According to a new report by racial equality think-tank the Runnymede Trust, racism is still "systemic" in England and legislation, institutional practices and customs are harming ethnic minority groups as they still face inequalities across health, the criminal justice system, education, employment, immigration and politics. The authors write that they believe the government’s new approach to equalities will fail to improve these outcomes “and may in fact worsen them”.

The report provides the independent civil society perspective to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) by examining the situation of race and racism in England. Describing the Government's recent Sewell Report as: "divisive and dishonest", the report says government practice  "stands in clear breach" of the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). UN's human rights experts had previously criticised the Sewell Report, stating: "In 2021, it is stunning to read a report on race and ethnicity that repackages racist tropes and stereotypes into fact, twisting data and misapplying statistics and studies into conclusory findings and ad hominem attacks on people of African descent."

Read more here and here. Download the Runnymede Trust report here,

A proposal for the Church if England to appoint racial justice officers in each of its 42 dioceses has been turned down by the Archbishop's Council due to cost. It was a key recommendation from the 'From Lament to Action' report published in April after years of inaction over institutional racism. Co-chairs of the anti-racism taskforce that produced the report, the Rev Arun Arora and the Rev Sonia Barron, said they were “deeply shocked and disappointed” and that it “boils down to a matter of priorities” and would “inevitably lead to conclusions as to how much or how little this matters to decision-makers in the church”.

Elizabeth Henry, who resigned as the C of E’s race adviser last year, said: “To say it’s too costly is a gross insult. It’s to say racial justice is too expensive when it is a foundation of our faith. This decision is a disgrace. We have to stop waiting for the church to allow us racial justice. I pray black and brown people will vote with our feet.”

Other recommendations in the report included that shortlists for senior clergy should include at least one appointable candidate of a minority ethnic background by September, with an expectation this occurs for all other jobs in the Church.

Read more here and here..

On the 30th June 2021 the Christian community lost one of its great leaders when Revd Dr Joel Edwards went home to be with the Lord Jesus whom he had served faithfully in the public square. MJR Chair Rev Alton Bell has written this tribute to a long-time friend and stalwart of the faith.

"Joel’s final words reflected the man who he was: A friend, brother, mentor."
Read Alton's tribute here.

A statue of slave trader Edward Colston that was torn down by Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol last June has been put on public display as the centrepiece of a temporary exhibition at the city's M Shed museum. Visitors will also be asked to share their views on what should happen to the statue afterwards. Options include removing the statue from public view entirely, it being part of a museum or exhibition about Bristol's role in the transatlantic slave trade, or replacing the statue back on its plinth.
​Read more here.

On the first anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, some thoughts from our advisor Joe Aldred.

The killing of #GeorgeFloyd a year ago has etched itself into our memories. Sadly one of millions over many years. Change comes when the oppressed finds the God given strength to throw off their oppressors - metaphorically, literally, socially, spiritually, economically and politically. The powerful never tires of their power and never gives it up! So, don’t wait. The most important change to the debate is this: ‘Let the weak say I am strong’.

We have been keeping a watch on the progress of the Windrush Compensation Scheme, and there is little sign of any progress on the part of the Home Office.

On May 1 this article reported that new figures showed 500 Windrush victims have been waiting more than a year for their compensation claims to be processed. Over 200 applicants have been waiting more than 18 months and five people more than two years. The scheme was set up in April 2019 but the latest official data shows that 409 – one in five – Windrush victims who have applied for compensation have so far received payments. Less than £6.2m has been paid out of the £200m promised to victims. Campaigners warn: “At this pace of resolution, a significant proportion of applicants will not live to see their claims awarded. There is an increasing sense in the community that the Home Office is counting on this to avoid paying out”. Read more here.

Now the monthly 'engagement meetings' are being criticised as a "waste of time" since going online. Campaigner Ngozi Chinegwundoh said: “There are new speakers we’re not familiar with, you can’t speak at the end, they don’t have the usual question and answer session where people can raise their hand and ask a question.” Attendees can submit questions during the sessions, but only some will receive answers at the end, leading to questioning whether the Home Office is deliberately screening queries to avoid proper scrutiny. Read more here.

​'From Lament to Action' is the report by the Anglican Church's Archbishop's Anti-Racism Taskforce. Released in the same week as a shocking Panorama programme 'Is the Church Racist?', issues a warning to the Archbishops that a failure to act could be a “last straw” for many people of UK Minority Ethnic (UKME) or Global Majority Heritage (GMH) backgrounds with “devastating effects” on the future of the Church. The report is clear that addressing the underlying issues of systemic racism is a “missional imperative” for the Church, and warns: “Disregarding a significant part of the population, and thus denying the gifts they bring for the service of the Church, must not continue.”

​Read the News Release here. Download the report here. Read a summary of key recommendations here.

"From Compliance to Disruption: practical racial awareness for church leaders" is an online session on May 25, 4-6pm – the first anniversary of the death of George Floyd – designed to get to the heart of issues of racial diversity and equality in our churches. Leaders are busy people with many calls on their time and energy and issues to handle, but this one cuts across them all and must not recede into the pile with all the others. Again with that busy-ness in mind, this is intended to be a 2-hour plain-speaking and practical session with experienced teachers David Shosanya and Mike Royal. More info and booking here. Any queries, please send an email.

Recently on BBC's Antiques Roadshow, this gentleman, getting some silver sugar containers and tools valued, told the viewing public about how Wilberforce’s campaign to abolish slavery “immediately” in 1791 was delayed by Henry Dundas’s decision to do it “gradually”, so setting back abolition for 15 years.

“We’ve calculated that about 630,000 Africans were transported into slavery on the basis of one word: gradual. While slaves were working and dying, people in Britain were consuming the sugar – in those bowls and with those tongs. And to me, those silver bowls tell us the sort of things we do in order to make money and to have a lifestyle that we think we deserve.”

The valuer’s response: “Hugely poignant. I have to say I’ve never really stopped to consider that link with the slave trade and it is deeply moving. I don’t think I can look at silver sugar basins in the same way again.”

​Well done sir!

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report continues to gather controversy. New research this week from the Resolution Foundation, and new work from the London School of Economics contradict the report's optimistic picture of a closing gap in employment and pay between the various ethnic groups in the UK, leading the Independent's Ben Chu to ask: "Is the jobs market racist?" 

Unemployment rates have been consistently more than double for black/African/Caribbean people in the last 20 years. The most recent figures which reflect the Covid pandemic show a spike to 14% for black people versus 4.5% for white people. Office for National Statistics (ONS) data also suggests that the unemployment rate of black people aged 16-24 has almost doubled from 24% in 2019 to 42% at the end of last year. For white people aged 16-24 the rate has increased from 10% to only 12.5%. Chu comments: "There’s really no room for doubt that black people suffered from higher unemployment rates than white people in the years before the crisis and that they were also hit much harder during the pandemic, especially the young."

Similar disparities over pay are shown in the LSE research, which states: “It is clear there is no evidence for pay gaps being smaller for ethnic minorities now than they were 25 years ago, contrary to the impression given by the Sewell Report”. Chu concludes: "...when it comes to its analysis of the UK labour market, the unsubstantiated claims and apparent data cherry-picking of the CRED report have fatally undermined the credibility of its conclusions".

​Read Chu's full article here. Download the Resolution Foundation report "Uneven Steps". Download the LSE report.