Wales Live, 23 May 2022
“Referring to Colleague 1’s turban, Slaven said ‘why aren’t you wearing your bandage?’ and also asked ‘where’s your hat?’, before insisting ‘no, it’s a hat’ when his co-worker corrected him. Slaven told Colleague 1 ‘you seem to take all the religious holidays off, and even Christmas and that’s not your holiday’ and ‘you lot, Sikhs, have all these religious holidays’…A tribunal report said: “[The NMC] considered the misconduct to be serious because Mr Slaven was in a position of trust teaching future nursing professionals.”
Places of Worship Protective Security Fund open for applications, GOV.UK, 19 May 2022
Mosques and Muslim faith schools have been given access to £24.5 million for security measures to protect their places of worship and schools and make our streets safer, the security minister has announced today (19 May). Muslims continue to experience an increased threat of hate crime. In 2020/2021, 45% of religious hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales were targeted against Muslims.
JUSTICE & POLICE
Further guidance could be provided for courts to tackle ethnic disparities in sentencing, The Justice Gap, 25 May 2022
“Further guidance could be provided for courts to better deal with ethnic disparities in sentencing, according to an expert sentencing advisory group. In a new report published by the Sentencing Academy, Julian V. Roberts and Andrew Ashworth analysed the Sentencing Council’s guidance on how sentencing laws and information contribute to ethnic differences in outcomes.”
Action plan to address race disparity in policing unveiled, Police Professional, 24 May 2022
“Chief constables across England and Wales have committed to become an anti-racist police service and to explain or reform race disparities under the Police Race Action Plan released today by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing.” Read the Report here.
‘Police service must acknowledge its institutional, structural and systemic racism’ : Inspector Andy George, President of the National Black Police Association, GG2.net, 26 May 2022
“Last year, Eastern Eye revealed that during lock down [April 2020 to March 2021] the police stopped and searched 86,000 south Asians – that is about 10 every hour – a rise of more than 47 per cent on the previous 12 months, and three times the national average.”
Lancashire Police officer dismissed for sending racist and abusive messages to female colleagues, ITV, 23 May 2022
“Content included racist ethnic, religious and terrorist stereotypes, emojis and written phrases…They were junior, younger officers and the hearing ruled that PC Tierney abused the power imbalance.”
Black social worker Tasered by City of London police treated like ‘wild animal’, The Guardian, 21 May 2022
“Edwin Afriyie, 36, is suing the force after suffering a head injury and suicidal thoughts following the incident…Police records of the incident to justify the use of potentially lethal force contradict the video evidence, according to Afriyie’s lawyer.”
Ex-police constable facing jail over racist WhatsApp messages sent to colleagues at Warwickshire prison, Coventry Telegraph, 21 May 2022
“Former prison officer James Watts admitted sending the grossly offensive messages.”
FOOD
Food banks: an MP claimed there’s no massive use for them in the UK – the evidence shows why he’s wrong, The Conversation, 20 May 2022
“For those struggling to meet the costs of new school uniforms in September, or who have a sudden and unexpected bill, a food bank can become a lifeline – but one which allows the government to avoid accountability for poverty…Anderson suggested that developing cooking and budgeting skills and cooking meals for “30 pence per day” is the most appropriate way to alleviate poverty. Campaigners like Jack Monroe have argued that, contrary to Anderson’s comments, people on low incomes are some of the most able when it comes to cooking and budgeting.”
SCIENCE, HEALTH & WELL-BEING
Boy whose finger was amputated after ‘racist bullying’ to get prosthetic after £60,000 raised, Yahoo News, 21 May 2022
“Shantal said surgeons tried to save her son’s finger during a six-hour operation but they were unsuccessful and the digit had to be amputated.”
Unequal impact of Covid should be part of UK inquiry, says chair, The Guardian, 12 May 2022
“The chair of the UK Covid-19 public inquiry has urged the prime minister to significantly widen its scope to better examine the pandemic’s unequal impact on minority ethnic people, on children and on mental health. Heather Hallett asked Boris Johnson to beef up the inquiry after receiving more than 20,000 responses to a public consultation on the government’s draft terms of reference, which many civic groups complained were too narrow.”
Systemic racism in maternity care putting BAME people at risk , inquiry finds, Nursing in Practice, 23 May 2022
“Serious medical conditions, such as jaundice and sepsis, were not recognised due to skin colour, because policies and training centre on white bodies as the norm, the inquiry found…In the report, some healthcare professionals described colleagues saying that Black women and babies have ‘thick, tough skin,’ that a ward ‘smells of curry’ when South Asian families were being cared for, and that Chinese people are ‘dirty’…‘Consent was not always sought for medical procedures, caregivers sometimes used coercion and obstetric violence, and there was a lack of choice about their maternity care,’ Birthrights said. Read the Report here.
THE MONARCHY & ROYALS
Bristol reacts to pubs holding ‘F*** the Jubilee’ party: ‘It’s 2022 lads, not 1977’, Bristol Live, 17 May 2022
“People in Bristol have had their say after three pub venues in Easton announced they will be holding a ‘F*** the Jubilee’ festival, while the majority of the country celebrates 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.”
Charles and Camilla face calls to apologise for Britain’s colonial past during Canada trip, ITV News, 17 May 2022
“But whilst Clarence House attempts to focus the tour on reconciliation, representatives of Canada’s First Nations people have called for an apology for the residential schools scandal – which has rocked Canada in recent years. 150,000 indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities and enrolled in a Christian-run network of residential schools.”
GREEN
Extinction Rebellion activists storm Mayfair hotel during energy event, MSN.com, 17 May 2022
“Disguised in hi-vis jackets, the eco-protesters have used ladders to climb on top of the entrance to May Fair Hotel, where they have unfurled a banner with ‘End Oil Colonialism’. Video show a group of activists lying down inside the building shouting the phrase, while others hold banners outside with the words ‘Justice for Africa’…The climate change protest group said it is ‘foolish’ for ministers to think announcing new ‘curbs’ will stop people ‘taking to the streets…A new offence will also be introduced to specifically ban the obstruction of key national infrastructure such as airports, railways and newspaper printing presses, which will be punishable by up to 12 months in prison and an unlimited fine.”
SPORT
‘A priest warned me to keep away from water’: The barriers to swimming for Black and Asian communities, The Independent, 25 May 2022
“As Swim England launches the largest diversity and inclusion survey of its kind for the aquatics sector, Minreet Kaur looks at the barriers still facing minority communities…Research conducted by Sport England in 2020 found that 95 per cent of Black adults and 80 per cent of Black children in England do not swim, whilst 93 per cent of Asian adults and 78 per cent of Asian children follow the same pattern.” Go to the Survey here.
Brentford footballers claim their family were racially abused during Everton match, ITV News, 16 May 2022
“Brenford’s Ivan Toney and Rico Henry claim their families were racially abused…Henry, who scored the winning goal in Brentford’s 3-2 victory and is from Birmingham, called for the incident to be investigated. He wrote on Twitter: “I never usually speak out on things that don’t physically harm me or my family but to see my mom upset after being racially abused by a few Everton fans brought fire to my stomach!”
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