Racial equality at a ‘standstill’ in Bristol

In a united stance against racial inequality in Bristol, members of the black and minority ethic communities (BME) have come together to launch the Bristol Manifesto for Race Equality.

Written by some of the city’s most prominent members of the BME community, the document calls on public and private sector employers to  “adopt this Manifesto” and commit to tackling inequality.

Pamela Parkes spoke to one of the authors of the manifesto Ruth Pitter from VOSCUR.

In 1999 the Macpherson Report into the tragic death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence seemed to herald a new optimism in the field of race relations across the UK.

Ruth Pitter said race equality was finally put firmly on the agenda: “When the Macpherson Report talked about institutional racism in the police, everyone started to take notice and suddenly you saw quite a lot of race equalities being changes and developed.”

However, nearly two decades on and the hope that sprang out of tragedy seems to have dissipated.

Racial equality, believes Ruth, has now fallen off the agenda “because of all the cuts,” dedicated racial equality mangers are gone and “nobody is taking responsibility for racial equality”.

She said this has seen inequalities in the city widen: “The outcomes for BME communities in Bristol are really quite shocking and the only way we can try and change this is by getting the public sector agencies to address some of the gaps.”

Racial Inequality…persists and is on the rise again.  We have less BME officials in positions of influence in our public services than before; children from our local BME communities are getting worse outcomes compared to their White British counterparts than before and for SARI race hate crime is also on the increase particularly for those working at the front end such as taxi drivers; take away staff; nurses and care staff and those living in outer estates in isolation.

So we see this Manifesto as absolutely critical and ask that it becomes a living, breathing document achieving real pledges from our local partners.  The pledges must come both from services and from communities as no one sector can achieve this alone – it needs joint enterprise.  Alex Raikes MBE, SARI

However, Ruth is clear that the BME community has to shake off its own apathy about racial inequality: “There is also something about us as a BME community not standing up and making enough noise – we don’t protest enough.

“You can give out figures to the BME community and people say “yeah – what’s the point of protesting, why bother because nobody is going to change anything,” so the status quo continues.”

“Sadly the issue of race and achieving true racial equality no longer seems to be on the table in Bristol. As a major city Bristol is way behind others who share the same racial make-up as us. If we use our leadership as an example it’s like no one in authority has taken the time to stop and question why the faces around them don’t reflect the faces of the people they serve.

The manifesto is the first step to setting key important targets, it isn’t radical it simply highlights what Bristol as a growing city needs to do to be seen as a progressive modern city with a fresh modern outlook.

British society has changed – Bristol can either embrace it and benefit from the wealth of wasted talent or it can continue doing what it’s doing now; be seen as a city with a race problem.” David McLeod, equality campaigner

Ruth said they are looking to act at a local level because nationally “political parties are not speaking out about race”.

“The race agenda for most parties comes down to immigration and preventing terrorism…improving quality of life and closing gaps among different communities just do not come up…wider race issues are being ignored.”

Bristol’s integrity as a forward looking , progressive city is undermined by stark inequalities. Along with class race is one of the drivers of inequality. Educational advancement, health outcomes and poverty – these are persistent problems that the city has has not made progress on and, in some ways, is going backwards.

The Runnymede Trust has just published a papers stating that Bristol is the 7th worst racially unequal city which is shameful for a city that strives to be a European leader.

The manifesto is our response to that and people making a clear statement about what life in Bristol should be like for everybody.

Marvin Rees, politician and campaigner

Ruth says she wants Bristol to be proud of the manifesto and, if it is successful, she wants the city to showcase the work and achievements the city can make.

“We want to say there are some really good things we can do around achieving better outcomes for the BME community in Bristol and, if the rest of the country like it, it it’s a great model to take up.

Racial inequality is everybody’s business and I hope that all political parties will sign up and take this effort forward.

We cannot address the divisions that cut the integrity out of Bristol if we are unable to talk about racial inequality. This manifesto lays the groundwork for Bristol’s big conversation. Hibaq Jama, Labour councillor for Lawrence Hill

Ruth believes now is the time for the city to act and show a real commitment to ending inequality: “I do see Bristol as a great city to live in and I always say to people it is a great city and I’m really proud of it, but the fact that I can walk into the council house and see no senior managers, I can go to Portishead and get no sense of BME police officers, I can look at school league tables and I know for a fact that the least successful ones are with BME children and that is what frustrates me about the city.”

One of the linchpins of the manifesto is to encourage public agencies to improve not only the number of people it recruits from the BME community, but also provide clear career paths to the top ranks of management.

Bristol City Council said they employed an equalities manager but emphasised that all staff employed by the council have a responsibility to ensure equality. In addition they have a talent spotting management program to fast-track staff into managerial positions.

Currently of the council employs just under 10% of its staff from the BME community (total 6652), of those earning £50,000 or more 3% are from BME communities, 81% are white and 9% declined to give their ethnic background.

Avon and Somerset Police currently employs 61 police officers (total 2800) and 50 police staff (total 2186.5) are Asian, Black and mixed heritage. In addition the force has 17 PCSOs from the BME community.

The force said it has a number of measures in place to encourage applications from “all under-represented groups” including working with the Black Police Association, encouraging young people to apply to work in the force through school and careers fairs and mentoring schemes, a dedicated outreach worker in the human resources department and looking at it’s online presence and job application forms to make them as open as possible.