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Windrush campaigners alarmed by omissions of No 10 race report
Source: The Guardian
Windrush campaigners alarmed by omissions of No 10 race report
As scandal is mentioned twice in 258 pages, some of those affected question government’s understanding of it
Amelia Gentleman
@ameliagentleman
Fri 2 Apr 2021 08.00 BST
Campaigners for the rights of those affected by the Windrush scandal expressed concern that the issue was raised just twice in the controversial 258-page racial disparity report commissioned by the government.
The report concludes Britain is no longer a place where “the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities”, despite the scandal providing one of the clearest examples in recent history where government decisions caused catastrophic, racially discriminatory outcomes.
Patrick Vernon, whose campaigning helped force the government to take action on Windrush, said: “I can see why they haven’t included it. If they had focused on the scandal they would have had to admit that there was a systematic, structural failure in how the Home Office targeted the Windrush generation.”
The report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities mentions Windrush, alongside Grenfell, in its foreword, as an instance “where ethnic minority communities have rightly felt let down”, but continues: “Outcomes such as these do not come about by design, and are certainly not deliberately targeted.”
However, an independent investigation into the causes of the Windrush scandal published last year, the Lessons Learned review, found that the Home Office had displayed “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness” on race issues, “consistent with some elements of the definition of institutional racism”. The report’s author, Wendy Williams, also highlighted a lack of understanding among officials about the nature of racism, concluding: “There seems to be a misconception that racism is confined to decisions made with racist motivations … This is a misunderstanding of both the law and racism generally.”
-snip-
As scandal is mentioned twice in 258 pages, some of those affected question government’s understanding of it
Amelia Gentleman
@ameliagentleman
Fri 2 Apr 2021 08.00 BST
Campaigners for the rights of those affected by the Windrush scandal expressed concern that the issue was raised just twice in the controversial 258-page racial disparity report commissioned by the government.
The report concludes Britain is no longer a place where “the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities”, despite the scandal providing one of the clearest examples in recent history where government decisions caused catastrophic, racially discriminatory outcomes.
Patrick Vernon, whose campaigning helped force the government to take action on Windrush, said: “I can see why they haven’t included it. If they had focused on the scandal they would have had to admit that there was a systematic, structural failure in how the Home Office targeted the Windrush generation.”
The report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities mentions Windrush, alongside Grenfell, in its foreword, as an instance “where ethnic minority communities have rightly felt let down”, but continues: “Outcomes such as these do not come about by design, and are certainly not deliberately targeted.”
However, an independent investigation into the causes of the Windrush scandal published last year, the Lessons Learned review, found that the Home Office had displayed “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness” on race issues, “consistent with some elements of the definition of institutional racism”. The report’s author, Wendy Williams, also highlighted a lack of understanding among officials about the nature of racism, concluding: “There seems to be a misconception that racism is confined to decisions made with racist motivations … This is a misunderstanding of both the law and racism generally.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/02/windrush-campaigners-alarmed-by-omissions-of-no-10-race-report