Where does it say that they had to adapt and weren’t just accepted? That seems to be something that you’re reading into it. It may be true, but this review isn’t a review about already acknowledged historic racist attitudes within society and institutions. It’s a massive stretch to suggest that the observation made here deliberately seeks to brush that under the carpet.
My point is that I’m not sure it acknowledges fully the impact of that period and the fact that those attitudes are still very prevalent in parts of UK society.
I’m not sure that celebrating how far a race of people have come after being sold like cattle is 100% the right way forward here. It’s like giving your dog a pat on the head for bringing the ball back.
The report should be acknowledging that people need to be taught of the wrongs and the damage from this period in time and a realisation that the attitudes that prevailed at that time still exist. Basically the reports say they don’t exist which is blatantly not true.
while I concede that this is my opinion I’d argue that the level of upset the report has caused is enough to suggest that the got the message wrong
I’m pretty sure Runnymede’s interest in the case is related to their ongoing work highlighting the disproportionate effect the pandemic has had on the BME communities.
Truly bollox, from the ‘diverse’ panel which is just as ‘diverse’ as the Cabinet of the day, basically a bunch of privileged people who can’t relate to shit.
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Sewell described the allegation as “ridiculous and offensive”.
He said: “It is absurd to suggest that the commission is trying to downplay the evil of the slave trade. It is both ridiculous and offensive to each and every commissioner.
“The report merely says that, in the face of the inhumanity of slavery, African people preserved their humanity and culture.”
What a total clusterf*ck! We all know that there is racism in the UK, just as there is in every country in the world, but the UK is built on the idea of privilege and class to such an extent that everyone who isn’t an Eton educated man from a multi-millionaire family is looked down on by someone or other. Clearly this is a whitewash (pun intended), so what’s to debate?
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The British medical journal basically calls the report bullshit
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It is too soon to attribute increased deaths from Covid19 by the BAME community to structural racism. This may be a factor - that remains to be seen, but there is increasing evidence that vitamin D deficiency may play a crucial role, especially for those in the BAME community.
Suffice to say that obviously racism affects health outcomes in the UK and worldwide. The degree to which it affects Covid19 mortality is as yet unproven - though it is almost certainly a contributing factor. I would be very wary of any claim stating that institutional racism is the major cause of increased Covid19 deaths in the BAME community.
- I and my family have been supplementing with vitamin D for over a year now.
Think of it a different way - structural racism exists in medicine and contributes to there being worse outcomes for BAME people, so why would COVID be exempt from this?
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There’s certainly a link between poverty and the outcome of Covid. I wont say much else as it’s going beyond what I know off the top of my head to be honest.
As I said :-
Utterly disgusting
I agree, those things are disgusting to call someone. Two problems though…
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Are the people saying this public figures/journalists etc or just random twitter users? I suspect the later. Not that it makes it OK but its not a wholesale attack on him the way the Rakib Ehsan presents here.
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Rakib Ehsan himself is someone has come out against “black politics”. He has been vocal in his criticism - and at times outright rejection - of BLM. Labelling them a radical left wing group, which is a common trope used to ignore their complaints. He is a Research Fellow at right wing think tank the Henry Jackson Society whose recent contributions have been to The Spectator and Fox News. Two of their featured stories, both by Ehsan, are negative articles on BLM that paints them as unpopular in “real” black society. Ehsan released a video after the report came out called “Landmark report DESTROYS anti-Britain propaganda”.
Just me but I don’t see Dr Ehsan as an honest commentator on this issue.
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Clive Lewis, Labour MP
Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu
Dawn Butler, Labour MP
Dr Kehinde Andrews
Dr Priyamvada Gopal
Random twitter users are saying it too, of course.
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Only two of those fit the profile of the initial tweet though and those are the tweets by Priyamvada Gopal and Shola Mos-Shogbamimu.
Criticism of the report is not the same as calling the report writer a coconut.
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Clive Lewis compared the members of the commission to abetting the KKK?!
About time Labour said something that made sense.
Joking aside I see the Clive Lewis tweet not as a direct criticism of the report writers but more of a criticism of Britain as an institution and specifically the people who commissioned this report. They knew the what the finding would be when they commissioned it.
A classic example of the power / identity politics at play - both sides seeking to discredit each other. Nothing emerges from this particular “battle” except negativity and hostility. Neither side can take any pride in this. This is a microcosm of the whole current state of political discourse - petty name calling / labeling and a reluctance to explore the nuances of any problem presented. Its pretty pathetic really.
Neither side - the “Alt Right” or the "WOKE left " (whatever those labels really mean) offer any vision of the future, neither address the huge challenges facing the world - Covid, Climate Change, Poverty and Disease, Terrorism etc. Instead we are treated to a steady stream of accusation and counter accusation by individuals all purporting to speak for their “group” . The condescension in this attitude is startling.
Someday soon perhaps there will be a return to real political discourse - where both sides of an argument can be freely explored, debated and discussed. Because at the moment this is achieving nothing.
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Whilst I broadly agree with your post, let’s be under no illusions here: this report is just another example of the neoliberal right attempting to maintain the status quo by pretending that there isn’t a problem.
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Terms like that are problematic because of the way they are used not because they are inherently out of bounds. Id be surprised if you could talk to any black man of our generation who’s been a success in corporate America who has not been called a Tom at some point. That is damaging because it’s based in the idea that minorities don’t belong at the top table. But there has been a long history of people selling out their downtrodden peers for a entry into establishment society. In this regard Uncle Tom is no more inherently problematic than a term like Quisling.
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