Outrage at the govenment’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report
JVL Introduction
Following on the outrage expressed by Dame Doreen Lawrence who says the Sewell report gives “racists the green light”, historian David Olusoga rages at what he rightly describes as the “disaster” of this report.
His anger is palpable, particularly about the abuse of history in the report, in which slavery seems somehow to have been ennobling.
He calls much of it disingenuous, and is incandescent about its crude misrepresentation of struggles to bring marginalised black figures and communities into the mainstream of British history as “token expressions of black achievement” – which he describes rightly as “a poisonously patronising phrase”.
In summary, he says, its authors “defend the nation from charges no one is making; they create and then slay straw men, and set up false binaries. Wilfully blind to the interplay between race and class, they are selective in both their sources and conclusions.”
This article was originally published by the Guardian on Fri 2 Apr 2021. Read the original here.
The poisonously patronising Sewell report is historically illiterate
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A disgusting report.
Brilliant critique by David Olusoga.
Had anyone else seen the irony in this disgusting report ?
One of the authors interviewed on the radio said that those ethnic minorities who did better in the educational system and were over represented in the professions were by definition not subject to institutional racism.
I wonder if the author was thinking of applying this formula to the British Jewish Community ? I rather think not!
This is dangerous stuff. Double standards and appearing to privilege one minority at the expense of others is going to lead to mistrust, hostility and ultimately racism.
All racism is equally disgusting and we must be careful not to undervalue or overvalue racism against a particular group.
We must also totally reject divide and rule. Racists will be only too ready to point out that if people from Chinese and Jewish backgrounds succeed, there must be something wrong with minorities who do less well.
When you lose the support of the intelligentsia, you have already lost the war. Its just a matter of time now.
I hope so. But the report is not just disgusting and fatuous, it is part of the dangerous assassination of the truth and of quality of thought that accompanies fascism everywhere. We have police going into the homes of young women who take part in protests but leave before they become violent, who humiliate them and laugh at their fear. Now they have been given carte blanche to carry on treating BAME people as atrociously as ever. It’s happening so quickly, it’s terrifying.