ROTA blog

In his controversial and misguided programme “Things We Won't Say About Race That Are True“ Trevor Phillips argues that white people are so afraid of being called out as racists if they criticise black people or minority ethnic communities that they would prefer to stay silent even when serious abuses are taking place. He argues…

Many white people feel intensely uncomfortable talking about race. They say that they are constantly in fear of saying the wrong thing, of “putting their foot in it” or “treading on eggshells”.  Recently a white US rap musician Macklemore put it like this: "White, liberal people want to be nice. We don’t want to be…

In the United States over the last 30years a useful concept has been developed which we could do with discussing much more on this side of the Atlantic.  This is the concept of ”white privilege”. As a white person I can take a whole range of advantages and privileges for granted as I go about…

It has become a commonplace idea that the more ethnic diversity there is in a society the more conflict there is. Difference and diversity are seen as negative and dangerous rather than as positive and engaging. Actually this assumption is highly questionable, but of course the Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express do…

Voice4Change England (V4CE)  have recently demanded  that Chancellor George Osborne should set up an inquiry into alarming new Labour Force Survey figures showing that Black British citizens are losing out in the economic “recovery”.  Rates for White people in  employment rose by over 360,000 (a 1.9 per cent increase) but the numbers of Black African and Caribbean…

Yet again we are at the mercy of the House of Lords.  After the Immigration Bill passed the House of Commons with only 16 MPs voting against it, we are again in the situation where we are reliant on the House of Lords to head off damaging, dangerous and badly thought-through legislation. One of the…

I recently attended an inspiring conference that brought together Somali community organisations with a variety of service providers organised by the Council for Somali Organisations. Many community organisations are unable to overcome the influence of “community leaders” who insist on talking for their “communities”, sometimes in ways that do not reflect the real views, aspirations…

The Immigration Bill is without doubt the most damaging piece of legislation for race equality and community relations that has gone before Parliament in the last 30 years. It is now over half way through its passage through Parliament and represents a concerted attack on all BAME communities – not just recently arrived migrants. The…

Well here we are in January 2014 and the tidal wave of Romanian and Bulgarian benefit tourists hasn’t materialised. Farcical New Year scenes at Luton Airport of MPs and journalists staking out arrivals from half empty planes arriving from Sofia and Bucharest (and discovering two new arrivals both of whom had already been offered jobs),…

David Cameron has launched another attack on multiculturalism as part of his attack on Islamist extremism. “Timid politicians with a ‘misplaced’ fear of offending Muslims have allowed Islamist extremism to take root in the institutions of Britain” he said going on to warn in the Daily Mail that“the policy of treating different cultures as ‘separate…