What is racism?

A later Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, chaired by Dr Tony Sewell, published its report in 2021. With a broader remit than the McGregor-Smith Review, the Commission looked at education and training employment, fairness at work and enterprise crime and policing health.

It concluded that while racism and racial injustice still exist in the UK, a range of other factors have an impact on life chances. Geography, family influence, socioeconomic background, culture and religion were all argued to be salient intersecting barriers to equal opportunities.

The report has been divisive, with some observers (including organisations that submitted evidence to the Commission) conveying that the report was a missed opportunity to engage with the realities of racism and racial injustice and foster fundamental change. The Guardian newspaper covered the fallout in an article entitled Bodies Credited in UK Race Review Distance Themselves From Findings.

Read the independent report on the UK Government website entitled The report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities.

In 2020 The Runnymede Trust, which is a leading UK think tank, published a report focusing on how economic and wider social inequalities affect ethnic minority people in Britain. The report provides recommendations for policy changes that might help address those inequalities.

Visit the Runnymede Trust website to read the full report The Colour of Money: How racial inequalities obstruct a fair and resilient economy.

In 2017 The McGregor-Smith Review of Race in the Workplace conducted by Baroness McGregor-Smith considered the issues affecting ethnic minority groups in the workplace.

The McGregor-Smith Review reported that ethnic minorities in the UK continue to feel that discrimination and exclusion from social networks act as barriers to career progression.

The recommendations from the review indicate that organisations need to do much more to gather and monitor data on ethnic minorities in the workplace, and be more transparent in their action around this; embed accountability for equality in assessments of organisational performance, raise awareness of diversity issues, critically examine and change processes, including around recruitment and progression, to encourage greater diversity.

Visit the published report on the UK Government website, entitled The Time for Talking is Over. Now is the Time to Act: Race in the Workplace, The McGregor-Smith Review 

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a public body with responsibility for the promotion and enforcement of equality and non-discrimination laws in England, Scotland and Wales. 

In research for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Joseph Rowntree Foundation researchers Malcolm Brynin and Simonetta Longhi, from the Institute for Social and Economic Research, highlighted the tendency for ethnic minorities to be over-represented in some low paying sectors.

Almost all ethnic minority groups move into lower paid work than the white British majority. Ethnic minority employees are also likely to be over qualified for the work that they are doing.

Visit the Equality and Human Rights Commission website to read the full report entitled The Ethnicity Pay Gap.

In 2018 the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched an inquiry into racial harassment in publicly funded universities in England, Scotland and Wales. The following year the inquiry reported on findings from a public call for evidence, interviews and surveys with staff and students and roundtable discussions.

Visit the Equality and Human Rights Commission to read the report Tackling Racial Harassment: Universities Challenged (.pdf)

Universities UK is an advocacy organisation for universities in the United Kingdom. In 2020 the Universities UK Advisory Group on tackling racial harassment in higher education published guidance and recommendations on tackling racial harassment in universities.

To develop the guidance the Advisory Group consulted university staff and student panels, exclusively involving people from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups. The Advisory Group also consulted external expert advisers to scrutinise and challenge the guidance.

Visit Universities UK to read the guidance on Tackling Racial Harassment in Higher Education (.pdf)

Professor Nicola Rollock undertook the first UK study of the career experiences of Black female Professors and their efforts to reach professorship.

Taking a qualitative research approach, through one-to-one interviews, Professor Rollock explores the experiences of 20 (of the then 25) UK Black female Professors of African, Caribbean and other Black background.  

Visit the University and College Union website to read Professor Nicola Rollock's report Staying Power: The career experiences and strategies of UK Black female professors (.pdf)

Advance Higher Education is a British charity and professional membership scheme promoting excellence in higher education. Scottish tertiary institutions have produced a useful resource on the role of allyship in building an anti-racist curriculum.

Visit the Advance Higher Education website to read the report on The Role of Allyship in Building an Anti-Racist Curriculum (.pdf)