tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/ethnic-minorities-6201/articlesEthnic minorities – The Conversation2023-08-24T12:19:30Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2117782023-08-24T12:19:30Z2023-08-24T12:19:30ZFor minorities, biased AI algorithms can damage almost every part of life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543810/original/file-20230821-23-5oh5nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C0%2C6265%2C3556&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Bad data does not only produce bad outcomes. It can also help to suppress sections of society, for instance vulnerable women and minorities. </p>
<p>This is the argument of <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/is-artificial-intelligence-racist-9781350374423/">my new book</a> on the relationship between various forms of racism and sexism and artificial intelligence (AI). The problem is acute. Algorithms generally need to be exposed to data – often taken from the internet – in order to improve at whatever they do, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/11/artitifical-intelligence-job-applications-screen-robot-recruiters">screening job applications</a>, or underwriting mortgages. </p>
<p>But the training data often contains many of the biases that exist in the real world. For example, algorithms could learn that most people in a particular job role are male and therefore favour men in job applications. Our data is polluted by a set of myths from the age of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment#:%7E:text=The%20Enlightenment%20included%20a%20range,separation%20of%20church%20and%20state.">“enlightenment”</a>, including biases that lead to <a href="https://www.gaytascience.com/transphobic-algorithms/">discrimination based on gender and sexual identity</a>.</p>
<p>Judging from the history in societies where racism has played a role in
<a href="https://sk.sagepub.com/books/racism-from-slavery-to-advanced-capitalism">establishing the social and political order</a>, extending privileges to white males –- in Europe, North America and Australia, for instance –- it is simple science to assume that residues of racist discrimination feed into our technology.</p>
<p>In my research for the book, I have documented some prominent examples. Face recognition software <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/19/federal-study-confirms-racial-bias-many-facial-recognition-systems-casts-doubt-their-expanding-use/">more commonly misidentified black and Asian minorities</a>, leading to false arrests in the US and elsewhere. </p>
<p>Software used in the criminal justice system has predicted that black offenders would have <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing">higher recidivism rates</a> than they did. There have been false healthcare decisions. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax2342">A study found that</a> of the black and white patients assigned the same health risk score by an algorithm used in US health management, the black patients were often sicker than their white counterparts. </p>
<p>This reduced the number of black patients identified for extra care by more than half. Because less money was spent on black patients who have the same level of need as white ones, the algorithm falsely concluded that black patients were healthier than equally sick white patients. Denial of mortgages for minority populations is facilitated by biased data sets. The list goes on. </p>
<h2>Machines don’t lie?</h2>
<p>Such oppressive algorithms intrude on almost every <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25033390-200-the-essential-guide-to-the-algorithms-that-run-your-life/">area of our lives</a>. AI is making matters worse, as it is sold to us as essentially unbiased. We are told that machines don’t lie. Therefore, the logic goes, no one is to blame. </p>
<p>This pseudo-objectiveness is central to the AI-hype created by the Silicon Valley tech giants. It is easily discernible from the speeches of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, even if now and then they <a href="https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/">warn
us about the projects</a> that they themselves are responsible for.</p>
<p>There are various unaddressed legal and ethical issues at stake. Who is accountable for the mistakes? Could someone claim compensation for an algorithm denying them parole based on their ethnic background in the same way that one might for a toaster that exploded in a kitchen?</p>
<p>The <a href="https://umdearborn.edu/news/ais-mysterious-black-box-problem-explained#:%7E:text=This%20inability%20for%20us%20to,when%20they%20produce%20unwanted%20outcomes.">opaque nature of AI technology</a> poses serious challenges to legal systems which have been built around individual or human accountability. On a more fundamental level, basic human rights are threatened, as legal accountability is blurred by the maze of technology placed between perpetrators and the various forms of discrimination that can be conveniently blamed on the machine.</p>
<p>Racism has always been a systematic strategy to order society. It builds, legitimises and enforces hierarchies between the haves and have nots.</p>
<h2>Ethical and legal vacuum</h2>
<p>In such a world, where it’s difficult to disentangle truth and reality from untruth, our privacy needs to be legally protected. The right to privacy and the concomitant ownership of our virtual and real-life data needs to be codified as a human right, not least in order to harvest the real opportunities that good AI harbours for human security.</p>
<p>But as it stands, the innovators are far ahead of us. Technology has outpaced
legislation. The ethical and legal vacuum thus created is readily exploited by criminals, as this brave new AI world is largely anarchic. </p>
<p>Blindfolded by the mistakes of the past, we have entered a wild west without any sheriffs to police the violence of the digital world that’s enveloping our everyday lives. The tragedies are already happening on a daily basis.</p>
<p>It is time to counter the ethical, political and social costs with a concerted social movement in support of legislation. The first step is to educate ourselves about what is happening right now, as our lives will never be the same. It is our responsibility to plan the course of action for this new AI future. Only in this way can a good use of AI be codified in local, national and global institutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arshin Adib-Moghaddam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Data used to train AI systems often reflects the racism inherent in society.Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, Professor in Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2078672023-07-07T10:17:11Z2023-07-07T10:17:11ZVinícius Júnior: how Spanish law is starting to tackle racism and what else it could do<p>In the weeks since Brazilian footballer and Real Madrid winger Vinícius Júnior was racially abused by Valencia fans during a La Liga match on May 21, <a href="https://www.marca.com/futbol/real-madrid/2023/05/25/646f5c8e22601d431d8b4597.html">international discussions</a> about <a href="https://elpais.com/deportes/2023-05-22/lula-eleva-el-tono-contra-la-pasividad-de-espana-ante-los-ataques-racistas-a-vinicius-jr.html">racism</a> in <a href="https://www.igualdad.gob.es/comunicacion/notasprensa/Paginas/igualdad-espana-brasil-contra-racismo.aspx">Spain</a> have not subsided. There are also <a href="https://theathletic.com/4619386/2023/06/20/vinicius-junior-racist-incident-brazil/">continuing allegations</a> of racist abuse in Spanish football.</p>
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<p>Spain of course is not the only country where <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-015-0078-4">football</a> is plagued by racism. The experiences of players in <a href="https://www.lavanguardia.com/deportes/futbol/20200929/483762983561/patrice-evra-denuncia-racismo-seleccion-francesa.html">France</a>, <a href="https://www.france24.com/es/20180723-ozil-deja-alemania-racismo">Germany</a>, <a href="https://www.elmundo.es/deportes/futbol/2019/04/03/5ca4dfe5fdddff3c628b466c.html">Italy</a>, <a href="https://www.elconfidencial.com/deportes/futbol/2020-02-17/video-escandalo-portugal-marega-insultos-racistas_2458736/">Portugal</a> and <a href="https://www.lavanguardia.com/deportes/futbol/20210712/7594509/saka-rashford-sancho-insultos-racistas-boris-johnson-final-eurocopa-inglaterra.html">the UK</a> show how widespread this is.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-in-italian-football-reflects-the-everyday-migrant-experience-126054">Research</a> has <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-in-football-new-research-shows-media-treats-black-men-differently-to-white-men-160841">shown</a> that racism in football is a reflection of prevailing <a href="https://www.enar-eu.org/structural-racism-in-the-labour-market/">societal attitudes</a>. The question is what the law is doing to stop it. </p>
<h2>Legal sanctions</h2>
<p>EU legislation – specifically Directive 43/2000/EC – applies to <a href="https://opil.ouplaw.com/display/10.1093/law-oeeul/law-oeeul-e27">any racist incident</a> that occurs within employment, self-employment, education, vocational training, social protection and access to goods and services. In sport, this covers publicly accessible competitions as far as they are publicly accessible – that is, if the public can pay to view them live in stadiums or on TV.</p>
<p>Under Spanish law implementing EU legislation (via <a href="https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2022-11589">Law 15/2022</a>, and in sports via <a href="https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2007-13408">Law 19/2007</a>), administrative sanctions can be imposed on organisers (the closure of a stadium, say, for up to two years) and on individual perpetrators, with fines ranging from €150 (£129) to €650,000 (£559,000).</p>
<p>Yet La Liga, which has now reportedly lodged <a href="https://theathletic.com/4619386/2023/06/20/vinicius-junior-racist-incident-brazil/?redirected=1">ten complaints</a> against fans, regarding racism experienced by Vinícius Júnior, cannot impose sanctions itself. </p>
<p>It is up to the Spanish Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sports <a href="https://www.csd.gob.es/es/csd/organos-colegiados/comision-estatal-contra-la-violencia-el-racismo-la-xenofobia-y-la-intolerancia-en-el-deporte">to propose</a> administrative sanctions and the <a href="https://fcylf.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/codigo_disciplinario_temporada_actualizado.pdf">Spanish Football Federation</a> to then impose any. </p>
<p>But very few such administrative sanctions are <a href="https://www.csd.gob.es/sites/default/files/media/files/2023-03/CEVRXID-datos-temporada-2021-2022_0.pdf">proposed</a> and fewer still are actually imposed. <a href="https://www.csd.gob.es/sites/default/files/media/files/2023-03/CEVRXID-datos-temporada-2021-2022_0.pdf">According</a> to the Commission against Violence and Racism in Sports, in 2021-22, administrative sanctions were proposed for 1,608 spectators and 59 clubs. </p>
<p>However, only eight were very serious sanctions, and only 28 were linked to racism or xenophobia. This latter figure represents a considerable increase from 2018-19, when only three sanctions linked to racism and xenophobia were proposed. </p>
<p>Reasons cited include the difficulty in <a href="https://es.euronews.com/2021/04/05/un-caso-de-racismo-en-el-futbol-espanol-o-un-malentendido">identifying the perpetrators</a> or proving their racist intent.</p>
<p>In response to recent events, on July 3 2023, Secretary of State Rafael Pérez <a href="https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/serviciosdeprensa/notasprensa/interior/Paginas/2023/030723-suspension-eventos-deportivos-racismo.aspx">granted</a> the police, via Instruction 8/2023, the possibility to suspend sporting events and evict fans if a racist incident occurs.</p>
<p>Spain is not the only country that has struggled to take action against racism. This is also an issue in other European countries, including <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/IT/ItalyMissionReport.pdf">Italy</a> and the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/01/uk-discrimination-against-people-african-descent-structural-institutional">UK</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32008F0913">EU law</a> (which <a href="https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=8302899">applies in Spain</a> through the <a href="https://www.boe.es/biblioteca_juridica/codigos/abrir_pdf.php?fich=038_Codigo_Penal_y_legislacion_complementaria.pdf">criminal code</a>) also demands that member states have penal sanctions in place for very serious cases of incitement to racial hatred. </p>
<p>In the past ten years, the number of racist, xenophobic or intolerant acts in sport that have been prosecuted in Spain has, however, remained relatively stable: <a href="https://www.interior.gob.es/opencms/pdf/prensa/balances-e-informes/2013/Informe-sobre-los-delitos-de-odio-en-Espana-2013.pdf">83 in 2013</a> compared to <a href="https://www.interior.gob.es/opencms/pdf/servicios-al-ciudadano/delitos-de-odio/estadisticas/INFORME-EVOLUCION-DELITOS-DE-ODIO-VDEF.pdf">79 in 2021</a>. It is unclear if this is due to the number of racist incidents remaining stable or to the ineffectiveness of criminal law. What is clear is that what happens on the football pitch and in stadiums is indicative of wider societal problems.</p>
<h2>Denial of racism</h2>
<p>Within Spanish football, <a href="https://as.com/futbol/2021/04/25/fotorrelato/1619303547_000586.html">many other players</a> have reported suffering <a href="https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=822487">discrimination</a>. Racial abuse has also been <a href="https://www.niusdiario.es/espana/catalunya/20230306/denunciado-insultos-racistas-infantil-nino-partido-futbol-barcelona_18_08915214.html">reported</a> at grassroots level football. Players in a multi-ethnic football team based in Lavapiés, Madrid, have reportedly <a href="https://www.eldiario.es/desalambre/racismo-futbol-base-estrellas-deje-entrenar-sufria_1_10235111.html">experienced</a> racial profiling and racial abuse in sports facilities and during matches.</p>
<p>Shortly after the May 21 match, La Liga president Javier Tebas <a href="https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37721993/laliga-chief-tebas-apologises-misinterpreted-vinicius-tweet">apologised</a> for a tweet in which he had said that La Liga and Spain were <a href="https://www.diariodenavarra.es/noticias/deportes/futbol/2023/05/22/tebas-defiende-espana-laliga-son-racistas-569428-1022.html">“not racist”</a> and had chastised Vinícius Júnior. Research shows, however, that many Spaniards <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/1/13">would actually agree</a> with his erstwhile summation. A 2019 EU survey <a href="https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2251">found</a> that 43% of Spanish respondents said they considered racial or ethnic origin discrimination to be rare or non-existent in Spain. </p>
<p>Public discourse – from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/24/its-not-just-in-football-young-players-families-on-racism-in-spain">politicians</a>, <a href="https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/spain-not-racist-diego-simeone-reacts-vinicius-junior-abuse-diego-costa-discrimination/bltff7afd68aaf140bd">sports people</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/vinicius-junior-la-liga-and-the-spanish-media-must-both-accept-responsibility-for-the-racism-that-shames-football-206448">media pundits</a> – also tends to deny that there is racism, while at the same time, blaming ethnic minorities for not contributing enough economically and <a href="https://www.nadiesinfuturo.org/IMG/pdf/document.pdf">abusing</a> the healthcare and social security systems, despite the lack of evidence. Constitutional law scholar Fernando Rey Martínez calls this <a href="https://www.gitanos.org/informeanual/2014/igualdad/racismo-liquido.html">“liquid racism”</a>. </p>
<p>Most black and ethnic minority people in Spain, meanwhile, feel they are <a href="https://igualdadynodiscriminacion.igualdad.gob.es/destacados/pdf/08-PERCEPCION_DISCRIMINACION_RACIAL_NAV.pdf">negatively perceived</a> by their white compatriots. A <a href="https://igualdadynodiscriminacion.igualdad.gob.es/destacados/pdf/08-PERCEPCION_DISCRIMINACION_RACIAL_NAV.pdf">2021 survey</a> by the Spanish Council against Racial or Ethnic Discrimination found most respondents perceived that Spaniards don’t want to work with, live near or send their children to school with Roma or migrants. Anti-racism charity SOS Racismo has shown racism to be present in <a href="https://sosracismo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20221229-Informe-2022.-Resumen-ejecutivo-1.pdf">all areas of Spanish life</a>.</p>
<p>To deal with racism within football, Spain could look for inspiration from initiatives including the Europe-wide <a href="https://farenet.org/">Fare network</a> and the <a href="https://www.feyenoord.nl/maatschappelijk">Feyenoord is for All</a> campaign in the Netherlands. Though only time will tell if preemptive solutions are more effective than coercive ones. </p>
<p>One thing is clear. Legal sanctions are not preventing racism in football. And racism is not limited to pitches and stadiums.</p>
<p><em>Correction: The headline has been changed from “EU law” to “Spanish law”, and to reflect a new legal development. Incorrect comments made about EU legislation have also been removed.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Benedi Lahuerta has received funding from the ESRC (2018-19).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rafael Valencia Candalija does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Racism in football is a reflection of prevailing societal attitudes. When a prominent footballer is racially abused, the impact reaches far beyond the individual.Sara Benedi Lahuerta, Assistant Professor in Law, University College DublinRafael Valencia Candalija, Profesor Titular de Derecho Eclesiástico del Estado, Universidad de SevillaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2077972023-06-15T17:37:26Z2023-06-15T17:37:26ZCrowdsourcing new constitutions: How 2 Latin American countries increased participation and empowered groups excluded from politics – podcast<p>Over the past few decades, countries across Latin America have witnessed a surge in demands by its people for increased political participation and representation. Colombia and Chile stand out as notable examples of countries responding to these calls with constitutional reform. </p>
<p>Colombia’s 1991 constitution emerged from <a href="http://ips-project.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/The-1991-Colombian-National-Constituent-Assembly.pdf">a backdrop of armed conflict and social unrest</a>. It represented a turning point in the country’s history by acknowledging the multicultural fabric of Colombian society, including Indigenous communities and Afro-Colombian populations.</p>
<p>Likewise in Chile, the government has embarked on a journey of constitutional reform in response to the widespread discontent and social unrest that erupted in 2019. The protests reflected grievances related to inequality, education, health care and pension systems, and a desire to replace the constitution imposed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. </p>
<p>Under the new government of progressive president Gabriel Boric, <a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-progressive-new-constitution-rejected-by-voters-after-campaign-marred-by-misinformation-190371">a draft constitution was presented to the people</a>. The draft included progressive elements such as gender parity, Indigenous rights and a restructuring of the parliamentary system to distribute power more evenly. </p>
<p>The draft was ultimately rejected in a referendum in September 2022, although some commentators argue that the process remains a victory for democracy.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-progressive-new-constitution-rejected-by-voters-after-campaign-marred-by-misinformation-190371">Chile's progressive new constitution rejected by voters after campaign marred by misinformation</a>
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<p>In this week’s episode of <em>The Conversation Weekly</em>, we speak with two researchers about Latin America’s ongoing democratic transition, with a particular focus on the involvement of populations in democratic processes in Colombia and Chile. </p>
<p>We examine how countries are looking to empower their populations through crowdsourcing participation, what the implications of these reforms for marginalized communities are and how Chile’s rejection of a progressive constitution remains a significant step for empowering citizens.</p>
<iframe src="https://embed.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/648b152cc6f9af0011f94bb1" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="190px"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-561" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/561/4fbbd099d631750693d02bac632430b71b37cd5f/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Crowdsourcing the constitution</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/carlos-bernal-1447440">Carlos Bernal</a> is a professor of law at the University of Dayton in the United States and commissioner of the America Human Rights Commission. As part of his research, he focuses on what he calls “constitutional crowdsourcing,” a process by which governments gather the opinions, views and demands of their populations in the making of a constitution. </p>
<p>The basic idea is that in a democracy, everyone should have the chance to participate and define the institutions that preside over them. Bernal says, as societies change, so do the social and political values of that society — and this change can be a challenge to a constitution. “If a constitution becomes a stagnant in the past, that constitution is not able, is not relevant anymore.”</p>
<p>To reflect those shifts, countries can either enact legislation to supplement the constitution, or they can specify the meaning of the constitution without changing the wording. But in certain instances, simple amendments of a constitution might not be enough to reflect those social shifts. </p>
<p>“And when there is a big gap between the constitution text and the constitutional reality,” Bernal adds, “the constitution must be replaced to create a new institutional framework that is able to regulate your society.”</p>
<h2>Political inclusion</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jennifer-m-piscopo-378304">Jennifer Piscopo</a> is an associate professor of politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles, in the United States. Her work focuses on representation, gender quotas and legislative institutions in Latin America, and how countries involve underrepresented groups in political processes. </p>
<p>She says that during Latin America’s democratic transition in the 1980s, “women were very active in the human rights movements that criticized the abuses under authoritarian governments. They were very active in the peace movements that really urged for an end to the conflict in Central America.”</p>
<p>But she says when democratic systems began replacing authoritarian governments, there was a gap between women’s roles as activists and in the democratic transition, versus the kinds of opportunities they had in politics. So when, in September 2022, <a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-progressive-new-constitution-rejected-by-voters-after-campaign-marred-by-misinformation-190371">the new draft constitution was rejected</a>, many observers were perplexed. Some analysis argued the government’s radically democratic process had been too ambitious.</p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chile-starts-second-attempt-draft-new-constitution-2023-03-06/">the government initiated a second, more institutional process for drafting a new constitution</a>, which removed certain representational quotas for Indigenous people and women that had characterized the first constitutional process.</p>
<p>But according to Piscopo, although the first draft was rejected, “there is still an appetite for processes that are more open and more democratic. The challenge is, electorates are fickle and how do you hold someone’s attention and someone’s preferences in a stable way as everyday politics is pushing them around?”</p>
<p>Listen to the full episode of <em>The Conversation Weekly</em> to learn more about Latin America’s democratic transition, crowdsourcing constitutional processes, and what their impact means for marginalized groups. </p>
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<p>This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany, who is also the executive producer of The Conversation Weekly. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. </p>
<p>Listen to <em>The Conversation Weekly</em> via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207797/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Piscopo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article. She is a Senior Advisor to the Gender Equity Policy Institute in Los Angeles, United States.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlos Bernal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article. He is commissioner of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.</span></em></p>People across Latin America are demanding greater political participation. Some countries, including Colombia and Chile, have responded by involving citizens in the making of their constitutions.Mend Mariwany, Producer, The Conversation Weekly, The Conversation Weekly PodcastNehal El-Hadi, Science + Technology Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1952602022-12-02T13:40:55Z2022-12-02T13:40:55ZGenocides persist, nearly 70 years after the Holocaust – but there are recognized ways to help prevent them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498294/original/file-20221130-14-3djrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Orthodox Jewish man looks at photographs of Jews murdered during the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/52756974/photo/israel-marks-annual-holocaust-remembrance-day.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=799KXl5lt_xItHaZzs3EURBgdH6qYoyRYPDesNF3A_c=">David Silverman/Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The newly formed United Nations passed its <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide-convention.shtml">first international treaty</a> on Dec. 9, 1948, just three years after the Holocaust ended. The <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf">Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide</a> was designed to prevent genocide from ever happening again. </p>
<p>But governments worldwide currently remain far from the goal of preventing genocide – despite 152 of them eventually signing on to the Genocide Convention. </p>
<p>Genocide, meaning actions taken with the intent to destroy a group of people because of their identity, happened again in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1990.10413120">Cambodia</a> in the 1970s. The communist Khmer Rouge regime tried to kill all ethnic Vietnamese and Cham people in the country, resulting in the deaths of 1.5 million to 3 million people. And it happened in 1994 in Rwanda, when the Hutu ethnic group murdered <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801474927/the-order-of-genocide/#bookTabs=1">hundreds of thousands of Tutsis.</a> </p>
<p>Today, governments <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/08/un-expert-calls-action-against-myanmar-military-anniversary-atrocities">are also carrying</a> out genocide against ethnic minorities in <a href="https://www.state.gov/burma-genocide/">Myanmar</a>, where the military is killing the Muslim Rohingya people. Many experts and some governments, including the United States, also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/us/politics/trump-china-xinjiang.html">say genocide is</a> happening in <a href="https://newlinesinstitute.org/uyghurs/the-uyghur-genocide-an-examination-of-chinas-breaches-of-the-1948-genocide-convention/">China</a>, where the national government is arbitrarily detaining Uyghur people. </p>
<p>Some human rights experts also say that there <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/09/russia-committing-genocide-ukraine">is growing evidence</a> Russia is committing genocide against the Ukrainian people. </p>
<p>Genocide has not been prevented, almost 75 years after the Genocide Convention was passed, in part because of a misunderstanding about how genocide happens and what prevention looks like.</p>
<p>As co-director of Binghamton University’s <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/i-gmap/index.html">Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention</a> and a program director at the <a href="https://www.auschwitzinstitute.org/">Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities</a>, I focus on helping students and government officials understand five important things that scholars and practitioners have learned about preventing genocide. Here are those five key points.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498303/original/file-20221130-16-dc0e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person, whose body is out of the shot, places a hand on the photo of a young person on a table. There are many other headshots of people on the table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498303/original/file-20221130-16-dc0e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498303/original/file-20221130-16-dc0e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498303/original/file-20221130-16-dc0e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498303/original/file-20221130-16-dc0e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498303/original/file-20221130-16-dc0e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498303/original/file-20221130-16-dc0e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498303/original/file-20221130-16-dc0e6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muslim Uyghur people show photos of their relatives who are detained in China in May 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1240578147/photo/turkey-un-china-uyghur-justice-rights.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=zISi57__PQF4SmfcyP-uUSOB3FcjfytnqzGd12v4OhQ=">Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Genocide is a process, not an event</h2>
<p><a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/coining-a-word-and-championing-a-cause-the-story-of-raphael-lemkin">Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin</a> first coined the term genocide in 1944. Specifically, the Genocide Convention protects racial, ethnic, religious and national identities. </p>
<p>Although this destruction often happens through mass murder, it can take other forms. It can mean <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/11/ukraine-russias-unlawful-transfer-of-civilians-a-war-crime-and-likely-a-crime-against-humanity-new-report/">taking children of one group away from their parents and transferring them to another group</a>, for example. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/gsp.7.1.16">Genocides are not events that happen overnight</a>. They are <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/genocide-as-social-practice/9780813563183">long-term social and political processes</a> that begin long before mass killing. </p>
<p>For instance, the Nazis did not build death camps immediately when Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/7858">The Holocaust began with smaller steps</a>, like preventing Jewish people from holding certain jobs, then preventing Jews and non-Jews from marrying each other. </p>
<p>It was not until the late-1930s that the Nazis transitioned to their <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/final-solution-overview">Final Solution,</a> which called for the destruction of all Jewish people. And the Nazis did not construct the first death camps until 1941. But all these steps over the years constituted what we now call the Holocaust.</p>
<h2>Prevention is also a process</h2>
<p>When people understand genocide as a process and learn to recognize the <a href="http://www.genocidewatch.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/The-Ten-Stages-of-Genocide-handout.pdf">early stages that can lead to genocide</a>, there is more opportunity to intervene before people are killed. </p>
<p>Prevention scholars and activists stress a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/confronting-evil-9780199300709?cc=us&lang=en&">long-term view of prevention that entails three stages</a>.</p>
<p>First, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13296">there are actions</a> people can take before genocide occurs to make sure it never happens. This involves identifying which groups of people are at risk of violence, then passing laws, for example, to protect those groups. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/simon-skjodt-center/work/lessons-learned">A second stage of prevention</a> involves responses to a genocide once it breaks out. This can include using military troops to quash violence. But it could also extend to things like <a href="https://dppa.un.org/en/united-nations-conflict-prevention-and-preventive-diplomacy-action">diplomacy</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-icc-is-investigating-war-crimes-in-ukraine-could-putin-be-indicted-178005">threats of prosecution</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121421990071">economic sanctions</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ictj.org/publication/transitional-justice-and-prevention-summary-findings-five-country-case-studies">Finally, a third stage of prevention</a> only occurs when a genocide has already happened. This stage aims to prevent its recurrence. This can include things like <a href="https://www.auschwitzinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/AIPG-TruthCommissionsReport-rev.pdf">truth commissions</a>, which aim to expose and document mass violence or other periods of turmoil, <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/">trials against the perpetrators</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-reparations-are-always-about-more-than-money-162807">reparations to victims</a>.</p>
<p>Obviously, stopping a genocide before it actually happens is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.13.3.1675">most effective and least costly</a> form of prevention.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498300/original/file-20221130-6108-mdxsed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of people carrying bags walk closely, crossing a bridge, with a river and green hills behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498300/original/file-20221130-6108-mdxsed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498300/original/file-20221130-6108-mdxsed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498300/original/file-20221130-6108-mdxsed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498300/original/file-20221130-6108-mdxsed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498300/original/file-20221130-6108-mdxsed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498300/original/file-20221130-6108-mdxsed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498300/original/file-20221130-6108-mdxsed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sudden influx of Venezuelan migrants into Colombia prompted the Colombian government to put in place a plan in 2021 to lower the risk of genocide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/916656370/photo/topshot-venezuela-crisis-colombia-border.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=UZFTJC0xt87zzUtReeN-pLqkRGaYvGJiYAIw03EDi5w=">George Castellanos/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Prevention starts with reducing risk</h2>
<p>Scholars <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/publications-and-resources/Genocide_Framework%20of%20Analysis-English.pdf">have identified</a> certain <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2017.1379631">risk factors</a> that make a society <a href="https://earlywarningproject.ushmm.org/">more likely</a> to experience genocide. Countries with poor human rights records, for example, are typically at higher risk of genocide.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199378296.001.0001">Poor economic conditions</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3118221">a country’s history of conflict</a> are also factors that could contribute to large-scale violence against a group of people.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0141987022000000231">Migrants and refugees</a> are people who are especially at risk of experiencing identity-based violence. </p>
<p>When more than 1 million <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpz072">Venezuelan refugees entered Colombia</a> starting in 2015, for example, <a href="https://earlywarningproject.ushmm.org/countries/colombia">many risk factors were present</a>. One risk factor is when a group has <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2020/11/global-action-against-mass-atrocity-crimes-platform-preventionhigh-level">unequal access to basic resources and services</a>. </p>
<p>The Colombian government saw this as a risk factor and responded. It introduced a new policy in February 2021 that gave <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/09/965853031/colombia-offers-temporary-legal-status-to-nearly-1-million-venezuelan-migrants">temporary legal status to all refugees</a>. This gave them access to public services, education and health care, immediately lowering the risk for large-scale violence in Colombia. </p>
<h2>True prevention starts at home</h2>
<p>Every country in the world features some risk factors associated with genocide, <a href="http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Waller-Assessing-the-Risk-of-Genocide.pdf">including the United States</a>. </p>
<p>But not every country in the world has the same level of risk. </p>
<p>In recent years, many countries have recognized the need to assess their own genocide risk factors. Some have fashioned <a href="http://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.11.3.1502">specific government initiatives focused on genocide prevention</a>. This work spans government departments and ministries to make sure governments keep genocide prevention in focus. Argentina, Mexico, Tanzania and Uganda are among the countries to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1542316619851440">undertake this kind of work.</a></p>
<p>The United States <a href="https://www.state.gov/2022-united-states-strategy-to-anticipate-prevent-and-respond-to-atrocities/">also has a national strategy focused on genocide prevention</a>, though it does not look inward at this point – it is only concerned with atrocity prevention in other countries. </p>
<p>There are also <a href="https://www.auschwitzinstitute.org/">several</a> <a href="https://www.globalr2p.org/">nongovernmental</a> organizations that <a href="https://protectionapproaches.org/">assist governments</a> in prevention work, including the institute where I work.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498296/original/file-20221130-20-57y9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo shows rows of stacked human skulls and bones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498296/original/file-20221130-20-57y9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498296/original/file-20221130-20-57y9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498296/original/file-20221130-20-57y9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498296/original/file-20221130-20-57y9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498296/original/file-20221130-20-57y9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498296/original/file-20221130-20-57y9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498296/original/file-20221130-20-57y9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A row of human skulls and remains cover the interior of a church in Kigali following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/3126839/photo/ntarama-memorial-in-rwanda.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=8aciSOtyfY3kmC5B1lO4lijVZNkSEEKYLIjKNQXTZT8=">Lane Montgomery/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Prevention isn’t over when the genocide stops</h2>
<p>There could be temptation to think that when mass killing stops, the work of prevention is finished. But <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3118221">one of the biggest genocide risk factors</a> is if a society has already been involved with one. For example, the Holocaust happened only a couple decades after Germany perpetrated the <a href="https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/HausslerHerero">genocide of Herero and Nama</a> people in present-day Namibia.</p>
<p>For this reason, the work of prevention continues, <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/resonant-violence/9781978825550/">even after a genocide is over.</a></p>
<p>This requires societies to deal with the risk factors that allowed genocide to take place, even as they rebuild. </p>
<p>For instance, after the 2007 elections in Kenya, massive <a href="https://www.csis.org/blogs/smart-global-health/background-post-election-crisis-kenya">inter-ethnic electoral violence broke out,</a> killing <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/tjrc-core/7">over 1,000 people and displacing at least 350,000</a>. The United Nations and the Kenyan government collaborated with nonprofits and local leaders to <a href="https://www.auschwitzinstitute.org/profiles-in-prevention/alice-nderitu/">develop an early-warning network</a> called the <a href="https://www.nscpeace.go.ke/108/about.php#:%7E:text=Uwiano%20Platform%20for%20Peace%20is%20a%20public%20platform%20to%20engage,conflict%20prevention%20efforts%20in%20Kenya.">Uwiano Platform for Peace</a>. This provides a hotline system where ordinary citizens can call or text if they hear hate speech or see violent acts. The information is then verified and, if it is credible, the central platform contacts local authorities to respond. </p>
<p>Following the implementation of Uwiano, no large-scale violence was reported after the 2010 and 2013 elections. Of course, Uwiano was not the only reason that Kenya avoided this violence. It took <a href="https://www.globalr2p.org/publications/r2p-in-practice-ethnic-violence-elections-and-atrocity-prevention-in-kenya/">many international, national and local experts and others working together</a>.</p>
<p>There is no single way to prevent genocide. What is clear, however, is that there are many different measures available that, together, can reduce the risk of genocide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerry Whigham is affiliated with the Auschwitz Insitute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, an international non-governmental organization. </span></em></p>There isn’t one, clear-cut way to prevent genocide. But there are effective methods of prevention that governments can take.Kerry Whigham, Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1913632022-09-28T16:13:12Z2022-09-28T16:13:12ZLeicester’s unrest is a problem for the whole city, not just Hindu and Muslim communities<p>Since late August, the city of Leicester in England has seen violent confrontations between groups of Hindu and Muslim men. The situation escalated on September 17 when about 200 Hindu men <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11226837/Moment-hundreds-march-Leicester-amid-violent-clashes-Hindus-Muslims.html">marched</a> through a Muslim-majority area of east Leicester. Wearing masks, hoodies and balaclavas, they chanted “Jai Shri Ram” (meaning “Hail Lord Ram”), a phrase <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/13/jai-shri-ram-india-hindi/">synonymous with Hindu nationalist violence</a> in India. </p>
<p>In response, groups of Muslim men gathered in the area. A flag was forcibly removed from a Hindu mandir (temple). Bottles and other missiles were thrown. Further violence ensued the following evening when the outer wall of a mosque was graffitied and a Hindu flag was burned.</p>
<p>Leicestershire police <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/18/police-community-leaders-crowds-leicester">called for calm</a> and at least 47 people have been arrested. Mayor Peter Soulsby has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/22/leicester-mayor-announces-independent-inquiry-into-city-violence">announced</a> an independent review into what caused this disturbance. </p>
<p>Soulsby <a href="https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/independent-review-leicester-disorder-help-7621077">reportedly</a> expects the review to make immediate headway. My research into unrest in Bradford in 2001 shows that an official response that sacrifices complexity in favour of quick solutions only serves to attribute blame at the expense of real understanding. </p>
<p>I <a href="https://issuu.com/drchrisallen/docs/fair_bradford_report_2003">investigated</a> the 2001 disturbances in Bradford, when up to 1,000 young men of South Asian and Muslim heritage battled hundreds of police officers, following a banned march by the far-right National Front in the city earlier in the day. Not only was there pressure to explain why the disturbances had happened but also pressure to find solutions. This <a href="https://tedcantle.co.uk/pdf/communitycohesion%20cantlereport.pdf">resulted</a> in the disturbances being largely blamed on the city’s Muslims, the lives they lived and the values they adhered to. </p>
<p>The sustained and deliberate provocation of white far-right groups, meanwhile, was overlooked. So too, like almost every other disturbance involving minority communities, a host of social, political and economic factors.</p>
<p>In Leicester, no single group has, as yet, been blamed. However, there is a similar reluctance to dig into the complexity of the situation. Though proactive in communicating information about its policing of the disturbances, Leicestershire Police has referred, not specifically to Hindus or Muslims, but to “the community”. </p>
<p>Temporary Chief Constable Rob Nixon has variously thanked “the community for their ongoing support”, made reference to a “community meeting”, expressed gratitude to “the community who have joined us in calling for calm” and reiterated his commitment to working “alongside community leaders” to find solutions.</p>
<p>Political geographer Arshad Isakjee <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-there-is-no-such-thing-as-the-muslim-community-33862">has shown</a> applying the notion of “community” to ethnic and religious minorities makes the lazy assumption that ethnic minorities have more in common with each other than white or Christian communities do. </p>
<p>What’s more, it homogenises all people deemed to be within the group in question, thereby “othering” them as distinct from anyone outside that group. In other words, the problem becomes “their problem”, not “ours”. The onus is put on them to provide “solutions” to what is actually a vast array of social problems. </p>
<p>Community groups and community leaders do of course exist, in Leicester as elsewhere. But it is entirely possible that they may be oblivious to what is happening or out of touch with those outside of their immediate circles of influence. This is especially true of religious leaders who are unlikely to engage those who do not attend the same places of worship or who practice their faith differently. </p>
<h2>Blaming outsiders</h2>
<p>On September 20, Hindu and Muslim religious leaders issued a <a href="https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/we-not-you-succeed-leicesters-7605808">joint statement</a>, describing Hindus and Muslims as “a family” who share a city that is “a beacon of diversity and community cohesion”. It echoed the increasingly popular explanation that the trouble was instigated by outsiders, bolstered by media reports that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/22/leicester-mayor-announces-independent-inquiry-into-city-violence">eight of the 18 people</a> arrested on September 18, 2022 did not reside in Leicestershire. </p>
<p>“We together call upon the inciters of hatred to leave our city alone,” the joint statement said. “Leicester has no place for any foreign extremist ideology that causes division.” Soulsby made the same point when announcing the inquiry, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/22/leicester-mayor-announces-independent-inquiry-into-city-violence">saying</a> that it would be necessary to investigate whether the disturbances were “motivated by extreme ideologies imported from elsewhere”.</p>
<p>Some will assume this to be Islamist extremism. Despite there being no evidence to support such an assumption, research shows that <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/1765-the-muslims-are-coming">a key trope of Islamophobia</a> is the conflation of all things Islam with extremism. The mere involvement of Muslims will be evidence enough for some to jump to such a conclusion. </p>
<p>However, it is necessary – given the slogans chanted in Leicester and wider concerns <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/20/what-is-hindu-nationalism-and-who-are-the-rss">dating back to 2019</a> – to also examine the extent to which Hindu nationalist ideologies or “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-one-atheist-laid-the-foundation-of-contemporary-hindu-nationalism-169130">Hindutva</a>” is causing tensions outside of India’s borders. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09584935.2014.1001721">Research</a> shows Hindutva sentiment has been on the rise in Britain since 2014. This far-right ideology promotes hatred towards all non-Hindu <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/the-violent-toll-of-hindu-nationalism-in-india">religious minorities</a> and <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/13/jai-shri-ram-india-hindi/">Muslims in particular</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this, local media has begun to distance the city’s established Hindu communities from blame. Instead it <a href="https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/news-opinion/what-led-ugly-scenes-violence-7603138">cites wide claims</a> that Hindu nationalism has been imported into the city by recent migrants from India.</p>
<p>For two decades, Leicester has presented itself as the most ethnically harmonious city in Britain. This differentiates it from cities such as Birmingham or Bradford, which have seen disturbances involving ethnic and religious minorities. Blaming outsiders and imported ideologies has the potential to protect Leicester’s reputation. </p>
<p>Soulsby has <a href="https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/city-mayor-baffled-violence-peaceful-7601506">reportedly</a> said to be baffled by the violence. To believe that such things could never happen in Leicester suggests either wilful ignorance or collective denial at the level of the city’s leadership. To ensure that all the different people that make up the city, as well as the problems they face, can be both understood and responded to, this needs to change.</p>
<p>The review offers a crucial opportunity to actually understand what is happening. There needs to be a full recognition that communities are not homogenous. Whether in Leicester or elsewhere, neither Muslim nor Hindu communities are one-dimensional or singular. </p>
<p>There also needs to be a recognition that the problems experienced by religious communities are not necessarily religious. Their lives are impacted by socio-economic and socio-political factors that transcend ethnic and religious identities.</p>
<p>Further, the impact of the global on the local cannot be overlooked, as the influence of Hindutva in Leicester, as <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203837054-11/western-hindutva-hindu-nationalism-united-kingdom-north-america-north-america-christophe-jaffrelot-ingrid-therwath">elsewhere in Britain</a> demonstrates. To take this into account is not to apportion blame. Ignoring it, however, won’t help us fully understand what is happening.</p>
<p>Finally, the review cannot be premised on the basis that the solutions to the disturbances can be singularly found within Leicester’s communities. This is a collective issue that has the very real potential to have a detrimental impact on our collective futures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191363/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Allen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tensions between Hindus and Muslims have been growing in Leicester for months. The city’s leadership needs to take the time to understand why.Chris Allen, Associate Professor, School of Criminology, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1893582022-09-09T12:57:32Z2022-09-09T12:57:32ZStop using ‘Latinx’ if you really want to be inclusive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483804/original/file-20220909-15-jjaw4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C11%2C3811%2C2144&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Latine' is much more adaptable to the Spanish language.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mario Garza</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of the debates on the usage of “Latinx” – pronounced “la-teen-ex” – have taken place in the U.S. But the word has begun to spread into Spanish-speaking countries – where it hasn’t exactly been embraced. </p>
<p>In July 2022, Argentina and Spain <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/20/world/americas/argentina-gender-neutral-spanish.html">released public statements</a> banning the use of Latinx, or any gender-neutral variant. Both governments reasoned that these new terms are violations of the rules of the Spanish language.</p>
<p>Latinx is used as an individual identity for those who are gender-nonconforming, and it can also describe an entire population without using “Latinos,” which is currently the default in Spanish for a group of men and women.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.slu.edu/arts-and-sciences/women-gender-studies/faculty/melissa-ochoa.php">a Mexican-born, U.S.-raised scholar</a>, I agree with the official Argentine and Spanish stance on banning Latinx from the Spanish language – English, too.</p>
<p>When I first heard Latinx in 2017, I thought it was progressive and inclusive, but I quickly realized how problematic it was. Five years later, Latinx is not commonly used in Spanish-speaking countries, nor is it used by the majority of those identifying as Hispanic or Latino in the U.S.</p>
<p>In fact, there’s a gender-inclusive term that’s already being used by Spanish-speaking activists that works as a far more natural replacement. </p>
<h2>Low usage</h2>
<p>Though the exact origins of Latinx are unclear, it <a href="https://www.history.com/news/hispanic-latino-latinx-chicano-background">emerged sometime around 2004</a> and gained popularity around 2014. Merriam-Webster added it to its dictionary <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-history-latinx">in 2018</a>. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in-four-u-s-hispanics-have-heard-of-latinx-but-just-3-use-it/#fn-29384-1">a 2019 Pew research study</a> and <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/353000/no-preferred-racial-term-among-black-hispanic-adults.aspx">2021 Gallup poll</a> indicated that less than 5% of the U.S. population used “Latinx” as a racial or ethnic identity.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1423107586266632192"}"></div></p>
<p>Nonetheless, Latinx <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306238">is becoming commonplace</a> among academics; it’s used at conferences, in communication and especially in publications.</p>
<p>But is it inclusive to use Latinx when most of the population does not? </p>
<h2>Perpetuating elitism</h2>
<p>The distinct demographic differences of those who are aware of or use Latinx calls into question whether the term is inclusive or just elitist. </p>
<p>Individuals who self-identiy as Latinx or are aware of the term <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in-four-u-s-hispanics-have-heard-of-latinx-but-just-3-use-it/#fn-29384-1">are most likely to be</a> U.S.-born, young adults from 18 to 29 years old. They are predominately English-speakers and have some college education. In other words, the most marginalized communities do not use Latinx.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1484941174070779908"}"></div></p>
<p>Scholars, in my view, should never impose social identities onto groups that do not self-identify that way. </p>
<p>I once had a reviewer for an academic journal article I submitted about women’s experiences with catcalling tell me to replace my use of “Latino” and “Latina” with “Latinx.” However, they had no issue with me using “man” or “woman” when it came to my white participants. </p>
<p>I was annoyed at the audacity of this reviewer. The goal of the study was to show catcalling, a gendered interaction, as an everyday form of sexism. </p>
<p>How was I supposed to differentiate my participants’ sexism experiences by gender and race if I labeled them all as Latinx?</p>
<h2>The ‘x’ factor</h2>
<p>If a term is truly inclusive, it gives equitable weight to vastly diverse experiences and knowledge; it is not meant to be a blanket identity.</p>
<p>Women of color, in general, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/04/01/stem-jobs-see-uneven-progress-in-increasing-gender-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/">are severely underrepresented</a> in leadership positions and STEM fields. Using “Latinx” for women further obscures their contributions and identity. I have even seen some academics try to get around the nebulous nature of Latinx by writing “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08901171211073960">Latinx mothers</a>” or “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.04.008">Latinx women</a>” instead of “Latinas.”</p>
<p>Furthermore, if the goal is to be inclusive, the “x” would be easily pronounceable and naturally applied to other parts of the Spanish language.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/754010">Some Spanish speakers would rather identify</a> by nationality – say, “Mexicano” or “Argentino” – instead of using umbrella terms like Hispanic or Latino. But the “x” can’t be easily applied to nationalities. Like Latinx, “Mexicanx” and “Argentinx” don’t exactly roll off the tongue in any language. Meanwhile, gendered articles in Spanish – “los” and “las” for the plural “the” – become “lxs,” while gendered pronouns –“el” and “ella” becomes “ellx.” </p>
<p>The utility and logic of it quickly falls apart.</p>
<h2>‘Latine’ as an alternative</h2>
<p>Many academics might feel compelled to continue to use Latinx because they fought hard to have it recognized by their institutions or have already published the term in an academic journal. But there is a much better gender-inclusive alternative, one that’s been largely overlooked by the U.S. academic community and is already being used in Spanish-speaking parts of Latin America, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2019/12/05/teens-argentina-are-leading-charge-gender-neutral-language/">especially among young social activists</a> in those countries.</p>
<p>It’s “Latine” – pronounced “lah-teen-eh” – and it’s far more adaptable to the Spanish language. It can be implemented as articles – “les” instead of “los” or “las,” the words for “the.” When it comes to pronouns, “elle” can become a singular form of “they” and used in place of the masculine “él” or feminine “ella,” which translate to “he” and “she.” It can also be readily applied to most nationalities, such as “Mexicane” or “Argentine.”</p>
<p>Because language shapes the way we think, it’s important to note that gendered languages like Spanish, German and French do facilitate <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/405621528167411253/pdf/WPS8464.pdf">gender stereotypes and discrimination</a>. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2019/12/05/teens-argentina-are-leading-charge-gender-neutral-language/">For example</a>, in German, the word for bridge is feminine, and in Spanish, the word for bridge is masculine. Cognitive scientist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8mm3GBsAAAAJ&hl=en">Lera Boroditsky</a> had German speakers and Spanish speakers describe a bridge. The German speakers were more likely to describe it using adjectives like “beautiful” or “elegant,” while the Spanish speakers were more likely to describe it in masculine ways – “tall” and “strong.”</p>
<p>Moreover, the existing gender rules in Spanish are not perfect. Usually words ending in “-o” are masculine and those ending in “-a” are feminine, but there are many common words <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/words-that-break-the-gender-rule-3078133">that break those gender rules</a>, like “la mano,” the word for “hand.” And, of course, Spanish already uses an “e” <a href="https://callmelatine.com/faq/">for gender-neutral words</a>, such as “estudiante,” or “student.”</p>
<p>I believe Latine accomplishes what Latinx originally meant to and more. Similarly, it eliminates the gender binary in its singular and plural form. However, Latine is not confined to an elite, English-speaking population within the U.S. It is inclusive.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, problems can still arise when the word “Latine” is imposed onto others. “Latina” and “Latino” may still be preferable for many individuals. I don’t think the “-e” should eliminate the existing “-o” and the “-a.” Instead, it could be a grammatically acceptable addition to the Spanish language.</p>
<p>Yes, Argentina and Spain’s ban of Latinx also included a ban on the use of Latine. Here is where I diverge from their directive. To me, the idea that language can be purist is nonsensical; language always evolves, whether it’s <a href="https://www.languagewire.com/en/blog/how-language-evolves">through technology</a> – think emojis and <a href="https://theconversation.com/emoticons-and-symbols-arent-ruining-language-theyre-revolutionizing-it-38408">textspeak</a> – or increased social awareness, such as the evolution from “wife beating” to “<a href="https://cppr-institute-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/modules/HFAModules/Resources/IPV%20New%20Directions.pdf">intimate partner violence.</a>” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/sapir-whorf-hypothesis-1691924">Linguistic theory</a> posits that language shapes reality, so cultures and communities can create words that shape the inclusive world they want to inhabit. </p>
<p>Language matters. Latine embodies that inclusivity – across socioeconomic status, citizenship, education, gender identity, age groups and nations, while <a href="https://storylearning.com/learn/spanish/spanish-tips/inclusive-spanish">honoring the Spanish language in the process</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa K. Ochoa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some Spanish-speaking activists are already using a different gender-inclusive term, arguing it’s a better replacement for Latinx.Melissa K. Ochoa, Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, Saint Louis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1801252022-04-04T19:57:55Z2022-04-04T19:57:55ZPreselection and parachuting candidates: 3 reasons parties override their local branch members, despite the costs<p><a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2022/04/02/actually-moslem-the-true-story-morrisons-ruthless-preselection">Allegations emerged</a> over the weekend that Prime Minister Scott Morrison used a racist slur in a preselection battle in 2007.</p>
<p>Morrison <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-03/scott-morrison-denies-liberal-preselection-allegations/100962376">strongly denies</a> the allegations, which were detailed in two statutory declarations and have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/03/michael-towke-repeats-claims-after-pm-denies-raising-his-lebanese-heritage-in-2007-preselection-fight">backed by Michael Towke</a>, who was his rival for the seat of Cook at the time.</p>
<p>The issue has brought into focus preselection processes and minority representation in Australian politics.</p>
<p>On this front, and for the second time in under a year, the Labor party has <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/labor-preselects-former-rudd-adviser-andrew-charlton-for-battleground-seat-of-parramatta-ahead-of-federal-election/news-story/5a37acfc79a205020c451daac82a3632">parachuted</a> a “celebrity” Anglo-Celtic politician into a culturally diverse seat in Western Sydney.</p>
<p>Labor is overriding local party members to go with “captain’s pick” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/22/labor-plan-to-parachute-andrew-charlton-into-multicultural-western-sydney-seat-ignites-anger">Andrew Charlton</a> in Parramatta. An economist and former staffer to Kevin Rudd, Charlton will replace retiring MP Julie Owens in what is considered a marginal seat. This is despite three local South Asian-Australian ALP members already competing for preselection before they decided to withdraw following Albanese’s announcement. </p>
<p>It follows the preselection of Senator Kristina Keneally in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-12/kristina-keneally-fowler-labor-diversity-woes-tu-le/100451344">Fowler</a> last year (one of the most diverse seats in the country) over local lawyer Tu Le, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees.</p>
<p>There is also an <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/senator-s-grenade-reveals-growing-anger-within-liberals-over-preselections-20220330-p5a9he.html">ongoing dispute</a> in the NSW Liberal Party, with many members interested in forcing senior party figures to accept open ballots by local members for preselection over picking their own candidates.</p>
<p>Why are major political parties repeatedly willing to override the mandates of their local branch members? And what needs to change to increase diversity?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1510368673676283907"}"></div></p>
<h2>Ethnic minorities in #auspol</h2>
<p>According to a <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/Leading%20for%20Change_Blueprint2018_FINAL_Web.pdf">2018 report</a> from the Australian Human Rights Commission, only 4.1% of MPs in Australia’s last federal parliament hailed from a non-European background.</p>
<p>The percentage of those with Indigenous ancestry was 1.5%.</p>
<p>This is despite <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/18/does-federal-parliament-accurately-reflect-the-evolving-face-of-diverse-australia">21% of the total</a> Australian population having a non-European background and 3% identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in the 2016 census.</p>
<p>While there needs to be more research, the reasons behind this include:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>outdated preselection processes at local levels</p></li>
<li><p>a lack of targeted efforts by major parties beyond tokenism</p></li>
<li><p>and broader public perceptions around seeing minority candidates as leaders.</p></li>
</ol>
<h2>How does preselection work?</h2>
<p>Preselection is the process by which a registered political party chooses who will be their endorsed election candidate in any given federal or state seat.</p>
<p>In Australia, <a href="https://legalanswers.sl.nsw.gov.au/hot-topics-voting-and-elections/standing-election">preselection processes</a> vary between states and parties. </p>
<p>Often, local party members get to know potential preselection candidates who are usually from the same branch or state, and then cast their vote.</p>
<p>In many cases, voting panels consist of local members and state and central delegates to avoid accusations of “branch stacking”, or having members favour particular candidates over the general interests of the party.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-ahead-54-46-in-post-budget-newspoll-as-morrison-rejects-claims-of-racist-tactics-in-his-preselection-fight-180550">Labor ahead 54-46% in post-budget Newspoll, as Morrison rejects claims of racist tactics in his preselection fight</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>My research</h2>
<p>I conducted research on <a href="https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/indian-australian-political-candidates-as-transnational-actors-r/20093824">Indian-Australian election candidates for the last NSW state election in 2019</a>, analysing their published interviews and campaign materials. I also interviewed one Labor and one National candidate, both children of Indian migrants. </p>
<p>One of my key findings was that party structures and mechanisms for preselection need to change to allow for local representation.</p>
<p>This is especially needed in seats with a culturally diverse population, which also increasingly have large numbers of branch members hailing from these backgrounds.</p>
<p>My research suggests there’s a hunger for political participation in these communities, but it’s not being met with adequate opportunities for representation.</p>
<p>I also found public attitudes to representation from diverse communities need to shift. Candidates from ethnic minorities need to be more than just token faces in unwinnable seats.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1509803320294227969"}"></div></p>
<h2>What do other countries do?</h2>
<p><a href="https://utpdistribution.com/9781487504151/race-ethnicity-and-the-participation-gap/">Research</a> suggests Australia lags behind Canada and the United States in the political participation and representation of ethnic minorities at all levels of government.</p>
<p>Our culturally diverse population is not reflected in the makeup of our parliament. </p>
<p>Of the three immigrant settler colonies, Canada has been the most successful in increasing the representation of culturally diverse candidates in their House of Commons, from 4% of MPs in 1993, to 9% in 2011, and 14% by 2015.</p>
<p>Research indicates the relative success of Canada and the US is due to specific policies designed to close the representation gaps. For instance, Canada has a proactive approach that recognises the benefits of ethnic minority representation. Canada encourages first-generation migrants to participate in politics through greater access to becoming legal and active citizens.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-first-nations-people-in-parliament-matters-heres-why-115633">More First Nations people in parliament matters. Here’s why.</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is important to get ethnic minority candidates elected to <a href="http://www.revparlcan.ca/en/visible-minority-candidates-and-mps-in-the-2019-federal-election/">party structures</a>. If minorities become involved in official decision-making roles in political parties, they’re more likely to form influential networks, set agendas, and mentor future generations of preselection candidates from under-represented backgrounds.</p>
<p>In the UK, an increase in minority representation in 2010 would not have happened without <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01402382.2013.773729">targeted efforts</a> by the main political parties to attract these candidates in seats with both migrant and non-migrant voters.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Research has repeatedly shown the benefits of diversity. </p>
<p>A 2013 study of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23496636?seq=1">Black legislators in the United States</a> found they were far more likely to continue responding to requests from out-of-district Black individuals than were their non-Black colleagues.</p>
<p>Similarly, a 2013 article in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/pa/article/66/2/305/1528471?login=true">Parliamentary Affairs</a> found ethnic minority MPs in the UK were more likely to ask questions about the rights of ethnic minorities and immigration issues than their white counterparts. </p>
<p>That is, getting people into parliament from minority groups increases the visibility of their issues, concerns and world-views.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/25/labor-spent-weeks-shopping-for-high-profile-candidates-for-parramatta-seat">Abha Devasia</a>, a long-time union worker who was seeking preselection in Parramatta, said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We can’t talk about multiculturalism as a festival or as something nice in Harmony Week. It’s about allowing us to be part of the decision-making process.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180125/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sukhmani Khorana does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are many factors at play including outdated preselection processes at local levels and a lack of targeted efforts by major parties beyond tokenism.Sukhmani Khorana, Senior Research Fellow, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1752802022-02-01T14:18:39Z2022-02-01T14:18:39ZCOVID: how the pandemic could make poverty levels among ethnic minorities even worse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443745/original/file-20220201-23-17qcusf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3936%2C2622&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tired-exhausted-female-african-scrub-nurse-1766425184">Shutterstock/insta_photos</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ethnic minority groups have suffered the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/updatingethniccontrastsindeathsinvolvingthecoronaviruscovid19englandandwales/8december2020to1december2021">highest risk of COVID mortality</a> in the UK, according to the latest official figures. In the first wave (before the vaccine roll-out), the risk of death was highest for those with a black African background. During the second and third waves, it was consistently highest among those with Bangladeshi origins. </p>
<p>Those <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/whyhaveblackandsouthasianpeoplebeenhithardestbycovid19/2020-12-14">high levels of risk</a> are partly to do with where people live and how they earn a living. Members of ethnic minorities <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/explainers-52969054">tend to work</a> in <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19relateddeathsbyoccupationenglandandwales/deathsregisteredbetween9marchand25may2020">sectors</a> which require face-to-face contact such as social care, retail and transport. They are also more likely to live in places where it is difficult to practice <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-social-distancing-and-self-quarantine">social distancing</a>. </p>
<p>This is because people from minority ethnic groups in the UK are more likely to be living in poverty. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344725834_Ethnic_Poverty_Causes_Implications_and_Solutions">Our research</a> into rates of ethnic poverty (systemic poverty within an ethnic group) found levels before COVID of 50% for Bangladeshis, 47% for Pakistanis and 40% for black people, compared with 19% for white British people. Our work also supports fears that the pandemic risks <a href="https://devinit.org/resources/poverty-trends-global-regional-and-national/">making things even worse</a> if action isn’t taken to reverse its effects. </p>
<p>For example, reports suggest that while ethnic minorities had <a href="https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/work-pay-and-benefits/unemployment-and-economic-inactivity/unemployment/latest">higher unemployment rates</a> before the pandemic, they then suffered a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpsee_e16.htm">higher proportion</a> of <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourmarketstatusbyethnicgroupa09">job loses</a> during it. Rates of <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourmarketstatusbyethnicgroupa09">ethnic unemployment</a> in the period from October to December 2019 were 4.5% for Bangladeshis, 7.7% for Pakistanis and 8.7% for black people, compared with 3.4% for white British. A year later, after almost a year of COVID, those rates went up respectively to 6.4%, 9.8%, 14% and 4.5%. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/19/black-and-minority-ethnic-uk-workers-hit-worst-by-covid-job-cuts">pandemic</a> has also <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/developing-countries-covid-19-crisis-has-not-affected-everyone-equally">increased</a> inequality of <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/we-must-loosen-povertys-grip-black-asian-and-ethnic-minority-people">access to education</a> and good jobs, which again <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/whyhaveblackandsouthasianpeoplebeenhithardestbycovid19/2020-12-14">push</a> ethnic minorities into poverty.</p>
<h2>Root causes</h2>
<p>Our research also examined the causes of this kind of systemic inequality, which often has roots that go back hundreds of years. The US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, are examples of “<a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/white-settler-society">settler societies</a>”, countries in which the now-predominant population were immigrants, while the <a href="https://www.iwgia.org/en/usa.html">indigenous population</a> like the <a href="https://ncrc.org/racial-wealth-snapshot-american-indians-native-americans/">Native Americans</a> and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/13/lack-of-money-43-of-aboriginal-people-in-remote-communities-have-gone-without-food-in-past-year">Aboriginal Australians</a>, have become a displaced and often poor minority. The UK is not a settler society, but has a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zf7fr82/revision/1">colonial history</a> filled with its own <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/15/how-immigration-became-britains-most-toxic-political-issue">controversies and implications</a>. </p>
<p>Although in 2022 many of these countries have laws to enable equal access to education and employment, discrimination remains a <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20200208-french-govt-study-reveals-minorities-face-discrimination-for-jobs-at-major-firms">critical barrier</a>. People from ethnic minorities are called for interviews <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/17/minority-ethnic-britons-face-shocking-job-discrimination">less frequently</a> and are <a href="https://youthfuturesfoundation.org/news/ethnic-minority-young-people-face-barriers-to-accessing-good-quality-employment-that-includes-racism/">less likely</a> to be <a href="https://www.epi.org/indicators/state-unemployment-race-ethnicity/">employed</a>. If they are employed, they are <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/05/08/americans-see-advantages-and-challenges-in-countrys-growing-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/">less likely</a> to <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/news-views/viewpoint/race-inclusion-workplace#gref">be promoted</a>, and suffer the indignity of an <a href="https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/mandatory-ethnicity-pay-gap-reporting/">ethnic pay gap</a>.</p>
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<p>The type of work matters too. Another reason for high poverty rates among ethnic minority groups in developed countries is the concentration of their workers in <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/entry-and-progression-work">low-paid work</a> such as social care, catering, hairdressing, cleaning and retail – occupations with limited opportunity for progression. </p>
<p>In other industries, they are <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/06/19/corporate-germany-race-diversity-data/">under-represented</a> in <a href="https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/black-employees-hold-just-1-5-per-cent-of-senior-roles#gref">senior management</a>. And while entrepreneurship is often an <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethmacbride/2021/05/23/white-men-are-now-the-minority-of-business-owners-in-the-united-states/?sh=559e42491582">important</a> route out of poverty for people from ethnic minorities, they often face <a href="https://www.fsb.org.uk/resources-page/new-report-reveals-the-obstacles-holding-back-uk-s-ethnic-minority-entrepreneurs.html">significant challenges</a> in access to financial and social capital. </p>
<p>Our research suggests that some of the underlying drivers of poverty for ethnic minorities could be tackled by improvements in education, skills, and training. They would benefit from policies which monitor the workforce in relation to ethnicity, as well as targets for ethnic minority representation on boards, something that has proven successful in <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/47d7cba0-49b2-11ea-aeb3-955839e06441">the case of gender</a>. </p>
<p>It is also important for employers, large and small, to recognise the benefits of positive action in the labour market, rather than view efforts to combat ethnic inequality as red tape or political correctness. </p>
<p>Instead, such moves should be seen as steps towards equality, fairness and better public health. And they should not be confined to the UK. Ethnic minority poverty is rife across the developed world, and other countries with higher COVID mortality rates for ethnic minority groups include <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/03/german-doctors-broach-taboo-subject-of-covid-toll-on-minority-groups">Germany</a>, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/canada-communicable-disease-report-ccdr/monthly-issue/2021-47/issue-7-8-july-august-2021/covid-19-race-data-collection-canada.html">Canada</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/07/french-coronavirus-study-finds-black-immigrant-deaths-doubled-at-peak">France</a>, and the <a href="https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race">US</a>. Our research also examined high levels of ethnic minority poverty in much poorer countries like Nigeria and Nepal.</p>
<p>It is a problem which the world cannot <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/poverty/">afford to ignore</a>. And as the global economy responds to the impact of COVID, amid <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2021/10/12/world-economic-outlook-october-2021">widespread</a> <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-economic-prospects">predictions</a> that most countries are likely to see growth in the next five to six years, now is the time to make some changes. Recovery strategies provide a chance to address the numerous barriers to equality that have existed for so long, and which make ethnic minorities everywhere more vulnerable than anyone else.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A vicious cycle of limited opportunity and poor health.Tolu Olarewaju, Lecturer in Management, Keele UniversityTemitayo Olarewaju, PhD Candidate, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1667662021-08-27T15:50:25Z2021-08-27T15:50:25ZCan Labour fix its relationship with its Muslim voters before it’s too late?<p>Labour leader Keir Starmer celebrated victory in the recent Batley and Spen by-election by declaring his party “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jul/02/labour-candidate-kim-leadbeater-wins-batley-and-spen-byelection">is back</a>”. He hailed Kim Leadbeater’s win as the beginning of Labour’s fight to win the next general election.</p>
<p>But the narrowness of the result has exposed festering doubts about the sustainability of Labour’s electoral coalition in many of the constituencies that it has long seen as strongholds. We know the party has been losing white voters in so-called <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/09/labour-red-wall-seats-lost-to-conservatives-in-2019-might-be-lost-for-good">red-wall towns</a> but there are growing cracks in Labour’s relationship with the British Muslim electorate. </p>
<p>These threaten the party’s standing in many northern towns, midlands cities and London constituencies. To ensure that this is not the start of a long-term breakdown of the electoral relationship, Labour needs to think differently about how it engages with the Muslim community.</p>
<p>The Labour Party has <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199656639.001.0001/acprof-9780199656639">long been seen</a> as the party of all ethnic minority communities in Britain. And indeed it remains the party of choice for the overwhelming majority of Muslim voters. In 2017, <a href="https://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/2017%20Election%20Briefing.pdf">87% of Muslims</a> voted Labour. Among voters from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds (the vast majority of Muslims in the UK), support was above 90%. The same data is not available for the 2019 general election, but <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2019-election">64% of all</a> BAME electors voted Labour. A <a href="https://www.survation.com/british-muslims-retain-strong-link-to-labour-but-leadership-ratings-lag-those-of-the-party/">small survey</a> commissioned by the Labour Muslim Network in 2021 also showed 72% of Muslim respondents identified with Labour, compared to only 9% who identified with the Conservatives. </p>
<p>This backing is disproportionately important for the party. The concentration of Muslim voters in relatively few constituencies and the British electoral system of first past the post mean that although Muslims only make up 4% of the population, if they vote as a group, they have the ability to decide who becomes the local MP in <a href="https://mcb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/MCB-2019-General-Election-Policy-Platform.pdf">some areas</a>.</p>
<h2>Community networks</h2>
<p>Labour has often relied on <em>biraderi</em> networks to build electoral support among Muslim communities. <em>Biraderi</em>, meaning brotherhood in Urdu and Punjabi, are informal networks of men within south Asian Muslim communities that have been operating since the first immigrants arrived. Members support one another practically and encourage each other in their aspirations. </p>
<p>In areas with large Muslim populations, the leaders of these networks are able to use their position within the community to build relationships with local politicians. They often wield significant influence and sometimes join the party themselves, potentially gaining prominent positions and being elected as party representatives.</p>
<p>Instead of building direct relationships with their constituents, some Labour politicians have relied on <em>biraderi</em> leaders to “<a href="https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/its-not-what-you-know-its-who-you-know-what-are-the-implications-of-networks-in-uk-politics-for-electoral-choice(318949fc-ccec-45bc-8570-79c2aa6283d5).html">get out the vote</a>” by using their influence among the Muslim community. These arrangements have helped deliver short-term benefits in the form of election victories, but it can mean that the Labour party only comes into meaningful contact with a small section of the Muslim population. </p>
<p><em>Biraderi</em> members are generally older, well-connected men who often hold socially conservative views. This can put the party in a difficult spot when it comes to certain issues. In 2015, Labour found itself having to defend a <a href="https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/labour-defends-election-rally-men-9180321">sex-segregated election rally event</a> in Birmingham instead of talking about its campaign pledges. This approach also has the potential to weaken Labour’s electoral position as younger generations are less engaged and influenced by <em>biraderi</em> politicking. </p>
<h2>Breaking the cycle</h2>
<p>These very issues have been borne out in recent election results. George Galloway won a 2012 by-election in Bradford West for the Respect party by circumventing the <em>biraderi</em> networks that were loyal to Labour and <a href="http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/144518/">speaking to</a> women and young people directly on the doorstep. He ended up overturning a 5,700 Labour majority with a 36.6% swing. </p>
<p>The 2021 contest in Batley and Spen seemed like it was also going to end in defeat for Labour, with Galloway again standing and the Conservatives making gains in other northern towns. This time, Galloway tried to tap into <em>biraderi</em> networks for his own gain. In the end, Leadbeater won with a slim majority, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/jo-cox-batley-spen-kim-leadbetter-v14cf22d2">although she was</a> on the end of significant abuse and intimidatory tactics from some male Muslim activists. Labour’s support for LGBT sex education was a particular focus of their displeasure.</p>
<p>The Labour Party’s new position on the <a href="https://labour.org.uk/press/keir-starmer-takes-first-steps-to-rebuild-links-with-the-indian-community/">Kashmir conflict</a> was also an issue in Batley and Spen. After taking office as leader, Starmer significantly backtracked from the policy agreed at the 2019 party conference supporting <a href="https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/CAC-5-FINAL.pdf">self-determination for the region</a> that is currently split between Pakistan and India. This disappointed many Muslims in the UK who have roots in the region. Accusations that Labour doesn’t take Islamophobia as seriously as antisemitism have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/20/muslims-keir-starmer-leaves-batley-voters-disaffected-labour">not helped</a>.</p>
<p>However, underneath these policy debates is the longstanding weakness in the way Labour engages Muslims. This points to a longer-term electoral problem for the party but also the potential solution for how Labour can rebuild a winning voter base. </p>
<p>What the narrow victory in Batley and Spen should show Labour is that it doesn’t have to solely rely on <em>biraderi</em> networks for electoral success. By engaging with Muslim women and other voters directly, and by bypassing the <em>biraderi</em> networks, it can win elections without having to compromise its progressive beliefs. </p>
<p>The Muslim women of Batley and Spen wrote an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/30/muslim-women-in-batley-and-spen-call-out-actions-of-loud-minority-of-men">open letter</a> condemning the abuse that Leadbeatter received and expressing concerns that the community was allowing “an elite group of men to dictate the agenda”. The Labour Party should learn from its defeat in 2012 in Bradford West and its victory in 2021 in Batley and Spen to build a new coalition of voters that includes people like these women.</p>
<p>The lesson the party should take from Batley and Spen is that victory is possible, but there are no shortcuts. Relying on <em>biraderi</em> networks is no longer enough to guarantee electoral success. The party can win in areas with large Muslim populations, but not without the hard work of directly engaging with voters, regardless of their sex or community connections.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166766/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Farah Hussain is a Labour Party local councillor in the London Borough of Redbridge. </span></em></p>Debates about Kashmir and party policy mask a deeper problem of complacency and disconnect.Farah Hussain, PhD Researcher, School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1583372021-04-06T18:27:32Z2021-04-06T18:27:32ZYes, there is structural racism in the UK – COVID-19 outcomes prove it<p>The release of the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974507/20210331_-_CRED_Report_-_FINAL_-_Web_Accessible.pdf">Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report</a> has generated a groundswell of negative reaction, specifically of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/04/the-observer-view-on-the-sewell-commissions-race-report">disappointment and frustration</a>.</p>
<p>The report minimises structural racism, a reality for so many that negatively impacts on their opportunities to achieve their full potential. It cites deprivation, geography and differential exposure to key risk factors as the major drivers of health inequalities but fails to include ethnicity. </p>
<p>This reductive view is far removed from the vast body of robust research, including our own, which identifies racism as key to generating and reinforcing longstanding health inequity. In health terms, <a href="https://globalhealtheurope.org/values/inequity-and-inequality-in-health/">inequity</a> specifically refers to systematic differences in outcomes between groups that are unfair or discriminatory. This has never been more true than during a pandemic that is having a <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-asked-70-000-people-how-coronavirus-affected-them-what-they-told-us-revealed-a-lot-about-inequality-in-the-uk-143718">disproportionate impact</a> on <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-black-and-asian-people-at-greater-risk-of-coronavirus-heres-what-we-found-140584">ethnic minority communities</a>. </p>
<p>COVID-19 has placed ethnic inequities in health outcomes in sharp focus. Of the first 100 NHS clinical staff to die of the disease, <a href="https://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/publications/Facts%20Dont%20Lie%20(2021)-Begum%2C%20Treloar%20.pdf">60 were from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background</a>, despite the fact that overall only 20% of NHS staff are from these backgrounds. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/1/e042140">own research</a> reveals further inequalities. As frontline doctors witnessing first hand the toll of the pandemic on the east London communities where we work, we sought to explore COVID-19 outcomes across ethnic groups. </p>
<p>Our cohort of 1,737 COVID-19 patients admitted to Barts Health NHS Trust served as one of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/49-more-likely-to-die-racial-inequalities-of-covid-19-laid-bare-in-study-of-east-london-hospitals-153834">largest and most diverse groups of COVID-19 patients in the UK</a>. The detailed nature of our dataset enabled us to address whether a range of factors including social and economic background, previous underlying conditions, lifestyle and demographic factors contributed to patient outcome.</p>
<p>We identified clear differences in outcome according to ethnic background. Black and Asian patients were respectively 30% and 49% more likely to die within 30 days of hospital admission compared to patients from white backgrounds of a similar age and baseline health. Black patients were 80% and Asian patients 54% more likely to be admitted to intensive care and need invasive mechanical ventilation.</p>
<p>When we accounted for the role played by underlying health conditions, lifestyle, and demographic factors, this did not alter the increased risk of death in Black and Asian populations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A health worker runs between two rows of ambulances." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393575/original/file-20210406-17-ehs0kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393575/original/file-20210406-17-ehs0kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393575/original/file-20210406-17-ehs0kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393575/original/file-20210406-17-ehs0kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393575/original/file-20210406-17-ehs0kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393575/original/file-20210406-17-ehs0kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393575/original/file-20210406-17-ehs0kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In the hospitals of East London, Black and Asian patients were respectively 30% and 49% more likely to die within 30 days of hospital admission with COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-january-19-2021-1897804942">Ilyas Tayfun Salci/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Within our cohort, all ethnic groups experienced high levels of deprivation. However, deprivation was not associated with higher likelihood of mortality suggesting that ethnicity may affect outcomes independent of geographical and socioeconomic factors. </p>
<p>In our study, we named structural racism as one of the risk factors associated with these worse outcomes associated with ethnicity, alongside living conditions such as multi-generational households, underlying health status, public-facing jobs and socio-economic status. We also emphasised the need to take account of a number of potential factors including household composition, environmental concerns and occupation. </p>
<h2>Naming racism</h2>
<p>Racism can operate and manifest at different levels: <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/structural-racism-definition/">interpersonal, individual, institutional and structural</a>. </p>
<p>Institutional racism (which the government report said “is used too casually as an explanatory tool”) refers to the way that the policies and practices of institutions, including schools, workplaces and healthcare providers, produce outcomes that chronically advantage or disadvantage different ethnic groups, whether intentionally or not. Structural racism is a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations work in varied ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. Not driven by individual behaviour, it is a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist. </p>
<p>Any analysis of health inequalities that only cites economic and social factors, and omits racism, will be limited in its ability to generate understanding and solutions. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-black-and-asian-people-at-greater-risk-of-coronavirus-heres-what-we-found-140584">Why are black and Asian people at greater risk of coronavirus? Here's what we found</a>
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<p>The conclusions of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report fail to acknowledge the wealth of evidence documenting the complex, intersecting role of systems of racism in shaping the social determinants of health, including <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-043750">education, housing and income</a>. </p>
<p>There is also evidence to show the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721418770442">cumulative experiences of racism and discrimination</a> have themselves been associated with outcomes such as hypertension, coronary artery disease and asthma. </p>
<p>The report states that there is patchy data on life expectancy but concludes that life expectancy is improving for ethnic minorities. This is clearly contradicted by a <a href="https://www.health.org.uk/publications/reports/the-marmot-review-10-years-on">review last year</a> which described widening health inequalities, a stall in life expectancy improvements and an increase in time spent in ill health – all compounded by ethnicity. The review states: “Intersections between socioeconomic status, ethnicity and racism intensify inequalities in health for ethnic groups.”</p>
<p>The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report must not deter us from focusing on equity as we recover from the pandemic. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446334/">Health equity</a> means assuring everyone has the conditions for optimal health, which requires valuing all individuals and groups equally, rectifying historical injustices, and addressing contemporary injustices by providing resources <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446334/">according to need</a>. </p>
<p>Achieving health justice and truly eradicating inequalities requires new laws, policies and governmental protocols to be written and implemented with the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28221739/">explicit goal of achieving equity</a>. There must be a renewed emphasis, across all sectors, to respectfully document, acknowledge and respond to people’s experiences. Our collective frustration must shift to ongoing advocacy for commitment and action to achieve health equity and justice for all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158337/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanessa Apea has received funding from Barts Charity </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yize Wan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our research shows that COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting Black and Asian people, and racism is part of the explanation why.Vanessa Apea, Consultant Physician in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine, Queen Mary University of LondonYize Wan, Clinical Lecturer in Intensive Care Medicine, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1561932021-03-23T16:09:10Z2021-03-23T16:09:10ZHow to engage with China over its treatment of Uyghurs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388598/original/file-20210309-17-zrxpkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4956%2C3286&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A child stands near a large screen showing photos of Chinese President Xi Jinping near a carpark in Kashgar in western China's Xinjiang region. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nations around the world should be applauded for continuing to pressure China on its treatment of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. </p>
<p>In February 2021, the Canadian House of Commons <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-parliament-declares-china-is-conducting-genocide-against-its-muslim/">unanimously endorsed a motion</a> calling the treatment of Uyghurs, a largely Muslim ethnic minority group, genocide. The motion makes Canada just the second country after the United States — which passed the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3744">Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act</a> in June 2020 — to overtly signal to China through a legislative procedure that its treatment of Uyghurs is a gross violation of human rights.</p>
<p>It also follows repeated calls by members of the <a href="https://www.dni.gov/index.php/ncsc-how-we-work/217-about/organization/icig-pages/2660-icig-fiorc">Five Eyes intelligence alliance</a> to end the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/18/australia-foreign-minister-labels-china-treatment-uighurs-disturbing">arbitrary detentions</a> and the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/china-uighur-detention-camps-canada-western-countries-1.4893676">mass internment</a> of Uyghurs.</p>
<p>Chinese officials have <a href="http://ca.china-embassy.org/eng/sgxw/t1855850.htm">responded negatively</a> to this pressure, especially in the current environment of <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/special/2017-11/03/c_136725942.htm">increasing nationalism under Xi Jinping</a>. They have repeatedly asserted that the situation in Xinjiang is an “<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/19/-first-us-china-meeting-under-biden-gets-off-to-a-rocky-start.html">internal matter</a>” that is of no concern to other nations.</p>
<p>The lack of a meaningful two-way dialogue with China over this issue is not surprising. Critics have generally used a <a href="https://ecfr.eu/article/commentary_the_eu_china_and_human_rights_in_xinjiang_time_for_a_new_approac/">rights-based approach</a> to engage with China on its treatment of ethnic minorities. While it’s undoubtedly important to continue a rights-based approach — although <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40071894?seq=1">its efficacy is debatable</a> — there is an alternative. </p>
<h2>Best practices</h2>
<p>Other nations could present best/worst practices for dealing with racialized minorities and improving inter-ethnic integration based on their own experiences.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26435650">scholarly evidence</a> suggests <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-26414014">ethnic unrest</a> has become a persistent and serious issue in China. Since the early 2000s, it has periodically manifested in outbreaks of violence, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/25/islamist-china-tiananmen-beijing-attack">from Beijing</a> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/blast-at-train-station-highlights-ethnic-tensions-in-chinas-xinjian-region-1399046554">to Xinjiang</a>, costing the lives of hundreds and injuring thousands. China is currently grappling internally with how to manage ethnic minority unrest.</p>
<p>The Chinese state’s response has been a policy of securitization with the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/apr/11/china-hi-tech-war-on-muslim-minority-xinjiang-uighurs-surveillance-face-recognition">aid of a sophisticated</a> <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/aa4465aa-2349-11e8-ae48-60d3531b7d11">and expensive</a> mass surveillance system. Unlike many other nations, China has erroneously adopted a one-size-fits-all securitization strategy in Xinjiang without appropriate institutional checks and balances. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/08b19a76-f389-11e8-ae55-df4bf40f9d0d">The end result is crackdowns</a> on core elements of Uyghur identity, including language and religious practices. This has understandably created significant resentment among Uyghurs, and has heightened the group’s ethnic consciousness. Combined with lower socio-economic status compared to the Han Chinese majority, this could lead to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02634937.2018.1496067">increasing radicalization in the future.</a> </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Uyghurs hold banners in a protest against China." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390641/original/file-20210319-19-z5rn1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390641/original/file-20210319-19-z5rn1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390641/original/file-20210319-19-z5rn1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390641/original/file-20210319-19-z5rn1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390641/original/file-20210319-19-z5rn1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390641/original/file-20210319-19-z5rn1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390641/original/file-20210319-19-z5rn1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Uyghur community living in Turkey hold banners in a protest against China in February 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Omer Kuscu)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Easing discrimination, inequality</h2>
<p>Han Chinese and Uyghurs reside in relatively segregated communities in Xinjiang, and rarely have meaningful daily interactions. While contemporary migration patterns have played a role in fostering this situation, it’s also product of economics — <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229966690_Chinese_Minority_Income_Disparity_in_Urumqi_An_Analysis_of_Han_and_Uyghur_Labour_Market_Outcomes_in_the_Formal_and_Informal_Economy">the relatively lower-wage Uyghurs and higher-wage Han Chinese</a> live in the communities they can afford, creating geographical divisions and a lack of opportunities for daily contact.</p>
<p>In the absence of meaningful contact, the two groups primarily learn about the other through mass media that often depict Uyghurs negatively, and in some cases as a “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/islamophobia-china-rise-online-hate-speech-anti-muslim-islam-nangang-communist-party-government-xinjiang-a7676031.html">dangerous threat</a>.” </p>
<p>The Chinese state should therefore be encouraged to promote positive portrayals of Uyghurs in everyday life in state-controlled mass media. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An elderly man looks at map of China showing different ethnic groups and the slogan 'Ethnic Unity.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390644/original/file-20210319-21-1en0nhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390644/original/file-20210319-21-1en0nhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390644/original/file-20210319-21-1en0nhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390644/original/file-20210319-21-1en0nhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390644/original/file-20210319-21-1en0nhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390644/original/file-20210319-21-1en0nhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390644/original/file-20210319-21-1en0nhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An elderly Chinese man looks at map of China showing its different ethnic groups and the slogan ‘Ethnic Unity’ in Beijing in January 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Socio-economic inequalities in Xinjiang play the biggest role in fomenting ethnic minority unrest. </p>
<p>Although Uyghur wage earnings have increased in the post-market reform era (1978 onwards), they have not <a href="https://www.economist.com/china/2015/01/15/dont-make-yourself-at-home">comparatively kept pace with Han Chinese</a>. Uyghurs generally have lower-paying jobs <a href="https://www.economicshelp.org/concepts/primary-sector/">in the primary sector</a> in Xinjiang, and have been unable to make significant inroads into higher-paying sectors. </p>
<p>Many of the state’s <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/sena.12233">social policy interventions</a>, while improving Uyghur’s wage earnings, have in fact exacerbated the relative socio-economic divide between Han Chinese and Uyghurs. The primary beneficiary of state initiatives to develop Xinjiang, in fact, has been the Han Chinese population.</p>
<h2>Will China abandon its policies?</h2>
<p>Given the mixed results of economic development strategies for Uyghurs in Xinjiang, there is a serious risk that China will <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3040577/chinas-ethnic-groups-face-end-affirmative-action-education">abandon its affirmative action policies aimed at improving socioeconomic outcomes for ethnic groups</a>. </p>
<p>The overwhelming evidence from other multi-ethnic states suggests this is a mistake. Improving the socio-economic conditions of Uyghurs should continue to be a priority, not only for the economic development of the region, but to reduce the potential for ethnic tensions to escalate. </p>
<p>The most significant changes that Chinese authorities can make in their management of Uyghurs is how they perceive them. Instead of viewing Uyghur identity as a threat requiring extensive control, Chinese authorities should target the main root causes of Uyghur unrest. </p>
<h2>Engaging China in the future</h2>
<p>Nations, in turn, that are concerned about the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang should engage with the Chinese state, at the ministerial level and above, by offering their own experiences and lessons learned about integrating ethnic groups. They can offer advice about the potential strategies that worked, and those that weren’t successful, to reduce unrest. </p>
<p>Chinese senior officials are well aware of the difficulties other countries encounter with integrating ethno-racialized communities, from ethnic fracturing in the former Soviet Union to Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. A Chinese official even accused the U.S. of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56452471">slaughter of Black people at a recent bilateral meeting in Alaska.</a> </p>
<p>Optimistically, this suggests that there is some <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230100381">common ground between China and other countries</a> on domestic turmoil and ethnic unrest. Perhaps this can help foster a meaningful state-to-state dialogue on the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reza Hasmath does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rights-based pressure on China over its treatment of Uyghurs is necessary, but other nations could also present best practices for the ethical treatment of racialized minorities in their own countries.Reza Hasmath, Professor in Political Science, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1559022021-02-24T14:56:16Z2021-02-24T14:56:16ZYoung ethnic minorities bear brunt of recessions, and it’s happening again – here’s how to stop it<p>The <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourmarketstatusbyethnicgroupa09">official unemployment figures</a> that have just been published for the last quarter of 2020 reveal the continued economic impact of COVID-19 on Britain’s ethnic minority groups. Among all groups, Black African/Caribbean people fared worst, with unemployment rates reaching 13.8% in the period from October to December 2020. The White unemployment rate has not reached that level since the early 1990s, and was 4.5% in the same period. </p>
<p>As you can see in the charts below, unemployment initially held steady for men and women from White and ethnic minority groups in the first full quarter after the March 2020 lockdowns. But there were sizeable increases during summer 2020, with the labour market particularly unwelcoming to ethnic minority workers. </p>
<p><strong>Unemployment rate by ethnicity and gender</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385833/original/file-20210223-18-1lmwv0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385833/original/file-20210223-18-1lmwv0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385833/original/file-20210223-18-1lmwv0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385833/original/file-20210223-18-1lmwv0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385833/original/file-20210223-18-1lmwv0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385833/original/file-20210223-18-1lmwv0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385833/original/file-20210223-18-1lmwv0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385833/original/file-20210223-18-1lmwv0f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourmarketstatusbyethnicgroupa09">ONS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The government’s much-vaunted furlough scheme appears to have muted the unemployment figures in what is the worst economic downturn <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/281734/gdp-growth-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/">in modern history</a>, but this policy response has not been race neutral. Ethnic minority people experienced a similar loss of working hours to White people, and yet <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272720301985?via%3Dihub">15% fewer workers</a> from this group were furloughed and 13% more became unemployed. </p>
<p>Much of the increase in joblessness has been <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56165929">driven by</a> the fact that younger workers have poorer prospects – this is in keeping with previous recessions. And from analysing the two post-COVID quarters of data available from the Office for National Statistics’ <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/informationforhouseholdsandindividuals/householdandindividualsurveys/labourforcesurvey">Labour Force Survey</a>, there exists a large ethnic disparity among 16-24 year olds. The youth unemployment rate among ethnic minority groups is estimated to be in the region of 20%, much larger than the 12% faced by White youths. Why is this?</p>
<h2>Ethnic minorities and recessions</h2>
<p>It is well known to researchers that recessions affect ethnic groups differently. Previous studies <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228743660_Minority_ethnic_men_in_British_labour_market_1972-2005">have noted</a> that ethnic minority unemployment rates rise faster at such times. In the literature these rates are said to exhibit “hypercyclicality”, or a supercharged response to the economic cycle. </p>
<p>In both the early 1980s and 1990s, people from Black and Pakistani/Bangladeshi backgrounds <a href="https://www.runnymedetrust.org/blog/ethnic-unemployment-in-britain">faced a greater risk</a> of unemployment than White people. And following the 2007-09 financial crisis, workers from Black African and Caribbean groups <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/poverty-across-ethnic-groups-through-recession-and-austerity">faced higher unemployment levels</a> compared to White people. </p>
<p>The chart below, using data from the Labour Force Survey, shows that the after-effects of the 2007-09 financial crisis lasted longer for young people from ethnic minorities. Their unemployment rates did not experience a sustained fall until 2014, three years after White people. Given the <a href="https://wol.iza.org/articles/do-youths-graduating-in-recession-incur-permanent-losses">long-term consequences</a> of periods of unemployment for future employment and wages, such patterns are deeply worrying.</p>
<p><strong>Unemployment rate among 16-24s</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385900/original/file-20210223-20-ievyby.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph showing unemployment rates among young whites and ethnic minorities" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385900/original/file-20210223-20-ievyby.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385900/original/file-20210223-20-ievyby.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385900/original/file-20210223-20-ievyby.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385900/original/file-20210223-20-ievyby.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385900/original/file-20210223-20-ievyby.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385900/original/file-20210223-20-ievyby.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385900/original/file-20210223-20-ievyby.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ONS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since we know that downturns disproportionately affect young people from ethnic minority backgrounds, policymakers should be ready to act. Yet despite the mounting evidence that the same thing is happening again, there is little evidence that they are doing anything about it. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/kickstart-scheme">Kickstart scheme</a> launched in 2020, funds employers to create job placements for young people on universal credit. It shows that the government is alive to the risks of youth unemployment caused by the pandemic, but the scheme does nothing to acknowledge the ethnic dimension to the problem. We see the same failing in the recent <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skills-for-jobs-lifelong-learning-for-opportunity-and-growth">government white paper</a> on post-16 education and training, and the <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/3958/documents/39777/default/">House of Lords report</a> on the impact of COVID-19 on employment.</p>
<h2>What can be done</h2>
<p>The fundamental problem <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014292115001075">is that</a> as an economy worsens, racial discrimination is likely to increase. As a result, the wage expectations and job prospects of ethnic minority workers suffer. </p>
<p>Tackling ethnic inequality has been a mainstream political goal since the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1976/74/enacted">Race Relations Act of 1976</a>, and legislation already exists that explicitly monitors the effects of discrimination. The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents">Equality Act 2010</a> brought in the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/85049/specific-duties.pdf">Equality Duty</a>, which requires all public bodies, including government departments, to consider “how the decisions that they make, and the services they deliver, affect people who share different protected characteristics”. </p>
<p>The concern is that in the current uncertain landscape the need for policies to be developed quickly is making these duties less of a priority. There is a need for everyone across the political spectrum and civil society to hold the government’s feet to the fire here – as new policies are proposed, ministers need to make explicit how, at the very least, they will not exacerbate existing labour market inequalities. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385908/original/file-20210223-15-8hm57s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man perched on concrete railing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385908/original/file-20210223-15-8hm57s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385908/original/file-20210223-15-8hm57s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385908/original/file-20210223-15-8hm57s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385908/original/file-20210223-15-8hm57s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385908/original/file-20210223-15-8hm57s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385908/original/file-20210223-15-8hm57s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385908/original/file-20210223-15-8hm57s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The downward slope: young ethnic minorities need government support quickly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Von/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, they should go further. The <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/594336/race-in-workplace-mcgregor-smith-review.pdf">2017 McGregor-Smith review</a> of race in the workplace noted that those from ethnic minority communities face “discrimination and bias at every stage of an individual’s career, and even before it begins”. The review highlighted the need to shine a light on racial differences and make the creation of an inclusive labour market part of business as usual: policy therefore needs an explicit focus on reducing ethnic inequality.</p>
<p>There is no shortage of research on the problem or guidance on how the government can help. A <a href="https://www.stuarthallfoundation.org/projects/shf-race-report/">recent review</a> identified 78 separate recommendations made by three different government-sponsored enquiries over nearly two decades. These include: mandatory unconscious bias and race awareness training; improved support for jobseekers; additional training and educational opportunities; setting recruitment and retention targets; diversifying decision-making bodies; publicising ethnic pay and employment gaps; and making leaders – in both government and non-government institutions – accountable for reducing ethnic gaps. </p>
<p>Action on the implementation of these recommendations has been patchy at best. Governments have not provided the consistent leadership required to keep the ethnicity agenda at the forefront of people’s minds. A clear focus both on the moral case for action and the practicalities of how to do it are needed to drive this agenda forward. </p>
<p>This is a crisis we have been able to see coming. Failing to anticipate the problem and react accordingly risks making increased ethnic inequality for young people one more damaging legacy of the pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Nolan's research is supported by funding from the Economic and Social Research Council through the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ken Clark's research is supported by funding from the Economic and Social Research Council through the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE). </span></em></p>The government has a legal duty not to exacerbate inequalities in its policies, but this is getting forgotten during the pandemic.Steve Nolan, Research Associate in Economics, University of ManchesterKen Clark, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1404492020-06-17T20:06:54Z2020-06-17T20:06:54Z‘The neighbours were always very welcoming and warm’: little things count to help refugees belong<p>Successful settlement and integration are shared goals of refugees and the communities where they settle. The findings of our <a href="https://www.ssi.org.au/images/Signature_Foundations_Report_withlink.pdf">research</a> released today highlight the importance of simple everyday encounters and experiences for newly arrived refugees to feel welcome in Australia. We also found refugees’ strong social bonds with family and community do not prevent them developing connections with the broader Australian community.</p>
<p>Here we explore two aspects to refugees’ social connections:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>“social bonds” that connect refugees to others within their ethnic or religious community</p></li>
<li><p>“social bridges” that connect them to others in the wider community. </p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342063/original/file-20200616-23243-16q7850.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342063/original/file-20200616-23243-16q7850.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342063/original/file-20200616-23243-16q7850.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342063/original/file-20200616-23243-16q7850.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342063/original/file-20200616-23243-16q7850.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342063/original/file-20200616-23243-16q7850.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342063/original/file-20200616-23243-16q7850.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342063/original/file-20200616-23243-16q7850.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342064/original/file-20200616-23276-90siv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342064/original/file-20200616-23276-90siv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342064/original/file-20200616-23276-90siv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342064/original/file-20200616-23276-90siv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342064/original/file-20200616-23276-90siv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342064/original/file-20200616-23276-90siv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342064/original/file-20200616-23276-90siv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342064/original/file-20200616-23276-90siv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Click on pie charts to enlarge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation. Data: Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most research on refugee integration focuses on areas like employment, education, English proficiency and health. Our research shines a light on aspects of settlement that are often overlooked: refugees’ social connections. The social dimensions of integration help them to build resilience in the face of the challenges of navigating a new chapter of their lives in Australia. </p>
<p>These social connections help lay the foundations for belonging. Ultimately, this promotes their long-term integration. </p>
<p>We surveyed 334 refugees in their preferred language. All were past participants in an on-arrival settlement program in New South Wales. We conducted 15 follow-up interviews.</p>
<p>Importantly, all the survey participants had permanent residency in Australia. This gave them full and equal access to rights and services. We believe this was a critical factor in the high levels of belonging they reported. </p>
<p>The security of permanent protection provides a bedrock for high levels of trust in both the Australian community and institutions. The majority of respondents reported strong trust in: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>the government (a lot of trust, 85%)</p></li>
<li><p>the people they work and study with (78%, a lot/some)</p></li>
<li><p>the people in their neighbourhood (75%, a lot/some)</p></li>
<li><p>the wider Australian community, to a slightly lesser extent (67% a lot/some).</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342078/original/file-20200616-23255-10wup1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342078/original/file-20200616-23255-10wup1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342078/original/file-20200616-23255-10wup1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342078/original/file-20200616-23255-10wup1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342078/original/file-20200616-23255-10wup1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342078/original/file-20200616-23255-10wup1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342078/original/file-20200616-23255-10wup1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342078/original/file-20200616-23255-10wup1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation. Data: Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Building bonds with Australia starts locally</h2>
<p>As refugees engage with their ethnic and religious communities, our research found they also develop a strong sense of belonging to their local neighbourhood and mixed friendship networks.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342090/original/file-20200616-23231-2npjs6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342090/original/file-20200616-23231-2npjs6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342090/original/file-20200616-23231-2npjs6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342090/original/file-20200616-23231-2npjs6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342090/original/file-20200616-23231-2npjs6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342090/original/file-20200616-23231-2npjs6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342090/original/file-20200616-23231-2npjs6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342090/original/file-20200616-23231-2npjs6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation. Data: Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Over three-quarters of respondents regularly meet and get to know people from ethnic and religious backgrounds other than their own. This indicates a high level of interactions and social bridges in everyday situations.</p>
<p>However, age, gender and particularly place of residence all play a role. Refugees living in regional areas were more likely than people in metropolitan areas to regularly meet people from ethnic/religious communities other than their own (90% strongly agree/agree in rural areas compared to 81% in urban areas). Men were more likely to regularly meet people from different backgrounds (81% strongly agree/agree compared to 70% among women), as were those between the ages of 18 and 24 (79%). </p>
<h2>Good neighbours create social bridges</h2>
<p>We found it’s mainly everyday encounters and experiences that foster refugees’ social bridges to the wider community. Their rates of participation in formal community activities – such as school, parent support groups and youth groups – were relatively low. </p>
<p>Despite reporting language difficulties in talking with their neighbours, refugees had high levels of trust in their neighbours and neighbourhoods. This was a result of positive and regular interactions and experiences. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342087/original/file-20200616-23217-eu426t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342087/original/file-20200616-23217-eu426t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342087/original/file-20200616-23217-eu426t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342087/original/file-20200616-23217-eu426t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342087/original/file-20200616-23217-eu426t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342087/original/file-20200616-23217-eu426t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342087/original/file-20200616-23217-eu426t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342087/original/file-20200616-23217-eu426t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation, Data: Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The findings suggest that local, everyday and neighbourhood-level social bridges are a critical part of refugee belonging. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342326/original/file-20200617-23247-4mhesp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342326/original/file-20200617-23247-4mhesp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342326/original/file-20200617-23247-4mhesp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342326/original/file-20200617-23247-4mhesp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342326/original/file-20200617-23247-4mhesp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342326/original/file-20200617-23247-4mhesp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342326/original/file-20200617-23247-4mhesp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342326/original/file-20200617-23247-4mhesp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation, Data: Author provided</span></span>
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<p>It is at this local scale that policy and service interventions are most likely to succeed. The findings also highlight why it’s important to safeguard and enhance positive attitudes towards refugees in the wider community.</p>
<p>For example, 25-year-old Maher from Afghanistan, who arrived in 2017, spoke about the importance of neighbours being friendly. He remembers them saying hello to him when he first arrived:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The neighbours were always very welcoming and warm, and usually when they see me they were greeting me well and it was making me feel very comfortable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Aram, a 39-year-old Armenian man from Syria, also arrived in 2017. He, too, valued the general friendliness in his multicultural neighbourhood: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The community where I’m at, or the neighbourhood, there are people from all different races, from Asian to Middle-Eastern, Africans, they are all different nations. So we get along really well. We all say ‘hello’ to each other, very courteous to each other. So, in both ways, it feels that I’m welcome from this end and welcome from the other end. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>These are the simple things anyone can do</h2>
<p>Overall, our findings suggest people in the community can do a number of simple, everyday things to help refugees feel welcome. And, in doing so, they support their integration. Suggested actions include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>say hello, smile and wave to neighbours – even if there is a language barrier, small positive actions make people feel like they are living in a safe and supportive community</p></li>
<li><p>help with everyday activities if you can – offer to carry in shopping, give lifts to work or school, keep an eye on the house or collect mail when neighbours are away, which are all small actions that newly arrived families remember as very welcoming</p></li>
<li><p>support grassroots ethnic and religious community groups if they are fundraising, holding activities or looking for volunteers – these are great local spaces to build social “bridges”</p></li>
<li><p>contribute to an overall positive social climate and public discourse by sharing positive attitudes towards refugees and supporting organisations that do the same.</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shanthi Robertson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tadgh McMahon is Research and Policy Manager at Settlement Services International which provides services to refugees and migrants. </span></em></p>It’s the simple, everyday encounters and experiences – a friendly wave, a helping hand – that refugees say makes them feel part of the Australian community.Shanthi Robertson, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityTadgh McMahon, Adjunct Lecturer, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1403542020-06-15T11:44:12Z2020-06-15T11:44:12ZBAME people need a better chance of fighting off coronavirus – here’s what can be done now<p>The death rate from COVID-19 in England is four times higher for black people and three times higher for Asian people than for their white counterparts, according to the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/890258/disparities_review.pdf">recent report</a> by Public Health England. We know that socio-economic and cultural factors linked to <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-its-impact-cannot-be-explained-away-through-the-prism-of-race-138046">racism and inequality</a> impact negatively on the underlying health of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people. And this may leave them less able to deal with the virus. </p>
<p>This means that to reduce the outsized effect that COVID-19 is having on BAME communities, we need to find ways to help people improve their overall health and immune responses in both the short and long term.</p>
<p>BAME people are more likely to be employed in low-paid, insecure and high-risk jobs, and live in poorer conditions in more deprived areas. <a href="https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/health-survey-for-england/health-survey-for-england-2004-health-of-ethnic-minorities-main-report#:%7E:text=Summary,on%20cardiovascular%20disease%20(CVD).">They have on average</a> poorer diets, lower rates of physical activity and inferior access to sanitation facilities.</p>
<p>A lack of money and time to devote to maintaining a healthy lifestyle combined with lower levels of health literacy often results in BAME people having weaker immune systems than more affluent groups. They are also more likely to suffer long-term conditions affecting the immune system, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and hypertension. And darker skin and cultural factors that mean BAME people are more likely to cover their bodies outside are linked to higher rates of <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-vitamin-d-protect-against-coronavirus-138001">vitamin D deficiency</a>, which can also affect the immune system.</p>
<p>With this in mind, one short-term way to improve people’s chances of surviving COVID-19 would be to boost their immune systems by encouraging them to improve their diets and increase their exposure to sunlight. In particular, this would involve encouraging people to increase their intakes of zinc, iron and vitamins A, C and D, which <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/1/236">are crucial</a> to the body’s immune response to infection.</p>
<p>To <a href="https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13104-017-3104-9">achieve this</a>, the NHS or local authorities could run information campaigns through the media and through employers, schools, healthcare facilities, places of worship and other community groups. Exercise schemes, groups and classes could also be targeted at BAME people according to their gender and age group, in order to encourage more physical activity. Such campaigns <a href="https://issuu.com/weawestmidlands/docs/tandrustiresearch">have been shown</a> to improve BAME people’s health at a local level. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341796/original/file-20200615-65930-1nfq3oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341796/original/file-20200615-65930-1nfq3oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341796/original/file-20200615-65930-1nfq3oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341796/original/file-20200615-65930-1nfq3oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341796/original/file-20200615-65930-1nfq3oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341796/original/file-20200615-65930-1nfq3oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341796/original/file-20200615-65930-1nfq3oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Community groups and champions could help improve health literacy and access to services.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/people-meeting-seminar-office-concept-524249461">Rawpixel/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The other aspect to consider is the cultural and language barriers that create problems to accessing health services. For instance, the uptake of national cancer screening programmes (for breast, bowel and cervical) is <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-8-346">very low among BAME</a> people.</p>
<p>Evidence suggests <a href="https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13104-017-3104-9">the best way</a> to engage with BAME people in this respect is to recruit and train health champions from the each community who can work to improve people’s health literacy and access to services. The charity <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18117565">Diabetes UK</a> has already had some success in improving diabetes management among BAME patients in this way.</p>
<h2>Long-term solutions</h2>
<p>Given that the coronavirus doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon and we don’t know when, or even if, a vaccine will be developed, we also need long-term strategies to improve the underlying chances of BAME people who catch COVID-19. A key aspect of this longer term approach would be to redefine the role of central and local government in public health to focus on BAME people specifically as well as deprived people in general. For example, policy changes designed to <a href="https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/changing-behaviours-publi-e0a.pdf">“nudge” people</a> to improve their health could be directed at BAME communities. </p>
<p>We also need long-term action to <a href="http://www.healthliteracyplace.org.uk/media/1239/hl-and-hi-ucl.pdf">improve the health literacy</a> of BAME people and other disadvantaged groups. This could be done through short, locally delivered courses in colleges and community centres that improve their understanding of nutrition, fitness and their specific needs. This approach would be similar to the way that computer and IT skills have been delivered.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, healthcare and other community professionals could be given more training on how to help BAME people better manage the long-term conditions that they are more likely to have and that increase the risks of COVID-19, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. </p>
<p>Another more specific strategy would be to ensure BAME patients are included in the development of vaccines and antibody therapies, which is <a href="https://bjgp.org/content/63/612/342">often not the case</a> in clinical trials. This would make the treatments more likely to be widely effective because they would have been tested more thoroughly on BAME people’s specific health characteristics.</p>
<p>However, behind all of these issues lies the fundamental inequality caused by the inferior employment and living conditions that BAME people typically face. We won’t be able to address the disparity in the death rate from COVID-19 until we tackle the disparity in the all-round life opportunities that BAME people have to deal with every day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anil Gumber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Improving health literacy and access to services could empower ethnic minorities to boost their immune systems.Anil Gumber, Senior Health Economist, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1397552020-06-11T02:10:21Z2020-06-11T02:10:21ZAustralia needs to confront its history of white privilege to provide a level playing field for all<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340786/original/file-20200610-82645-xpqcty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia is routinely compared with other rich, developed nations. Its economy, schooling, health care, infrastructure and social values are regularly put up against those of Western Europe and North America, allowing intelligent comparisons to be drawn. Like is compared with like.</p>
<p>But when it comes to the ethnic composition of its population, these comparisons are distorted by history. The unspoken twist is that, until two generations ago, Australia <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/White-Australia-Policy">practised a policy of racial exclusion</a>. </p>
<p>The country’s nation-builders placed a straitjacket on the ethnic character of Australia’s future, reflecting the values of racial hierarchy of the post-Victorian age. This policy persisted into the 1970s and meant Australia remained, for a long time, in Asia but certainly not of Asia.</p>
<p>As a new publication, <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/institutes/public-policy/-/media/Public-Policy/Documents/Reimagining-Australia--Migration-culture-diversity.pdf">Re-Imagining Australia: Migration, Culture, Diversity from the UWA Public Policy Institute</a>, argues, it is possible to see the results of this social experiment in 2020. </p>
<p>Very few older Australians beyond their 50s are of non-European descent, and this demographic feature is now hard-baked into politics and policy debates.</p>
<p>White Australians over 50 have also grown up as the first generation that has had to share legal rights and citizenship with Indigenous Australians. They have done so starting from a low base, but progress has been glacial.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-systemic-racism-and-institutional-racism-131152">Explainer: what is systemic racism and institutional racism?</a>
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<h2>Policies geared toward older, white Australians</h2>
<p>These demographic changes also play a role in how evidence-based policies are formulated. For example, each new slew of proposals concerning health and social care, taxation and property ownership affects white Australians very differently from ethnic minorities. </p>
<p>This is because the former are generally older, better off and homeowners, so they are more reliant on (and exposed to changes in) these services and policies.</p>
<p>Equally, younger Australians are considerably more likely to be of Asian, African, Middle Eastern or Pacific Islander heritage, and are disproportionately affected by policy proposals in tertiary education, housing affordability and visa restrictions. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-women-of-colour-in-science-face-a-subtly-hostile-work-environment-130204">'Death by a thousand cuts': women of colour in science face a subtly hostile work environment</a>
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<p>By not taking these structural variances into account, there can be major gaps in policy-making. </p>
<p>For instance, during the COVID-19 crisis, the government’s JobKeeper wage-subsidy program <a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/australia-migrant-workers-on-temporary-visas-are-not-eligible-for-covid-19-crisis-wage-subsidy">specifically excluded</a> temporary skilled visa holders – substantial numbers of whom are from Asia (India, in particular). The uneven effects of the policy are not hard to see.</p>
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<h2>Dealing with the past</h2>
<p>For much of the post-war period, Australia’s leaders anguished over the need to populate or perish. But it remained a white past and a white future. Australia’s major institutions, including politics, higher education, media, the arts and the public service, still fail to reflect the massive demographic shift in recent years.</p>
<p>As Paul Maginn, a senior lecturer in urban planning at UWA, <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/institutes/public-policy/-/media/Public-Policy/Documents/Reimagining-Australia--Migration-culture-diversity.pdf">observes in our report</a>: </p>
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<p>Not all migrant/minority communities enjoy the same level of respect, equality, freedom and opportunity as the wider white Australian population. If this were the case, then a truly successful multicultural nation would look very different.</p>
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<p>The hangover is reflected in many things, not least the majority white population’s sense of attachment to national cultural norms, symbols and practices. </p>
<p>As Farida Fozdar, associate sociology professor at UWA and another author of our report, <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/institutes/public-policy/-/media/Public-Policy/Documents/Reimagining-Australia--Migration-culture-diversity.pdf">argues</a>, Australia’s sense of national community has been founded on a solidarity that shuns diversity. To be socially cohesive is to imply a degree of homogeneity, and that constrains the task of re-imagining Australia.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-it-is-time-to-rethink-our-immigration-intake-to-put-more-focus-on-families-137783">Yes, it is time to rethink our immigration intake – to put more focus on families</a>
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<p>Dealing with the past often sparks controversy, from the removal of statues such as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-52975687">Cecil Rhodes in Oxford</a> and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/09/politics/judge-blocks-removal-robert-e-lee-statue-richmond/index.html">Robert E. Lee in Virginia</a> to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/29/slavery-abolition-compensation-when-will-britain-face-up-to-its-crimes-against-humanity">calls for state reparations</a> for historic crimes, such as the slave trade.</p>
<p>It is nothing less than embarrassing that in modern-day Australia, almost all senior roles in government or business are held by middle-aged white men. </p>
<p>One way of viewing this is they have grown up and prospered at a time when Australia was ethnically homogeneous – they grew to trust and work collaboratively with those “just like us”. Rather like fish swimming in water, it is hard to notice that which is ubiquitous.</p>
<p>A less sympathetic view is they have never had to compete in a wider pool, and continue to behave rationally to restrict competition in order to maintain their privilege. Many mediocre, white men have been excused from competing as a result.</p>
<h2>Diversity in leadership matters</h2>
<p>Gross disparities in the complexion of those at the top matter for two reasons. One is the manifest unfairness in opportunities for ethnic minorities in education, employment, health care and housing.</p>
<p>The other reason is the creation of a reputational stain on those organisations that are slow to reform. Second-generation migrants may begin to question the “fair-go” mantra because they sense they are being overlooked, their patience stretched by standing politely behind those they can comfortably outperform.</p>
<p>The picture is stark in Australia’s politics. As Juliet Pietsch, political science professor at Griffith University, <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/institutes/public-policy/-/media/Public-Policy/Documents/Reimagining-Australia--Migration-culture-diversity.pdf">notes in our report</a>, only nine of 227 (or 4%) of federal MPs have non-European heritage.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341051/original/file-20200611-114085-3orub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341051/original/file-20200611-114085-3orub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341051/original/file-20200611-114085-3orub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341051/original/file-20200611-114085-3orub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341051/original/file-20200611-114085-3orub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341051/original/file-20200611-114085-3orub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341051/original/file-20200611-114085-3orub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Parliament remains dominated by older white men, despite recent demographic changes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Under-representation extends to senior leadership levels. Not a single Australian federal minister is from an Asian-Australian background. The only bright spot to this lack of Asian-Australians in senior roles is Penny Wong, the shadow foreign minister.</p>
<p>As UWA political science professor Ben Reilly <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/institutes/public-policy/-/media/Public-Policy/Documents/Reimagining-Australia--Migration-culture-diversity.pdf">writes</a>, Australia lags well behind comparable countries, such as Canada and the UK, on this measure. </p>
<p>In the UK, four Asians have senior Cabinet roles and a tenth of the lower house is made up of ethnic minorities, while in Canada, over 15% of MPs and six out of 37 Cabinet members are minorities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-should-look-overseas-for-ideas-to-increase-its-number-of-women-mps-63522">Australia should look overseas for ideas to increase its number of women MPs</a>
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<p>How should governments address these issues? The conventional view has erred toward caution, noting the majority white electorate is easily antagonised by policies and gestures that appear to favour ethnic minorities in areas such as education, jobs and housing. </p>
<p>This outlook has dominated Australian politics and underscores the <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/our-very-own-brexit-australias-hollow-politics-and-where-it-could-lead-us-9781760894603">recent warning</a> from Sam Roggeveen of the Lowy Institute about the potential for immigration to polarise Australian public opinion and poison the country’s politics.</p>
<p>But on the other side, Australia’s reputation for fairness will be eroded in the eyes of its future generations. Young, educated, liberal, urban, white Australians may also object to discriminatory practices going unchecked and call for tougher actions by government.</p>
<p>The true extent of Australia’s “fair-go” mantra will not depend so much on the transmission of older values and symbols to newer, more diverse Australians. </p>
<p>Rather, it depends fundamentally on their experiences in education and employment being free of white privilege. This will determine whether they truly believe there is a level playing field.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139755/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shamit Saggar receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and is a contributor to Policy Exchange (UK) and Policy Network (UK) and a trustee of British Future (UK).
</span></em></p>The absence of ethnic diversity in politics and business distorts and undermines the lived reality of a multicultural democracy.Shamit Saggar, Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Public Policy Institute, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1380462020-05-28T09:56:37Z2020-05-28T09:56:37ZCoronavirus: its impact cannot be explained away through the prism of race<p>From the start of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been an attempt to use science to explain the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on different groups through the prism of race. Data from <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/methodologies/coronavirusrelateddeathsbyethnicgroupenglandandwalesmethodology">the UK</a> <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html">and the US</a> suggests that people categorised as black, Hispanic (Latino) and south Asian are more likely to die from the disease.</p>
<p>The way this issue is often discussed, but also the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-bame-deaths-urgently-need-to-be-understood-including-any-potential-genetic-component-138400">response of some scientists</a>, would suggest that there may be some biological reason for the higher death rates based on genetic differences between these groups and their white counterparts. But the reality is there is no evidence that the genes used to divide people into races are linked to how our immune system responds to viral infections.</p>
<p>There are certain genetic mutations that can be found among specific ethnic groups that can play a role in the body’s immune response. But because of the loose definition of race (primarily based on genes for skin colour) and recent population movements, these should be seen as unreliable indicators when it comes to susceptibility to viral infections.</p>
<p>Indeed, race is a social construct with no scientific basis. However, there are <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52219070">clear links</a> between people’s racial groups, their socioeconomic status, what happens to them once they are infected and the outcome of their infection. And focusing on the idea of a genetic link merely serves to distract from this.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-bame-deaths-urgently-need-to-be-understood-including-any-potential-genetic-component-138400">Coronavirus: BAME deaths urgently need to be understood, including any potential genetic component</a>
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<p>You only have to look at how the statistics are gathered to understand how these issues are confused. Data from the UK’s <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/methodologies/coronavirusrelateddeathsbyethnicgroupenglandandwalesmethodology">Office for National Statistics</a> that has been used to highlight the disparate death rates separates Indians from Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, and yet groups all Africans (including black Caribbeans). This makes no sense in terms of race, ethnicity or genetics. </p>
<p>The data shows those males categorised as black are over 4.6 times more likely to die than their white counterparts from the virus. They are followed by Pakistanis/Bangladeshis (just over four times more likely to die), and then Chinese and Indians (just over 2.5 times). </p>
<p>Most genome-wide association studies group all south Asians. Yet, at least in the UK, COVID-19 can apparently separate Indians and Pakistanis, suggesting genetics have little to do with it. The categories used to collect government data for the pandemic are far more suited to social outcomes such as employment or education.</p>
<p>This problem arises even with <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/covid-19-being-black-does-not-put-you-at-greater-risk-researchers-say-vdf05prr6">recent analysis</a> that purportedly show people from ethnic minorities are no more likely to die once you take into account the effects of other illnesses and deprivation. The main analysis only compares whites to non-whites, masking the data for specific groups, while the headline of the newspaper article about the study refers only to black people.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the US the groups most <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html">disproportionately affected</a> are African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos. All these groups come from very different population groups. We’ve also seen <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality">high death rates</a> in Brazil, China and Italy, all of whom have very different populations using the classical definition of race. </p>
<p>The idea that COVID-19 discriminates along traditional racial lines is created by these statistics and fails to adequately portray what’s really going on. These kinds of assumptions ignore the fact that there is as much genetic variation within racialised groups as there is between the whole human population. </p>
<h2>Genetic medical differences</h2>
<p>There are some medical conditions with a higher prevalence in some racialised groups, such as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3060623/">sickle cell anaemia</a>, and differences in how some groups respond <a href="https://www.aafp.org/afp/2015/1001/p588.html">to certain drugs</a>. But these are traits linked to single genes and all transcend the traditional definitions of race. Such “mongenetic” traits affect a very small subset of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3060623/">many populations</a>, such as some southern Europeans and south Asians who also have a predisposition to sickle cell anaemia.</p>
<p>Death from COVID-19 is also linked to pre-existing conditions that appear in higher levels in black and south Asian groups, such as diabetes. The argument that this may provide a genetic underpinning is only partly supported by the <a href="https://pmj.bmj.com/content/81/958/486">limited evidence</a> that links genetics to diabetes. </p>
<p>However, the ONS figures confirm that genes predisposing people to diabetes cannot be the same as those that predispose to COVID-19. Otherwise, Indians would be affected as much as Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, who belong to the same genome-wide association group. </p>
<p>Any genetic differences that may predispose you to diabetes are heavily influenced by environmental factors. There isn’t a “diabetes gene” linking the varying groups which are affected COVID-19. But the prevalence of these so-called “lifestyle” diseases in racialised groups is <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?type=printable&id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217623">strongly linked</a> to <a href="https://pmj.bmj.com/content/81/958/486">social factors</a>.</p>
<p>Another <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-vitamin-d-protect-against-coronavirus-138001">target that has come in for speculation</a> is vitamin D deficiency. People with darker skin who do not get enough exposure to direct sunlight may produce less vitamin D, which is essential for many bodily functions including the immune system. In terms of a link to susceptibility to COVID-19, this has not been proven. But very little work on this has been done and the pandemic should prompt more research on the medical consequences of vitamin D deficiency generally.</p>
<p>Other <a href="https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202003.0191/v1">evidence suggests</a> higher death rates from COVID-19 including among racialised groups might be linked to higher levels of a cell surface receptor molecule <a href="https://theconversation.com/ace2-the-molecule-that-helps-coronavirus-invade-your-cells-138369">known as ACE2</a>. But this can result from taking drugs for diabetes and hypertension, which takes us back to the point about the social causes of such diseases.</p>
<h2>Racism not race</h2>
<p>In the absence of any genetic link between racial groups and susceptibility to the virus, we are left with the reality, which seems more difficult to accept, that these groups are suffering more from how our societies are organised. There is no clear evidence that higher levels of conditions such as type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and weakened immune systems in disadvantaged communities are because of inherent genetic predispositions. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4306458/">there is evidence</a> they are the result of structural racism. All these underlying problems can be directly connected to the food and exercise you have access to, the level of education, employment, housing, healthcare, economic and political power within these communities.</p>
<p>The evidence suggests that this coronavirus does not discriminate but highlights existing discriminations. The continued prevalence of ideas about race today – despite the lack of any scientific basis – shows how these ideas can mutate to provide justification for the power structures that have ordered our society since the 18th century.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301912/original/file-20191115-66957-gxdqkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301912/original/file-20191115-66957-gxdqkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301912/original/file-20191115-66957-gxdqkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301912/original/file-20191115-66957-gxdqkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301912/original/file-20191115-66957-gxdqkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301912/original/file-20191115-66957-gxdqkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301912/original/file-20191115-66957-gxdqkd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Winston Morgan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s no evidence COVID-19 death rates are related to the genetic differences used to racialise people.Winston Morgan, Reader in Toxicology and Clinical Biochemistry, Director of Impact and Innovation, University of East LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1384002020-05-21T12:42:12Z2020-05-21T12:42:12ZCoronavirus: BAME deaths urgently need to be understood, including any potential genetic component<p>The difference in COVID-19 death rates between white people and black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in the UK is shocking. One <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.06.20092999v1.full.pdf">recent report</a> found that, between the beginning of February and the end of April 2020, black people in England were 71% more likely than white people to die from COVID-19. And Asian people were 62% more likely.</p>
<p>This disparity has led to an inquiry by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/16/inquiry-disproportionate-impact-coronavirus-bame">Public Health England</a> and funding for urgent <a href="https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/nihr-and-ukri-launch-call-for-research-on-covid-19-and-ethnicity/24658">academic research</a> into the issue. We expect many factors to be involved, including the disadvantages that BAME people face due to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52637581">greater chances of poverty and health issues</a>.</p>
<p>But it’s important that we examine whether there may also be a genetic component to the problem in order to fully understand what’s going on. My colleagues and I are conducting research among frontline healthcare workers to try to see if there are any innate differences in the way different people’s immune systems respond to this specific virus, including genetic differences that may be associated with ethnicity. </p>
<p>Researchers have identified a greater chance of dying from COVID-19 among BAME people in several countries aside from the UK, including <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/5fd6ab18-be4a-48de-b887-8478a391dd72">Norway and the US</a>. There are <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200420-coronavirus-why-some-racial-groups-are-more-vulnerable">many social reasons</a> why ethnic minorities may generally be more vulnerable to disease, including a greater chance of malnutrition, more exposure to pollution due to where they live, or greater likelihood of working in less healthy environments. </p>
<p>Inequality and poverty also play a role in the fact that BAME people are <a href="https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/risk-factors/ethnicity">more likely</a> to suffer conditions that we know are linked to a greater chance of <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-who-is-at-risk-and-how-do-we-know-133547">dying from COVID-19</a>, such as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27612985">diabetes</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29061565">heart disease</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hsj.co.uk/exclusive-deaths-of-nhs-staff-from-COVID-19-analysed/7027471.article">Initial data suggests</a> that BAME healthcare workers are more likely to die from COVID-19 than their white colleagues. British Medical Association research has found that BAME doctors are <a href="https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/bame-doctors-hit-worse-by-lack-of-ppe">twice as likely</a> as white doctors to feel pressured into working with inadequate PPE when they are at risk of infection. And they are <a href="https://archive.bma.org.uk/collective-voice/policy-and-research/nhs-structure-and-delivery/future-vision-for-the-nhs/future-vision-for-the-nhs-survey">twice as likely</a> not to feel confident enough to raise concerns about workplace safety. </p>
<p>However, all these established facts alone don’t seem to explain why the risks of COVID-19 vary between different ethnic groups and are lowest among white people. This is particularly the case when we compare it with other forms of <a href="https://www.icnarc.org/Our-Audit/Audits/Cmp/Reports">viral pneumonia</a> that do not lead to such a difference.</p>
<p>The study that found BAME people in England were more likely to die from the disease accounted for differences in some underlying health conditions that are strongly linked to social issues, suggesting these <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-deaths-black-bame-ethnic-minorities-research-a9504556.html">weren’t the main factor</a>. But the preliminary results from another <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/covid-19-being-black-does-not-put-you-at-greater-risk-researchers-say-vdf05prr6">study suggest</a> ethnic minorities aren’t more likely to die once other factors linked to deprivation are taken into account. </p>
<p>To clarify this issue, it’s important to examine whether there may be some genetic component that predisposes ethnic minorities to a higher risk to COVID-19, while still recognising the critical role of other factors.</p>
<p>The way people’s immune systems work depends on genetic factors, not just environmental and social ones. There are effectively two parts to our immune systems. One is the part that produces antibodies, called the “adaptive immune system”. When our body has never seen a virus before, it can take several days for it to produce them, which is why some people get <a href="http://apjai-journal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/1.pdf">sick in the first place</a>. </p>
<p>We also have an “innate immune system” that acts before our body has had time to make antibodies. This system is strong in children and young people, but not very good <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3538030/">after the age of 65</a>. This is likely to be one reason why older people are at higher risk of dying of COVID-19.</p>
<p>When a virus like the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 enters a cell, molecules called toll-like receptors, or TLRs, alert the immune system that something potentially harmful is present. Interestingly, many of the body’s TLRs that can detect viruses come from genetic instructions found in the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31143188">X chromosome</a>, for which men have only one copy and women two. </p>
<p>We know that women can have a more <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821111/">effective innate immune</a> response to other viruses such as HIV than men, and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22096248">that oestrogen</a>, the female hormone, enhances this type of immune response. We also know that women are <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.06.20092999v1.full.pdf">less likely</a> to die from COVID-19 than men.</p>
<p>Just as there are variations in DNA that are responsible for the differences in response of immune cells between the sexes, there can also be variations between people of <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)31306-X?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS009286741631306X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">different ethnic backgrounds</a>. For example, the amount and type of genes that immune cells produce when the TLR-virus pathway is stimulated, are very different between people of African and of European origin. </p>
<p>This is not surprising, because we know that human populations from different parts of the planet have had to adapt to different types of infections. Ethnic differences in the risk to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021755713001630?via%3Dihub">other respiratory viral diseases</a> have been linked to genetic variation, and these variants are different in <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82125582.pdf">BAME groups</a> and white people in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24865418">these same pathways</a>. However, the role of ethnicity in genetic susceptibility to viral diseases is still controversial.</p>
<h2>New study</h2>
<p>We want to see if it could be a factor in the higher rate of BAME deaths from COVID-19. To do this, we are <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/covid19-children-testing">taking blood</a> from frontline healthcare workers of a variety of ethnic backgrounds, assessing DNA differences and measuring the various substances the samples contain. The results could indicate if differences in the innate immune systems of BAME groups result in higher risk of developing severe COVID-19.</p>
<p>If there is some genetic element to the different death rates from COVID-19 between ethnic groups, it’s important that we understand it to give us the best chance of fighting the disease. For example, if we do find that the way the innate immune system works plays a role, we can advise people on ways to improve that system, such as through <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6723551/">what we eat</a>. </p>
<p>But that won’t change the fact that the generally worse health among BAME groups in western societies is strongly linked to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52637581">socioeconomic factors</a> that are known to play a very significant role in this pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138400/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Valdes receives funding from the National Institutes for Health Research</span></em></p>Our research will look for how differences in people’s innate immune systems may affect COVID-19 survival rates.Ana Valdes, Associate Professor and Reader, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1287922020-01-16T13:20:14Z2020-01-16T13:20:14ZWhy you don’t see many black and ethnic minority faces in cultural spaces – and what happens if you call out the system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309448/original/file-20200110-97134-zmp13r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You're great, just don't get too big for your boots.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/18-august-2018-campingflight-lowlands-paradise-1161729769">Ben Houdijk/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever been to the theatre, looked around, and thought about how predominantly white the audience is? Does the same impression come to mind when visiting museums? If it does and the answer is a resounding yes, then you’re not alone. There is a major problem in Britain’s cultural industry and it’s time we all took a hard look at why. </p>
<p>For years now, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/Arts/all-the-world-s-a-stage-the-struggle-to-bring-ethnic-and-gender-diversity-to-british-theatre-a7242826.html">there has</a> been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/dec/01/andrew-lloyd-webber-warns-diversity-crisis-british-theatre">a growing recognition</a> of the ethnic inequalities in the creative sector. Arts Council England found it to be <a href="https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Diversity_report_1718.pdf">prevalent and persistent</a>, particularly in theatres and museums: 12% of the workforce in national organisations in the council’s portfolio were from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, and just 5% across its major partner museums. In positions of leadership, this fell to only 9% of chief executives and 10% of artistic directors in national portfolio organisations. On executive boards at partner museums it was 3%. <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2020/slow-progress-on-diversity-exposed-as-the-stage-survey-shows-90-of-top-theatre-bosses-are-white/">A recent survey</a> showed that 92% of top British theatre leaders were white.<br>
In TV, <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/diversity-uk-television-industry">a report</a> from communications regulator Ofcom showed that ethnic minorities were also considerably underrepresented. It highlighted “a cultural disconnect between the people who make programmes and the millions who watch them”.</p>
<p>This is all despite a number of leading institutions introducing action plans and policies to improve their diversity. While Arts Council England launched the <a href="https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/diversity/creative-case-diversity">Creative Case for Diversity</a> in 2011, to emphasise the importance and value of diversity in the arts and its significance in enriching artistic practice, leadership and audiences, leading broadcasters the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/diversity">BBC</a> and <a href="https://www.channel4.com/corporate/about-4/operating-responsibly/diversity">Channel 4</a> have ramped up efforts to increase diversity. Yet change of the status quo seems to be minimal and in some cases static. The cultural sector remains steeped in ethnic inequality.</p>
<h2>Failing strategies</h2>
<p>There are many factors for why Britain’s cultural sector appears to be circumscribed by whiteness in ideology and practice, production and consumption. Diversity strategies <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2018/bame-disabled-staff-still-significantly-underrepresented-theatre-arts-council-report/">seem to be failing</a> so far, partly because “diversity” itself is a problematic term that can often dilute the problem and <a href="https://lithub.com/marlon-james-why-im-done-talking-about-diversity/">depoliticise the issue</a> of racial discrimination. In the creative sector, it has morphed from an aspiration to tackle racial inequality into a drive for better business and economics – a rationale that downshifts the social impact of ethnic inequality, as film studies fellow Clive Nwonka <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/15/arts-diversity-arts-council-england-inequality">argues</a>. </p>
<p>The business case for diversity can help campaign for ethnic equality, but using it merely as a business tool can mask discriminatory practices and shift focus away from deeper issues of structural racism – for example, in embedded attitudes about art production, its consumers and its exclusivity; attitudes that enforce creative hierarchies that align with racial and class hierarchies. </p>
<h2>Myths about high art and its audience</h2>
<p>Many a myth still exist about cultural creation, what constitutes high or low culture, and the attitudes of ethnic minorities towards cultural participation. Commonly held opinions include, for example, that audiences from black and ethnic minorities are hard to engage – a view that ignores the lack of ethnic representation in the sector, among other realities pertaining to education and class. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Meera Syal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/meera-syal-arriving-daily-mail-inspirational-119475376">Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2014, and in response <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/dec/08/meera-syal-theatre-film-asian-audiences-diverse-appeal">to calls by actress Meera Syal</a> for theatres to cater to Asian audiences, distinguished actor Janet Suzman was staunchly criticised for claiming that theatre was a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/dec/08/actor-janet-suzman-criticised-calling-theatre-white-invention">white invention</a>”, that “runs in their [white people’s] DNA”. Consciously or not, statements like these contribute to a segregation of culture, and a hierarchy of cultural production. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780203993262/chapters/10.4324/9780203993262-35">What is this “black” in black popular culture?</a>, Stuart Hall articulated how the ordering of culture into high and low serves to establish cultural hegemony: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is an ordering of culture that opens up culture to the play of power, not an inventory of what is high versus what is low at any particular moment.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Take grime</h2>
<p>Ethnic and racial hierarchies get reproduced through cultural hierarchies. For example, grime music is tolerated, even celebrated, as long as it remains an ethnic genre, confined to a black experience, and so subject to hierarchical cultural positioning. </p>
<p>The outrage that a number of public figures (such as presenter <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/dec/18/piers-morgan-attacks-stormzy-telling-schoolkids-pm-is-bad-man">Piers Morgan</a> and academic <a href="https://twitter.com/MrPaulStott/status/1208673532676325376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1208673532676325376&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2019%2F12%2F24%2Fpeople-ethnic-minorities-power-doesnt-mean-racism-11957399%2F">Paul Stott</a>) showed towards Stormzy when he recently affirmed that racism exists in the UK, appeared to stem from their sense that the grime artist has succeeded courtesy to whiteness, its tolerance and patronage, as <a href="https://twitter.com/MrPaulStott/status/1208673532676325376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1208673532676325376&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2019%2F12%2F24%2Fpeople-ethnic-minorities-power-doesnt-mean-racism-11957399%2F">a tweet from Stott</a> suggested: </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1208673532676325376"}"></div></p>
<h2>It all starts with education</h2>
<p>Attitudes about culture are also produced and reproduced through education. Theatre departments are probably one of the first and most essential blocs in the chain of supply for the theatre sector and cultural industry in general. Yet a <a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-characterises-higher-education-institutions-so-why-are-we-surprised-by-racism-93147">predominantly white curriculum</a> continues to be the norm in arts and theatre subjects – that is because for the most part, the canon has been constructed in the image of whiteness. As a consequence, most theatre students will study the works of Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht, for example, but not many will consult the plays of Nigerian Nobel Laureate <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1986/soyinka/biographical/">writer Wole Soyinka</a>, or <a href="https://world-theatre-day.org/saadalla_wannous.html">Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wole Soyinka: we don’t know either.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/photos/8ac23bc1-75ec-4656-a41c-e74c4f7fe783">jdco/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Black and ethnic minorities are underrepresented as students, academics and authors on reading lists. <a href="http://scudd.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Chairs-Report-from-the-Diversity-in-the-Discipline-Working-Group.pdf">As one notable report</a> put it: although a welcoming environment, the discipline remains monocultural in terms of both its staff and curricula.</p>
<p>The few taught modules that focus on non-white theatres texts are offered as part of an optional stream, to add “flavour” rather as part of the core canon. This reproduces the hierarchy of knowledge with whiteness on top, and ethnic contributions valued through their proximity to whiteness. It also exoticises and exceptionalises non-white modules, created to appeal to non-white students. While these texts, and those who consume them, are both kept part of and inside the institution, they remain outside its frame of cultural influence and power.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-characterises-higher-education-institutions-so-why-are-we-surprised-by-racism-93147">Whiteness characterises higher education institutions – so why are we surprised by racism?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some scholars and activists are taking bold actions to decolonise the discipline from within. Campaigns such as <a href="https://www.nus.org.uk/en/news/why-is-my-curriculum-white/">Why is my curriculum so white</a> challenge the lack of diversity in UK universities and the dominance of white eurocentric teaching materials. </p>
<p>Yet attitudes towards cultural production remain set within a frame of mind that centres whiteness as the custodian of high art. When the principal of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama was asked about quotas as a potential way to boost diversity in 2018, <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2018/central-school-principal-quotas-reduce-quality-student-intake/">his concern for the school’s standards and reputation</a> implied that black and ethnic minorities might not possess the finesse required to meet such “standards”.</p>
<p>Others, such as the Black British Classical Foundation, <a href="http://bbcf.org.uk/">aim to nurture interest and participation</a> in art forms <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/2017/the-voice-of-black-opera-how-diversity-is-helping-to-build-operas-artistic-strength/">often seen as exclusionary</a>.</p>
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<h2>It plays out in institutions</h2>
<p>Our representations are created in cultural institutions, and it is within their daily operation, structures and processes that ethnic inequalities are either perpetuated or mitigated. </p>
<p>For the last two years, my colleagues and I have been researching how institutions <a href="https://www.ethnicity.ac.uk/">reproduce or mitigate ethnic inequalities</a> in cultural production. Throughout our research and interviews, the idea of exclusivity has been reiterated again and again by both majority (white) ethnic and minority ethnic staff. </p>
<p>Although some institutions have introduced diversity initiatives, progress seems slow and tied up to arts funding structures that are temporary and one directional – ultimately serving the institutions rather than the ethnic minorities they seek to engage. Organisations may gain funding by appealing to funders’ diversity agendas, but their engagement with ethnic minority communities and artists is rarely sustainable or lasting, leaving creatives feeling exploited and perhaps further marginalised. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bafta: still struggling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-june-19th-2018-bafta-1378472708">Lorna Roberts/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Many theatres and TV production companies also aim to increase representations on stage and screen, but that really only serves as window dressing. Ultimately, creators, writers, producers, senior management and commissioners remain mostly white. The stories they tell are therefore also mostly white. The lack of diversity in the <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/baftas-2020-joker-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-and-the-irishman-lead-nominations-11902779">2020 Bafta nominations</a> is an example of a film culture that struggles to produce, represent or celebrate ethnic minorities.</p>
<p>Of course, class plays a major factor in perpetuating ethnic inequalities in the cultural sector, but it is also sometimes used to camouflage structural racism in its institutions. Race and class can work in tandem to marginalise ethnic minorities in cultural spaces, but racism in cultural spaces has a direct link to racism in social spaces and that has an impact on how the nation imagines itself – dictating who belongs and who doesn’t.</p>
<p>There is a silver lining, though. New modes of cultural production and consumption via avenues like Netflix, YouTube, and Instagram are changing traditional cultural production practices. Netflix’s large investment in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/serenitygibbons/2019/05/21/what-the-rise-of-netflixs-original-content-can-teach-leaders-about-diversity/">original content</a> and its subscription model means that the network is commissioning diverse content to cater for and further attract a receptive diverse audience. Such trends may yet force institutions to properly address their lack of diversity. </p>
<p>A cultural sector that is able to represent Britain’s diverse communities and respond to new digital means of production and distribution cannot happen without a diverse workforce, institutions that conceptualise diversity as a core strength, and funding bodies that facilitate long-term ethnic equality in the sector rather than short-lived diversity initiatives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roaa Ali is a member of CoDE research team, which receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>Why shouting diversity just doesn’t cut it if the system is designed to keep people out.Roaa Ali, Research Associate (Cultural Production and Consumption), University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1252532019-10-15T12:39:06Z2019-10-15T12:39:06ZBlack and minority ethnic academics less likely to hold top jobs at UK universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297084/original/file-20191015-98632-ptmtjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2347%2C0%2C4610%2C4296&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/black-woman-writing-on-whiteboard-1318707110">Rawpixel/Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities pride themselves on being bastions of equality and diversity. But if <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10360/Black-academic-staff-face-double-whammy-in-promotion-and-pay-stakes">new figures from the University and College Union</a> (UCU) are anything to go by, it seems they also continue to remain dominated by those from white, middle-class backgrounds – and this <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-students-on-going-to-oxbridge-its-not-even-asked-or-pushed-for-its-just-assumed-no-one-is-applying-87279">isn’t just about about the students</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10360/Black-academic-staff-face-double-whammy-in-promotion-and-pay-stakes">The UCU analysis</a> found that black and minority ethnic staff in universities are less likely to hold senior jobs, less likely to be professors, less likely to be in senior decision making roles – and are paid significantly less than white colleagues. </p>
<p>So despite significant advances in policy, such as the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents">2010 Equality Act</a> and initiatives such as the <a href="https://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/race-equality-charter/">Race Equality Charter</a> – which aims to improve the representation of minority ethnic staff and students in higher education – inequalities based on race continue to exist. And this demonstrates the pervasiveness of institutional and structural racism in higher education. </p>
<h2>The ivory tower</h2>
<p>There is already <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-privilege">evidence</a> to suggest <a href="http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/9535/Investigating-higher-education-institutions-and-their-views-on-the-Race-Equality-Charter-Sept-18/pdf/REC_report_Sep18_fp.pdf">racist practices</a> are prevalent in recruitment, promotion and pay at universities. And in the research for <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-privilege">my recent book</a>, I also found that daily experiences of racism exclusion and marginalisation remain deeply ingrained within the culture of higher education. And are a significant and normalised part of working at a university for many Black academics. </p>
<p>One woman I interviewed experienced subtle micro-agressions such as not being addressed in meetings, not given eye contact or asked for her opinion. She also witnessed derogatory remarks made in public about minority ethnic groups.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-characterises-higher-education-institutions-so-why-are-we-surprised-by-racism-93147">Whiteness characterises higher education institutions – so why are we surprised by racism?</a>
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<p>When complaints of racism are made, I’ve been told about how such instances weren’t treated as racist. I’ve heard about senior managers reluctant to recognise or address racism – refusing to accept it can take place in a university. All of which continues to ensure those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are positioned as outsiders in the white space of the academy.</p>
<h2>Institutional and cultural barriers</h2>
<p>The insidiousness of racist practices across the academy has proved difficult to challenge through equality and diversity policies so far. The Race Equality Charter <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/9535/Investigating-higher-education-institutions-and-their-views-on-the-Race-Equality-Charter-Sept-18/pdf/REC_report_Sep18_fp.pdf">has been found to</a> offer potential. Not least by providing <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/9535/Investigating-higher-education-institutions-and-their-views-on-the-Race-Equality-Charter-Sept-18/pdf/REC_report_Sep18_fp.pdf">a framework</a> that can help universities address and institutional and cultural barriers. But our <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/9535/Investigating-higher-education-institutions-and-their-views-on-the-Race-Equality-Charter-Sept-18/pdf/REC_report_Sep18_fp.pdf">research findings</a> suggest that considerably <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/education/reports/advancing-equality-and-higher-education.pdf">more investment and incentive is needed</a> for it to be truly effective. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297085/original/file-20191015-98636-sdcukd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297085/original/file-20191015-98636-sdcukd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297085/original/file-20191015-98636-sdcukd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297085/original/file-20191015-98636-sdcukd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297085/original/file-20191015-98636-sdcukd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297085/original/file-20191015-98636-sdcukd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297085/original/file-20191015-98636-sdcukd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">One in 33, or 3%, of black academics, are professors, compared to about one in nine – 11% - of white academic staff, according to the analysis by the University and College Union.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/businessman-pointing-building-plan-office-black-721778476">Jacob Lund/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The Race Equality Charter was introduced following the success of the <a href="https://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/athena-swan/">Athena Swan Charter</a>, which aims to address gender inequalities in universities. Yet <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131911.2019.1642305">the main beneficiaries</a> to-date have been <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-privilegeBhopal">white middle-class women</a>. </p>
<p>Another issue is that an <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/athena-swan-ugly-duckling">Athena Swan</a> award can lead to research funding for university departments – this is not the case for the Race Equality Charter. So while Athena Swan take-up has resulted in good practice for gender equality, racial inequality has been seen as a secondary priority. Indeed, out of <a href="http://www.studyin-uk.com/uk-study-info/university-rankings/">154 higher education institutions</a> in the UK, there are only <a href="https://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/race-equality-charter/members-award-holders/">56 members of the Race Equality Charter</a> compared to <a href="https://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/athena-swan/athena-swan-members/">164 Athena Swan members</a>.</p>
<h2>White privilege</h2>
<p>The Race Equality Charter has helped higher education institutions to take steps in the right direction. But now, more resources are now needed if institutions are to really start to address systematic racism within the academy. </p>
<p>As the UCU report shows, far from being liberal spaces of inclusion, higher education institutions continue to play their part in the reproduction and reinforcement of racial inequalities. Indeed, as I state in my research from 2018: “Higher education institutions are spaces of white privilege…they employ a rhetoric of inclusion but one that is rarely evidenced in practice or outcomes”. </p>
<p>So if universities are serious about inclusion, social justice and equity, then surely the time has come for the Race Equality Charter to be mandatory and linked to research funding. This, along with properly addressing the continued perpetuation of white privilege in higher education – both of which are urgently needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125253/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kalwant Bhopal is a member of the Labour Party. . </span></em></p>Black and minority ethnic staff in universities are paid less than their white colleagues.Kalwant Bhopal, Professor of Education and Social Justice, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1075542019-01-11T13:43:14Z2019-01-11T13:43:14ZThe mental health pros and cons of minority spaces in the workplace<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253244/original/file-20190110-43544-1rv1cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/individuality-symbol-independent-thinker-concept-new-296280893?src=FCtxcJdHLZlN8CApf3W7Eg-1-9">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many companies and organisations appear keen to support a more diverse workforce, where minority group members are made to feel welcome. One strategy involves creating special “spaces” at work, physical or otherwise, where minority employees can connect with each other. </p>
<p>Take Google for instance. They have several minority-focused <a href="https://diversity.google/commitments/">employee-based resource groups</a> (ERGs) including Gayglers, the Black Googlers Network and Hispanic Googlers Network. Other companies support similar groups, including at Netflix, Merck, Novartis, Intel and Comcast.</p>
<p>Similarly, some universities are working to support a more diverse student body by creating minority-focused spaces on campus. In the US for instance, the University of Connecticut has the <a href="https://lc.uconn.edu/schola2rshouse/">Scholastic House of Leaders who are African American Researchers & Scholars</a> (ScHOLA²RS). The University of Iowa has <a href="https://housing.uiowa.edu/communities/young-gifted-and-black">Young, Gifted and Black</a>, and UCLA has the <a href="https://reslife.ucla.edu/livinglearning/cl">Chicanx/Latinx living-learning community</a>.</p>
<p>As these minority-based spaces become more common, they also evoke <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/02/u-connecticut-creates-new-living-learning-center-black-male-students">heated debate</a>. While opponents see them as creating division and segregation, supporters see them as an important resource for minorities. So are they helpful? Or might they cause more harm than good?</p>
<p>To shed some light on this issue, we’ve been examining how the opportunity to connect with and feel valued among fellow minority group members can shape mental health with regard to anxiety, depression and psychological distress. In a series of studies looking at this among <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1368430216656922">racial/ethnic minorities</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ejsp.2292">sexual minorities</a>, we found a consistent and rather intriguing pattern of evidence.</p>
<p>Our findings indicate that while there are health benefits to feeling valued among minority group members, there can also be – perhaps counter-intuitively – some costs. This is partly because of the way that feeling valued within one’s minority group appears to promote vigilance to the various forms of discrimination that exist. </p>
<p>Specifically, we found that when minorities frequently feel valued and embraced by members of their own minority group, they maintain lower levels of anxiety and fewer symptoms of depression overall. A clear benefit.</p>
<h2>The costs of feeling valued</h2>
<p>But at the same time the evidence shows that when people feel highly valued in their minority group they also place a special premium on that group membership. It plays a central role in how they define themselves as an individual overall. </p>
<p>With that membership being so central to their sense of self, these individuals are more likely to view their daily social interactions through the lens of their minority group membership. This means they are more vigilant to, and thus perceive and experience, more discrimination. And ultimately, these more frequent experiences of discrimination translate into poorer mental health. </p>
<p>So altogether our research shows that, in addition to the benefits of feeling valued, there can be some inadvertent costs.</p>
<p>Overall, does feeling valued among minority group members cause more harm than good? In short, the answer is no. In all our studies we find the benefits of being valued in one’s minority group outweigh the costs. So, to be clear, this research consistently demonstrates that it is a good thing overall for minorities to feel valued and embraced by fellow minority group members. </p>
<h2>Reducing costs</h2>
<p>Google’s ERGs and universities’ minority-based communities are likely to provide important opportunities to experience a sense of value and respect among fellow group members. And, as our research indicates, this will almost certainly yield benefits for the health and well-being of minority employees and students.</p>
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<p>At the same time, these institutions should be aware that such spaces might yield some unanticipated consequences. They may heighten minorities’ vigilance to the forms of bias and discrimination that exist in the workplace or on campus, which can lead to stress and anxiety. </p>
<p>So what’s the solution? We believe additional steps can be taken to help minimise the health costs associated with these minority-focused spaces, while preserving the benefits they yield.</p>
<p>For example, let’s say a university’s living-learning communities do ultimately heighten minorities’ awareness of discrimination on campus. If the university also shows a true commitment to addressing that discrimination it could change a minority individual’s discrimination experience, in ways that lessen its health impact. Moreover, if an institution is actively working to address discrimination then over time it will hopefully reduce the amount that minorities encounter.</p>
<p>Considering that minorities often face discrimination and experience disproportionate rates of certain illnesses, the results of our work can seem rather sobering. Even something so intuitively positive – being valued by others – can sometimes be a double-edged sword.</p>
<p>But, double-edged or not, this sword is important to acknowledge. It provides us with a clearer understanding of the social and psychological determinants of minorities’ mental health – something we need if we are going to effectively address some of these persistent health disparities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107554/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher T. Begeny does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Strategies to support a diverse workforce can be beneficial – but may have unintended consequences.Christopher T. Begeny, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1078722019-01-07T11:42:46Z2019-01-07T11:42:46ZWhite right? How demographics is changing US politics<p>When Donald Trump was campaigning to become the U.S. president, much of the discussion about his growing popularity focused on so-called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/08/angry-white-men-love-donald-trump">angry white males</a>,” who had been struggling through years of declining economic opportunities. Their frustration led some of them to adopt and espouse <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/18/us/ordinary-white-supremacists/index.html">white supremacist ideology</a>.</p>
<p>In many media portrayals, these men, their anger and their sometimes extreme views on how to return to economic and political relevance were treated as a new phenomenon. </p>
<p>But as a <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/css/about/monica-duffy-toft/">scholar of demography and civil war</a>, I can say definitively that none of this is actually new. Declining opportunities for white males and racist ideology have long been features of U.S. politics, from at least the 1930s until now. </p>
<p>So, the real question is, why are we seeing an upsurge of white nativism among white males now – a nativism which combines anger over lost status with a historically bankrupt white supremacist ideology?</p>
<h2>Lagging whites, growing minorities</h2>
<p>According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s data, all racial and ethnic minorities are growing faster than whites. Interestingly, one of the fastest growing groups in this country is “mixed race” (full disclosure: my children are such, being both Mexican- and Irish-American). </p>
<p><iframe id="qG0iI" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qG0iI/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Still, at 198 million, non-Hispanic whites remained the largest group of Americans in 2014; followed by Hispanics at 55.4 million, and blacks or African-Americans at 42 million. Those who identified with two or more races <a href="https://www.census.gov//content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p25-1143.pdf">stood at just under 8 million</a>. </p>
<p>The Census Bureau projects the crossover point at which the non-Hispanic white population will no longer be a majority will occur in 2044. In fact, no one group will comprise a majority. We will become a plural nation of different ethnic and racial groups.</p>
<h2>Demography and democracy</h2>
<p>That powerful shift in the makeup of the U.S. population has created ideal conditions for a political backlash against people of color, including Hispanics, blacks, Asians and especially immigrants of color. </p>
<p>One prominent example: President Trump’s lament that the U.S. was being <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/368576-trump-rips-protections-for-immigrants-from-shithole-countries-in">overwhelmed by immigrants from “s-hole countries,”</a> rather than from places like Norway. </p>
<p>The backlash also extends to the political leaders who support minorities’ right to be accepted and respected as Americans.</p>
<p>These communities of color remain in the minority. But already in some states, white voters as distinct from all whites are in the minority, and nationally, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/07/01/484325664/babies-of-color-are-now-the-majority-census-says">whites are unlikely to remain in the majority for long</a>. </p>
<p>In California, for example, <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article25940218.html">non-white populations now make up 62 percent of the population</a>, with Hispanic and white populations at near parity at 38 percent each. </p>
<p>Texas, New Mexico and Arizona are among three southern states where the <a href="https://statisticalatlas.com/state/California/Race-and-Ethnicity">gap between Hispanic minorities and white majorities is closing</a>. Like Florida, these are also states with difficult-to-seal borders and with well-established immigrant communities.</p>
<h2>Politics and population shifts</h2>
<p>For two decades, I have been studying how population shifts across nation-states have led to their collapse. In some cases, those collapses have been violent, such as in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14649284">Lebanon in the 1970s</a> and <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1989-1992/collapse-soviet-union">the Soviet Union</a> in the 1990s. </p>
<p>Now, demographic dynamics we previously witnessed in “other” or “developing” states are happening in the U.S.</p>
<p>In places where white people have been a demographic majority, white nativism – characterized by the longing for a period when whites were dominant political and economically – arises when some of the majority white population fears for the loss of its stature relative to non-white populations. And in the U.S., <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/07/01/484325664/babies-of-color-are-now-the-majority-census-says">non-whites have higher birth rates and make up the bulk of new immigrants</a>. </p>
<p>As populations shift in democracies, the key question is which group challenges these changes, when – and how? Is it the expanding minority or the declining majority? Is it a combination of fear and desire for change emanating from both the declining majority and rising minority?</p>
<h2>Fighting for lost dominance</h2>
<p>My research reveals that it is the declining majority that tends to act aggressively, often imagining <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03050620701449025">it must preempt a rising minority</a>. Simply put, declining majorities don’t want to yield their status or hegemony.</p>
<p>This turns demographic shifts into a struggle about power and dominance, with elements of the majority refusing to cede ground to emergent new pluralities and majorities that might displace them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252531/original/file-20190104-32145-zyx5qe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252531/original/file-20190104-32145-zyx5qe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252531/original/file-20190104-32145-zyx5qe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252531/original/file-20190104-32145-zyx5qe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252531/original/file-20190104-32145-zyx5qe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252531/original/file-20190104-32145-zyx5qe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252531/original/file-20190104-32145-zyx5qe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Trump’s travel ban targeted Muslims.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2017-02-01/pdf/2017-02281.pdf">Government Publishing Office</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The result, historically, follows a general pattern: The declining majority resorts to various forms of apartheid, including changes to voting laws, voter suppression and new restrictions on immigrants, and requirements for citizenship. </p>
<p>Examples include Israel’s successive moves to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/10/10/445343896/in-israel-a-new-battle-over-who-qualifies-as-jewish">tighten the definition of who is a Jew</a>; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/world/europe/britain-european-union-brexit.html">Britain’s 2016 referendum on membership in the European Union</a> (for working-class Brits, the immigrants of “color” were Pakistanis and Poles); and the new <a href="https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/trump-travel-ban-supreme-court-decision-countries-map/">U.S. ban on immigrants from seven predominately Muslim countries</a>.</p>
<p>Only rarely do a declining majority’s efforts to maintain dominance escalate to violence or state collapse, as was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/26/world/end-of-the-soviet-union-the-soviet-state-born-of-a-dream-dies.html">the case with the Soviet Union</a>. </p>
<h2>From demographic to political decline</h2>
<p>Mirroring the decline in fortunes of the “angry white male” who supported President Trump is the declining fortunes of the Republican Party. </p>
<p>The current U.S. president leads a minority political party whose <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/">membership has been in decline for over two decades</a>. </p>
<p>President Trump <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/21/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final-count/index.html">lost the general election by over 3 million votes</a>. The number of U.S. citizens of voting age <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/">who identify as Republicans</a> has dropped steadily since 1994, compared to those who identify as Democrat or Independent.</p>
<p>The GOP has managed its decline in exactly the same way a declining white majority population might have done: It has resorted to extreme gerrymandering, voter suppression, calls for limits on immigration, and now citizenship restrictions. </p>
<p>The president’s angry rhetoric has arguably been responsible for fomenting a rise in overt bigotry, and in rare but an increasing number of cases, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-the-united-states-right-wing-violence-is-on-the-rise/2018/11/25/61f7f24a-deb4-11e8-85df-7a6b4d25cfbb_story.html?utm_term=.b5b3a3abe07e">violence against non-white immigrants, and ethnic, religious, disabled and LGBTQ minorities</a>. In one documented case, a 56 year-old Trump supporter named <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/nyregion/cnn-cory-booker-pipe-bombs-sent.html">Cesar Sayoc mailed a series of bombs to “Trump critics.”</a> His van, in which he had apparently been living, was covered with often violent imagery directed against people of color and political opponents of President Trump, including a sticker featuring then-Representative Nancy Pelosi with rifle-scope crosshairs superimposed.</p>
<p>The partisan divide is further fueled by the conflict over whether non-white immigration is a threat to U.S. security and prosperity.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/02/26/key-facts-about-u-s-immigration-policies-and-proposed-changes/">Immigration to the U.S.</a> has been fairly constant since 1990. </p>
<p>What has changed is the number of refugees fleeing civil wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Syria <a href="https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/us-accepted-refugees-2018/">who are coming to the U.S.</a> According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, there are 65.6 million forcibly displaced people in the world – a population greater than that of the U.K. – of which about <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html">one-third, 25.4 million, are refugees</a>. </p>
<p>The numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers has been increasing since 2013. At the end of 2013, the U.S. hosted 348,005 people of concern – which includes refugees and asylum-seekers. By the end of 2017, that number rose to 929,850, with <a href="http://popstats.unhcr.org/en/overview#_ga=2.82367446.119990439.1544648438-1408415619.1544648438">asylum-seekers responsible for the significant increase</a>.</p>
<p>The research shows that immigrants are a net drain on national resources for the first few years they are here. But after those first years, the <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/jan/23/donald-trump/does-immigration-policy-impose-300-billion-annuall/">costs and benefits of their participation balance out</a>.</p>
<h2>White nativism: Why now?</h2>
<p>Though economic opportunity – and specifically the decline in blue-collar jobs capable of supporting a family – affects the popularity of white nativism, it does not explain its timing. </p>
<p>The “why now” of white nativism is due to decades of demographic decline for white Americans combined with <a href="https://theconversation.com/fight-for-federal-right-to-education-takes-a-new-turn-108322">a serious decline in public education standards</a> that leads to unwarranted nostalgia and openness to conspiracy theories. </p>
<p>Add to that the charismatic leadership of Donald J. Trump, who attached white majority fears of status loss with criminalizing immigrants of color. That has stoked the flames of an already smoking fire.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107872/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monica Duffy Toft does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the US, non-whites have higher birth rates and make up the bulk of new immigrants. As white people lose their demographic majority, some will resist the accompanying political changes.Monica Duffy Toft, Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1073352018-11-23T13:40:09Z2018-11-23T13:40:09ZTheresa May could win a slice of British ethnic minority vote with tough Brexit immigration line – what my research reveals<p>Theresa May has faced widespread criticism following comments to the Confederation of British Industry that EU nationals have jumped “the queue” to migrate to the UK ahead of non-EU nationals during the UK’s membership of the bloc. The prime minister <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-to-cbi-19-november-2018">said</a>:</p>
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<p>It will no longer be the case that EU nationals, regardless of the skills or experience they have to offer, can jump the queue ahead of engineers from Sydney or software developers from Delhi. </p>
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<p>May has been criticised for ignoring the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-eu-migration-has-done-for-the-uk-103461">contribution to the UK of EU nationals</a>, who have been living with great concern about what their futures hold since the 2016 referendum result.</p>
<p>Despite reports that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/22/brexit-ethnic-minorities-hit-job-losses-poverty-eu">Brexit will hit ethnic minorities harder</a>, May’s speech is likely to appeal to ethnic minority Leave voters, who <a href="http://ukandeu.ac.uk/minority-ethnic-attitudes-and-the-2016-eu-referendum/">my research</a> has shown feel it’s unfair that EU migrants have had an easier route to the UK than non-EU migrants. Similar rhetoric which pits EU and non-EU migrants against each other came up in black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) Leave voters’ reasons for supporting Brexit.</p>
<p>Minority voters <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2018/09/britain-s-eight-million-ethnic-minorities-are-still-being-ignored-over">overwhelmingly supported Remain</a> in the EU referendum. Yet May’s reference to attracting more “software engineers from Delhi” will appeal to British Indian voters who were the <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-socsci/epop-2017/papers.aspx">most eurosceptic ethnic minority group</a>.</p>
<p>The Labour Party continues to attract the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45765496">lion’s share of the minority vote</a>. This is despite attempts made by the Conservatives in recent years, <a href="https://www.economist.com/britain/2017/12/14/theresa-may-is-borrowing-from-david-camerons-back-catalogue">beginning under David Cameron</a>, to court ethnic minority support. Yet, <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-socsci/epop-2017/papers.aspx">party preference didn’t have a significant effect</a> on attitudes towards EU membership among ethnic minorities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theresa-mays-dog-whistle-rhetoric-on-eu-citizens-jumping-the-queue-and-its-effect-on-my-four-year-old-107303">Theresa May's dog-whistle rhetoric on EU citizens jumping the queue – and its effect on my four-year-old</a>
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<h2>An end to ‘preferential’ treatment</h2>
<p>In 20 focus groups and interviews with ethnic minority Remain and Leave voters I conducted over the summer of 2017, as part of my PhD research, I heard many BAME Leave voters give European immigration as a key reason for supporting Brexit. They wanted to see fewer barriers for Commonwealth migration, disgruntled with what they saw as “preferential” treatment for EU migrants who they believe have had easier access to live and work in the UK. </p>
<p>Of my participants, Bangladeshi restaurant owners blamed freedom of movement for the staff shortage crisis in the curry industry and the difficulties associated with recruiting staff from outside the EU. They felt that the government’s visa stipulations including an <a href="https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN06724">earnings threshold of £18,600</a> were caused by an inability to control European immigration. </p>
<p>When groups such as <a href="https://muslimsforbritainorg.wordpress.com/">Muslims for Britain</a> and <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/africans-for-britain-group-quits-leave-2016-4">Africans for Britain</a> campaigned for Brexit, they cited competition posed by EU migrant labour and the contribution made by Britain’s former colonies, which they felt gave them a greater claim to belonging in the UK. Leaving the EU, the BAME Leave voters I interviewed argued, would lead to greater trade and immigration from the Commonwealth. One member of a focus group of Bangladeshi male Leave voters felt they had been made to feel “inferior” to EU citizens:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s a historical link; we, our ancestors, came to this country, contributed to British economy, building infrastructure, and even lots of our ancestors fought in Second World War in favour of Britain. They sacrificed their lives … what’s good (about) being a member of Commonwealth country? Europeans have been prioritised and we’ve been neglected.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some saw EU policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy as a disadvantage to African and Asian economies outside the EU bloc. And there was a strong sense amongst BAME Leave voters of Europe as a “white Fortress”. For example, one British Indian Leave voter stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>At the time of the European migration crisis we saw a number of countries putting up borders within the EU so I think the whole idea of the EU as this bastion of free movement and respects immigrants or whatever was a bit shallow for me.</p>
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<h2>An electoral mountain to climb</h2>
<p>But May’s promise that Brexit will lead to a fairer immigration system that doesn’t discriminate against where people come from won’t necessarily convince those ethnic minority voters angered by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/windrush-generation-latest-to-be-stripped-of-their-rights-in-the-name-of-migration-control-95158">Windrush scandal</a> and those who see her as chief architect of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hostile-environment-the-uk-governments-draconian-immigration-policy-explained-95460">“hostile environment”</a> policy on immigration. Adding to this will be May’s emphasis in her CBI speech that citizens from mainly “white” countries such as Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand will be able to use e-gates at UK borders as part of a new post-Brexit immigration system. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/windrush-scandal-a-historian-on-why-destroying-archives-is-never-a-good-idea-95481">Windrush scandal: a historian on why destroying archives is never a good idea</a>
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<p>The great majority of ethnic minority Britons voted Remain in the EU referendum, and the Conservatives’ tough rhetoric on immigration will do little to attract their vote – particularly because many supported Remain because of the perceived racism and xenophobia around anti-immigration discourses during the referendum. Many of those I interviewed felt that it wasn’t just immigrants or Europeans who were being targeted, but anyone who wasn’t white including British black and Asian people. One Remain voter of black African background felt that even though European immigration was a key issue in the 2016 referendum, rhetoric such as “we want our country back” felt like it was “aimed at us”. </p>
<p>May’s plan to sell the Brexit deal to voters as an opportunity to introduce a “fairer” immigration system may appeal to some ethnic minority voters, but it largely serves to stoke tensions between EU nationals and longer-settled migrant groups from the Commonwealth and their descendants. As members of the Windrush generation found out so harshly, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hostile-environment-immigration-policy-has-made-britain-a-precarious-place-to-call-home-95546">rules on who’s welcome in Britain</a> and who isn’t are arbitrary and ever-changing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neema Begum does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Theresa May is courting ethnic minority support for her Brexit deal with her rhetoric on EU nationals ‘jumping the queue’.Neema Begum, Research Associate, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1054312018-11-01T13:36:21Z2018-11-01T13:36:21ZTheresa May risks losing vital British Indian votes<p>Despite being internally diverse in terms of migratory background and religious affiliation, much of Britain’s Indian population would be considered “natural Tories”. They are generally family-oriented, aspirational, business-minded and often financially well-resourced. </p>
<p>According to recent <a href="https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/work-pay-and-benefits/employment/employment-by-occupation/latest">government figures</a>, 31% of UK Indians are salaried professionals – higher than any other ethnicity. Much of the first-generation fled persecution in East Africa, where their enterprises formed the backbone of the economy.</p>
<p>This entrepreneurial spirit is more readily associated with voting Conservative than Labour – or at least, so the party would claim. And indeed, <a href="https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=6970">2010 data</a> show that 16% of British Indians do identify with the Conservatives. That’s a higher rate than any other ethnic minority group. However, that’s still a small proportion. The majority (55%) identified with Labour. To put this in perspective, 67% of people of Black Caribbean origin were Labour identifiers. Only 5% identified with the Tories. </p>
<h2>Inroads under Cameron</h2>
<p>Aware of his party’s need to improve its record, former prime minister David Cameron sought to establish the Conservatives as an attractive political option for economically successful British Indians. His charm offensive included an early trip to India and a significant effort to diversify the parliamentary party in the 2010 election using a <a href="http://conservativehome.blogs.com/goldlist/a_list/">“priority list”</a> of candidates. As prime minister, Cameron famously organised a very high profile state <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAVjrwY6Jsg">visit</a>, using an event at Wembley to praise the contributions the British Indian population makes to the UK. </p>
<p>And indeed, figures from a post-election <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-conservatives-stole-the-british-indian-vote-from-labour-77275">survey</a> suggested that the Conservatives performed particularly well among British Hindus and Sikhs in the 2015 general election. </p>
<p>But what was really essential in transforming the Tory brand for British Indians was Cameron’s desire to tackle discrimination. According to <a href="https://brightblue.org.uk/rakib-ehsan-tories-should-tackle-discrimination-to-win-over-british-indians/">2010 figures</a>, a substantial proportion of Indians hold feelings of relative deprivation. When asked about life prospects, 65% felt that minorities needed greater opportunities, with four in ten feeling that non-whites living in the UK were held back by prejudice. British Indian graduates continue to suffer ethnic penalties in the <a href="https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/publications/working-papers/iser/2016-02.pdf">labour market</a>, finding it more difficult to obtain employment than similarly qualified white British counterparts.</p>
<p>Cameron sought to introduce a more level playing field by launching the <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/cv-discrimination-to-be-tackled-with-blind-recruitment">blind CV equality initiative</a>. Large employers signed up to the name-blind recruitment drive, including the BBC, HSBC and KPMG. In his <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-party-conference-2015-david-camerons-speech-in-full-a6684656.html">2015 party Conference speech</a>, Cameron spoke of his intention to “finish the fight for real equality in our country today”. </p>
<h2>And then, Brexit</h2>
<p>That didn’t come to pass. Under Theresa May, the Conservatives could be about to undo the progress Cameron made attracting British Indian voters.</p>
<p>Her association with Brexit is a big problem. Despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-the-british-asian-brexit-vote-and-why-it-contains-a-few-surprises-72931">data</a> showing that UK Indians were more likely to vote Leave than other ethnic minorities, they were still more likely to support remaining in the EU than the white British majority. </p>
<p>After the EU referendum, May sought to broaden the party’s appeal among <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/theresa-may-working-class-champion/">socially conservative white working class voters</a> in traditional Leave-voting Labour heartlands. The importance of building on British Indian support appeared to be downgraded as a result. </p>
<p>Following the inroads made by Cameron with British Indians (and BAME people in general), the <a href="http://www.britishfuture.org/articles/ethnic-minority-vote-cost-theresa-may-majority/">2017 general election was a major setback</a>. According to post-election internal polling, Tory support among ethnic minority people <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-support-ethnic-minority-voters-lowest-level-years-internal-poll-conservatives-government-a8090566.html">dropped to a 16-year low</a>. We don’t know how many of these were British Indians specifically but considering that previous progress was driven by increases in British Indian support, it’s plausible that such a sharp drop among BAME people incorporates a decent proportion of Indian-origin voters. </p>
<p>May has unveiled plans to address the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45818234">ethnicity pay gap</a> following her <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41560927">race disparity audit</a>. These are positive efforts to understand and confront structural racial injustices which continue to persist in the UK. It may even eventually prove to be a more substantive piece of work than Cameron’s anti-discrimination effort. But her flawed approach to the 2017 general election means considerable repair work must be done to regain the advances made under Cameron.</p>
<p>Targeting working-class Leave voters in traditional Labour heartlands which suffered severe industrial decline under the Thatcher government was a risky electoral strategy which didn’t pay off. And by retreating into their comfort zone by constantly “talking tough” on immigration and Europe, the Tories – especially May – failed spectacularly to articulate a positive vision for increasing equality of opportunity in multi-ethnic Britain.</p>
<p>The party’s choice of candidate for the 2020 London mayoral election, Shaun Bailey, could also pose problems for the relationship between the Conservatives and British Indians. Considering the Windrush scandal, the nomination of Bailey, who is of Black Caribbean origin, is significant. However, he has made some highly controversial comments about multiculturalism, including in a <a href="https://www.cps.org.uk/files/reports/original/111028105425-NoMansLand.pdf">2005 pamphlet</a>:</p>
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<p>You bring your children to school and they learn far more about Diwali than Christmas. I speak to the people who are from Brent and they’ve been having Muslim and Hindi days off. What it does is rob Britain of its community. Without our community we slip into a crime riddled cess pool.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the same work, Bailey suggested that people of Black Caribbean origin found it easier to integrate in Britain due to a shared Christian faith and common language. </p>
<p>Through positive political engagement and tackling the issue of discrimination head on, the Conservatives under Cameron made genuine headway in broadening their electoral appeal. Recent events threaten to overturn that progress. As well as being a noticeable presence in marginal towns such as Watford, Milton Keynes and Swindon, British Indians living in Tory-held London <a href="http://www.electionpolling.co.uk/battleground/targets/labour">battleground constituencies</a> such as Harrow East and Hendon may have an important say at the next general election.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105431/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rakib Ehsan received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for his PhD. He currently works as a research consultant for the Greater London Authority. </span></em></p>An association with Brexit and a desire to win back the white working class aren’t particularly appealing to minority voters.Rakib Ehsan, Researcher (Political Science), Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/997812018-07-13T08:57:54Z2018-07-13T08:57:54ZSuccess of French football team masks underlying tensions over race and class<p>The French football team has won the 2018 World Cup, 20 years after it triumphed on home soil in 1998. “Les Bleus”, as they’re called, are back in the nation’s good books, celebrated for their excellent performance in this year’s tournament, right through the 4-2 win over Croatia in the final. Out of the limelight and the glare of success in Russia 2018, however, a question continues to dog French football – the role of race and class in the selection of national players.</p>
<p>On the surface, this may seem strange with the <a href="https://www.goalsoul.net/products/zidane-black-blanc-beur-poster">attention given</a> to the multicultural harmony of the 1998 World Cup-winning team. The straight-talking former captain of the French national team, Zinedine Zidane, <a href="https://video.vice.com/en_uk/video/vice-zinedine-zidane-shares-his-world-cup-memories/5b3b81eebe407726cc522301">recently said</a> of his country’s 1998 win: </p>
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<p>It was not about religion, the colour of your skin, we didn’t care about that, we were just together and enjoyed the moment. </p>
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<p>This echoed the sentiment of the times, that a multicultural team of united “<a href="https://www.goalsoul.net/products/zidane-black-blanc-beur-poster">black, blanc, beur</a>” (black, white or Arab) players had united under the cause of the French national team to lift the World Cup for the first time. Triumph, on the football field, demonstrated that integration had been successful in France and anyone could reach the top of French society. </p>
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<p>Zidane, the star of France’s 1998 World Cup-winning team, was born to Berber Algerian parents. He grew up in Marseille’s infamous “<a href="https://www.laprovence.com/article/sports/4988951/de-la-castellane-au-real-zinedine-zidane-un-heros-made-in-marseille.html">La Castellane</a>” estate, seen as one of the toughest estates in one of France’s toughest cities. Two decades later, Kylian Mbappé – a 19-year-old of Cameroonian and Algerian heritage – who grew up in the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44669497">Bondy suburbs</a> of Paris, is the star of the French team.</p>
<p>Some commentators <a href="https://www.valeursactuelles.com/societe/mbappe-marque-la-france-gagne-vous-reprendrez-bien-un-peu-de-black-blanc-beur-97076">have discussed</a> the 2018 success of Les Bleus as a return to the joys of “black, blanc, beur” multicultural national celebration, acceptance and celebration of ethnic diversity. Yet others have been <a href="https://abonnes.lemonde.fr/mondial-2018/article/2018/07/12/coupe-du-monde-2018-epargnez-nous-une-deuxieme-saison-de-black-blanc-beur-par-olivier-guez_5330286_5193650.html">critical</a> of the way politics, integration and football have been mixed together again. </p>
<h2>Far-right opportunism</h2>
<p>Zidane and Mbappé bookend a couple of decades where the ethnic make-up of the national team has come under fierce scrutiny, often taking worringly racist forms.</p>
<p>Questions about the French team’s ethnic credentials were present even before their 1998 victory against Brazil. The far-right leader of the Front National (FN), Jean-Marie Le Pen <a href="https://www.la-croix.com/Archives/1996-06-25/Pour-Le-Pen-l-equipe-de-France-de-foot-n-est-pas-francaise-_NP_-1996-06-25-377656">argued</a> that some the team were “foreigners” who didn’t know how to sing the national anthem. When Le Pen made it to the second round of the presidential election in 2002, some of the world cup-winning footballers, including the captain, <a href="https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2002/04/26/350370-ils-disent-non-a-le-pen.html">Marcel Desailly</a>, campaigned hard against him. </p>
<p>In 2010, the French team crashed out of the World Cup in South Africa at the group stage, winning no games. Behind the scenes, the manager Raymond Domenech had terrible relations with the players, obscenities were screamed and the captain Patrice Evra had an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/jun/20/france-raymond-domenech-nicolas-anelka">on-field bust up</a> with the fitness coach, Robert Duverne. Rather than question the incompetence of these two white coaches in managing the national side, blame fell quickly on the players, whose commitment to the French team was questioned. </p>
<p>The criticism went further than the usual rumblings about spoilt and overpaid players, taking on a distinctly sinister and racial tone when the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut <a href="https://www.agoravox.tv/tribune-libre/article/finkielkraut-l-equipe-de-france-26725">called the team</a> a “gang of thieves with mafia morals”. While this referred to the footballers by their presumed class backgrounds as children of France’s crime-ridden, suburban housing estates, <a href="http://diversite.20minutes-blogs.fr/archive/2010/06/22/alain-finkielkraut-derape-sur-l-equipe-de-france-attention-a.html">some pointed</a> to a racial undertone as these estates are also synonymous with black and Arab youths.</p>
<p>Marine Le Pen, the new leader of the FN party – since then renamed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/01/marine-le-pen-rebrands-front-national-in-push-for-support">Rassemblement National</a> – waded into the fray arguing that the <a href="https://www.marianne.net/societe/comment-le-debat-sur-lequipe-de-france-de-football-sest-racialise-depuis-1998">problem with the national team</a> was down to them having “another nationality in their hearts”. </p>
<p>In the years since, there have been other accusations that France <a href="https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/dossier/les-quotas-discriminatoires-dans-le-foot-francais">operated</a> a “quota” to limit the number of black and Arab players in the national team. In part, this was justified as a means to limit the number of bi-national players trained by the French youth team, who may choose to play for a country other than France. However, <a href="http://world.time.com/2011/05/04/french-national-soccer-rocked-by-accusations-of-racist-quotas/">transcripts which formed part</a> of an investigation found the rationale also extended to racial stereotypes that white players were more “cerebral” and “team orientated” than their “fast and strong” African and Arab counterparts. </p>
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<p>Notable by his absence in this world cup is Karim Benzema, an international star with Real Madrid who has been continually left out of the squad, for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/01/karim-benzema-accuses-didier-deschamps-france-euro-2016">what he has called</a> “racist” reasons. Benzema was suspended from the national team in 2015 due to a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40566551">criminal investigation</a> into an alleged blackmail case – which remains ongoing – and he was again <a href="https://www.soccerladuma.co.za/news/articles/international/categories/world-cup-2018/snubbed-karim-benzema-hits-back-at-france-football-federation-president-s-claims/295846">omitted</a> from the 2018 squad. The <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/karim-benzema-wants-answers-didier-deschamps-france-national-team-exile-a7648616.html">official</a> reason for his continued absence is “sporting choices”, but former French international Samir Nasri went <a href="https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/sport/football/un-fond-de-racisme-autour-de-benzema-en-bleu-pour-nasri-c-est-oui_1950546.html">on record</a> in 2017 to say that the reason may have a more racist rationale.</p>
<h2>Banlieue boys</h2>
<p>The aftermath of the 2010 debacle demonstrated that even for those who do make it to the top of French football, when times are hard it is they who are viewed first and foremost with suspicion due to their minority ethnic and working class backgrounds from <em>les banlieues</em> (suburbs). These areas continue to have <a href="http://www.gallimard.fr/Catalogue/GALLIMARD/Hors-serie-Connaissance/Banlieue-de-la-Republique">massive structural problems</a> that disadvantage those of minority and low-income backgrounds.</p>
<p>In the 20 years since Zidane lifted the World Cup, little has changed in the estate outside of Marseille where he grew up. Like other estates in France that house significant numbers of those of foreign ethnic origin, La Castellane continues to be <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2015/02/09/rafales-d-armes-automatiques-a-marseille-lors-de-la-visite-de-manuel-valls_4572697_3224.html">gripped by violence</a> and the all-too lucrative drugs trade, which periodic <a href="https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/provence-alpes-cote-d-azur/bouches-du-rhone/marseille/marseille-plus-gros-reseau-drogue-marseille-demantele-castellane-1499475.html">raids</a> do little to disrupt.</p>
<p>The achievements of 1998 and 2018 demonstrate that players such as Zidane and Mbappé from ethnic minority backgrounds can rise to the top of French society. Some players transcend football, taking up bigger political causes, such as the French 1998-world cup winning defender Lillian Thuram who has worked against discrimination in France. He even turned <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2009/02/03/thuram-explique-pourquoi-il-a-refuse-d-entrer-au-gouvernement_1149889_823448.html">down a position</a> in the government of Nicolas Sarkozy because of differences with the president over his stance on social issues and because Sarkozy called the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2007/mar/04/football.newsstory">rioters of 2005 “scum”</a> when he was interior minister.</p>
<p>Yet while the current team is riding high on a wave of the resurrection of “black-blanc-beur” success, French football, like French society, remains marred by <a href="http://www.liberation.fr/societe/2009/02/17/discrimination-raciale-un-heritage-francais_310620">complex forms of racial discrimination</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/england-fans-sing-footballs-coming-home-but-where-is-home-really-99479?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">England fans sing ‘football’s coming home’ – but where is ‘home’ really?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-people-suddenly-get-into-football-during-the-world-cup-98812?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Why do people suddenly ‘get into’ football during the World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Downing receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 703613. </span></em></p>When France won the world cup in 1998, the team was celebrated for its multiculturalism. What has happened since?Joseph Downing, Marie Curie Fellow, CNRS, Laboratoire méditerranéen de sociologie, Aix-Marseille Université (AMU)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/955392018-04-25T10:23:03Z2018-04-25T10:23:03ZWindrush scandal could cost Conservatives crucial voters<p>The scandal over how the UK government has treated the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/windrush-52562">Windrush generation</a> presents serious electoral problems for the Conservatives. Hanging on in power by a thread through a delicate agreement with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/conservatives-strike-deal-with-the-dup-experts-react-80101">DUP</a>, the party must broaden its electoral appeal in order to achieve the healthy parliamentary majority it so dearly craves. </p>
<p>A crisis like this, against a backdrop of growing diversity in Britain, makes this objective all the more difficult for the Tories. </p>
<p>A report from think tank <a href="http://www.britishfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Mind-the-gap-report-2017.pdf">British Future</a> has suggested that the “ethnic minority vote” cost the Conservatives a parliamentary majority in the last general election. By focusing on shoring up its traditional core vote, which was overwhelmingly supportive of Brexit, the party failed to produce a policy agenda which appealed to more urban, diverse parts of the country. </p>
<p>The report also found that the Conservatives’ electoral appeal among black Caribbeans is far weaker when compared with other ethno-religious groups (such as Indian Hindus and Sikhs).</p>
<p>While the Conservatives traditionally perform well among the “grey vote”, it’s a different story among the older members of Britain’s ethnic minorities. Indeed, the British Future report finds that the most solid forms of Labour allegiance can be found among first generation migrants of black Caribbean origin. And despite holding fairly socially conservative views, first generation black Caribbean migrants have remained staunchly loyal to Labour. </p>
<p>This is not only a legacy of the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/26/newsid_3220000/3220635.stm">race relations legislation passed under Labour governments</a>. It is also due to painful memories, such as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/15/britains-most-racist-election-smethwick-50-years-on">Smethwick controversy</a> in the 1964 general election, in which Tory candidate Peter Griffiths exploited racial tensions in the West Midlands constituency to win the race. </p>
<p>This was later followed by Enoch Powell’s 1968 <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3643823/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html">“Rivers of Blood” speech</a>. Delivered to a Conservative Association meeting in Birmingham, Powell predicted: “In this country, in 15 or 20 years time, the black man will have the whip over the white man.” </p>
<h2>Politically disaffected, socially integrated</h2>
<p>While the Windrush scandal revolves around a particular group of people, the incident has broader implications for any political party hoping for support from Britain’s wider black Caribbean population. Black Caribbeans are the most socially integrated group. Through inter-ethnic relationships, and having friends, work colleagues and neighbours who are outside their own ethnic group, black Caribbeans demonstrate high levels of “social mixing”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216219/original/file-20180424-175074-19gasyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216219/original/file-20180424-175074-19gasyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216219/original/file-20180424-175074-19gasyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216219/original/file-20180424-175074-19gasyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216219/original/file-20180424-175074-19gasyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216219/original/file-20180424-175074-19gasyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216219/original/file-20180424-175074-19gasyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protestors gather in Brixton, London, where many Windrush arrivals settled.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Andy Rain</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>But the group is known to be particularly prone to <a href="https://www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/research/embes-the-ethnic-minority-british-election-study.html">political disaffection</a>. They trust parliament and the police less than other minority groups – such as black Africans, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. </p>
<p>They are also the most likely to report racial discrimination and feel that non whites in the UK are held back by prejudice. Black Caribbeans are the least likely to be satisfied with British democracy. </p>
<p>This paradox lies in the possibility that through greater social mixing, Black Caribbeans are more exposed to and aware of racial discrimination. And this contributes to their political disaffection. </p>
<h2>Lost voters</h2>
<p>The Windrush scandal is unlikely to improve levels of political trust and democratic satisfaction among Britain’s black Caribbeans. And it’s likely to have done serious damage to the governing Conservative party’s relationship with Britain’s black Caribbean communities. </p>
<p>Aspirational, family-oriented black Caribbeans of Christian faith could be thought of as potential Tory voters in the making. But the mistreatment endured by some of their community elders is unlikely to convince them to join the Conservative fold. </p>
<p>The scandal itself has undeniable racial connotations. On <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b1dv5l/question-time-2018-19042018">last week’s BBC Question Time</a>, conservative commentator Iain Dale went as far as suggesting that members of the Windrush generation would be treated differently if they originated from countries such as New Zealand. However true or not this may be, Britain’s governing party is currently very vulnerable to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/04/22/theresa-may-accused-racism-windrush/">accusations of racism</a>. </p>
<p>While Labour should not take such voters for granted, the Windrush scandal certainly presents an opportunity for the party. It historically enjoys ownership of issues surrounding racial equality and fairness. Jeremy Corbyn now has a chance to build up support among voters who are growing increasingly uneasy over the authoritarian-nationalist direction of government policy. </p>
<p>The scandal makes the Conservative party’s task of broadening its electoral appeal in an increasingly diverse context all the more difficult. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/oct/08/uk.conservatives2002">At the 2002 Party Conference</a>, Theresa May stated that the Tories had to do more to not be seen as the “nasty party”. Unfortunately, recent events under her <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-43831563/windrush-what-is-the-hostile-environment-immigration-policy">“hostile environment” policy</a> have reconsolidated that very image.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95539/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rakib Ehsan has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council for his PhD.</span></em></p>The UK’s black Caribbean community is traditionally more inclined towards Labour. They’re even less likely to switch now.Rakib Ehsan, Doctoral Researcher in Political Science, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.