That so few of the 600 recommendations to tackle racism have been implemented is all the more disappointing given that ways forward are well understood (Only a third of recommendations to tackle endemic racism in UK implemented, 25 May). When the last Labour government established the Equality and Human Rights Commission, it also launched the first national benchmarking survey of prejudice (2005), originally intended for triennial repetition but in fact only repeated once, in 2017.
The British Academy’s work on cohesive societies and the societal impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Belong and the Nuffield Foundation’s work on cohesion through the pandemic and the Khan review all concluded that preventing prejudice and building cohesion cannot be done unless we regularly and systematically survey changes in social attitudes and relationships across different places and contexts.
The social processes that generate prejudice and discrimination are well understood and require coherent strategies to be addressed. Changing levels of poverty and inequality, social mixing, population ageing and environmental challenges mean manifestations of social fracture and distrust will differ across time and place.
Unless there is a systematic approach and investment to address the processes of prejudice, including tracking its forms with sufficient frequency, policymakers will continue with the “doom loop” of despair, inquiries and recommendations, and insufficient solutions when things go wrong.
Prof Dominic Abrams
University of Kent
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