The Johnson Government has not only been taken to court by the EU for breaking international law, the UN now accuses No 10 of normalising white supremacy.
After the Black Lifes Matter protests last year Samuel Kasumu, special adviser for civil society and communities, initiated a report on racism in the UK. The report was published on 31 March 2021 and concluded that there was no institutional racism in Britain.
Earlier this week the human rights experts in the UN’s Working Group of Experts on People of African Decent condemned the report, stating that it is “tone-deaf” and “reprehensible”. It notes that the report has twisted data and misapplied statistics. Researchers have shown one example of this, from the labour market, in an article published on the LSE blog.
This echoes the criticism in Britain when the Government’s report was first published. A panel of experts said in an ITV interview that the report was “deeply offensive”.
Questions have also been raised over the impartiality of the commission and how it was finalised. Several scholars claim their research was misrepresented in the report. Commissioners did not get a chance to read the text in its entirety before publication and they were not aware of the conclusions presented by the chairman in his foreword. It is reported that the final result was dictated by No 10 to accommodate the Government’s own agenda, not to give a truthful picture of Britain today. Samuel Kasumu resigned the same day the report was published.
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