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ISSUES: Racial & Ethnic Discrimination
Chapter 2: Tackling racism
Employment targets for
ethnic minorities will not
reduce racial inequalities
Omar Khan, Director of the Runnymede Trust, assesses
the prospects for ethnic minorities under the new
Conservative Government.
By Omar Khan
T
he Prime Minister David
Cameron’s
commitments
during the 2015 campaign will
continue rather than reduce racial
inequalities in the labour market.
His underwhelming targets suggest
we need better evidence, proper
legislative scrutiny and public debate
to make democracy and fairness a
reality for Black and minority ethnic
people.
In the final two weeks of the 2015
election campaign, Prime Minister
David Cameron gave a speech in
Croydon with a message to ethnic
minority voters. These included
a clear rejection of Lord Tebbit’s
cricket test (and not simply the easier
condemnation of Enoch Powell), as
well as the positive message that
a Conservative government would
support minority faith schools and
the benefits of free schools for ethnic
minority parents.
In
the
speech
Cameron
also
referenced employment outcomes.
This is hardly surprising, given worse
employment outcomes for all Black
and minority ethnic groups, and that
in the 2010 election unemployment
was the single most important issue
for BME voters.
A brief scan of the Prime Minister’s
promises
appears
positive:
a
seeming commitment to clearly
specified targets, including “20%
more apprenticeships”. However,
on closer inspection, the promises
simply commit the Government to
the existing underperformance of
the apprenticeship policy, and so
a further entrenchment of ethnic
inequalities in the labour market.
While the Prime Minister positively
affirms that 190,000 apprenticeships
were taken up by BME people in the
last Parliament, that figure represents
only 9.5% of the total of two million.
Not only were BME people 26%
of applicants (and so nearly three
times less likely actually to secure
an apprenticeship), but race equality
organisations and others have been
directly asking ministers at the
DWP and BIS how they are going to
improve these disappointing figures.
On first glance, the “20% more
apprenticeships” figure for BME
young people looks like a clear
recognition of and response to the
rise in ethnic inequalities delivered
by the apprenticeship policy from
2010 to 2015. However, Cameron’s
commitment is that BME people will
secure 300,000 of the additional
three million apprenticeships in the
next Parliament, i.e. 2015–2020. This
is still only 10% of the total number,
meaning that the Prime Minister’s
target is for BME applicants to be
2.5 times less successful in securing
apprenticeships compared to their
white British peers. Consider also
that 20% of 18- 24-year-olds are
BME, or twice the Prime Minster’s
target, and the much higher rates
of unemployment (typically double
the white British rate) among BME
young people. This suggests that the
Government will not seek to reduce
racial inequalities even where they
are very large and even for 18-years-
olds living in Britain today.
The Prime Minister’s commitment
on employment more generally also
initially appears promising: 660,000
more BME people in employment by
2020. This is indeed an impressive-
looking figure, and again suggests
the Prime Minister is establishing a
bold, clear target. However, digging
of incidents, the police and
the courts necessarily appeals
to the same systems in which
institutionalised racism so often
plays out.
Ö
Despite the apps we studied
providing
confidential
and
anonymised
reporting,
the
real and perceived risks of the
technology being used (in the
wrong hands) to profile and
literally locate and track individual
reporters and activists is a genuine
concern. This may act as a barrier
to take-up and use.
Ö
The ease with which incidents can
be filmed and uploaded online,
while certainly raising awareness,
runs the risk of causing people to
switch off.
Digital technology can have the
dual effect of informing about and
banalising racism. As comic Hari
Kondabolu tweeted following the US
police shootings on successive days
of two black men, Alton Sterling and
Philando Castile:
“If the cops kill People of Color in the
US so easily, even when filmed, can
you imagine what our military does in
the countries we invade?”
As more apps are developed, more
questions will emerge. What is clear
is that these will be a main player in
the fight against racism as it morphs
and spreads into online and mobile-
mediated everyday spaces.
13 July 2016
Ö
The above information is reprinted
with kind permission from
The
Conversation
. Please visit www.
theconversation.com for further
information.
© 2010-2017, The Conversation
Trust (UK)
