The #InstitutionalRacism report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities was published yesterday. It has rightfully drawn robust criticism and widespread condemnation for denying the reality of Black and Brown people's experiences.

Transcript:

Hello there.
So the report on the presence or absence of systemic racism came out today.
I have scanned through it.

I'm a bit, I'm not surprised, I'm incredulous.
I'm incredulous at the conclusions based on the evidence, as you read through the first, the early submissions about the experiences of black people self-reported, through focus groups.

Line after line, quote after quote of experiences that feel like mine, throughout my life.

It goes on to talk about criminal justice and the disproportionality of impact on black and brown people in the criminal justice system.

Whether it be stop and search. Whether it be adjudication of sentence. And on and on and on.

And I haven't got through everything in detail, but as you pour through, it's onw of those reports where it's almost impossible to understand how did these conclusions come from this evidence?

And it's almost as if what's been happening here is that the concept, the title, the name, of institutionalised racism is the problem.
And that's what the report solves.

It is disconnected. The evidence of a disparate experience between black and brown people, and those who are not, from a systemic cause.

Even the illusion to the idea of, the real problem is the internet - there's a lot of racism on the internet.

It's disconnected racism from an issue of a systems and processes built up over years, that whether intentionally or otherwise, cause differential experiences whether you are black or white.

And it is kind of reduced it, in the most obscene way, to an issue of bad people doing bad things.

Racism is not bad people doing bad things.

Yes, racist acts, yelling the N word, and such are.

But the evidence of the Lammy report hasn't gone out the window.
The evidence of the numerous reports about CV discrimination based on whether your name sounds ethnic hasn't gone out the window, and by the way, improving the education of black Caribbean children will not remove the bias that happens when their name hits a subjective reviewer.

It's like a gut punch.

The conclusion is we don't need training, and anybody who's ever heard me talk know that I think unconscious bias is bunkum.

It isn't unconscious. It's just bias.
When people see me and they cross the street, their legs have had to do a pretty complex operation. They've had to look both ways to make sure they're not knocked over, they have felt the tension rise in their chest, and then they crossed.
It's not unconscious.
It's just rude.

I'll read the report. I'll do the diligence.
I fear life just got more difficult for black and brown people everywhere.

I fear that a verified tick has been given to legitimate bigots everywhere.

It's so convenient isn't it? To want to point to that one vociferous, wet-mouthed, spitting racist as the real enemy.
And then never peep behind the curtain at the systems and processes that maintain the status quo.

My name's not even John, you know.
My mother changed my name when I was 11 years old because people think Amaechi is Italian, people think Italians are white, people think John Amaechi is a white Italian.

And so my CV sails through.

But of course, institutionalised racism, it isn't real.
It's a figment of my mother's imagination.

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