LONDON: The most senior Black adviser to U.Okay. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned, the federal government mentioned Thursday, the day after a report on racial disparities concluded that Britain doesn’t have a systemic downside with racism.
Samuel Kasumu will depart his job as a particular advisor for civil society and communities subsequent month.
The prime ministers 10 Downing St. workplace mentioned Kasumu’s departure had been his plan for a number of months.
Downing Street denied the resignation was associated to Wednesdays publication of a report by the government-appointed Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which concluded that Britain is just not a systemically racist nation.
But Simon Woolley, a former authorities equalities adviser and a member of the U.Okay. House of Lords, mentioned Kasumus exit was linked to the grubby and divisive report.
He mentioned there was a disaster at No 10 when it comes to acknowledging and coping with persistent race inequality.
Kasumu thought-about quitting in February. He wrote a resignation letter, obtained by the BBC, that accused Johnsons Conservative Party of pursuing a politics steeped in division. He was persuaded to keep in his job briefly.
The Conservative authorities launched the fee’s inquiry into racial disparities within the wake of anti-racism protests final yr. The panel of consultants concluded that whereas outright racism exists in Britain, the nation is just not institutionally racist or rigged towards ethnic minorities.
Citing strides to shut gaps between ethnic teams in instructional and financial achievement, the report mentioned race was turning into much less vital as a think about creating disparities that are also fueled by class and household backgrounds.
Many anti-racism activists have been skeptical of the findings, saying the fee ignored obstacles to equality.
Institutionally, we’re nonetheless racist, and for a government-appointed fee…to deny its existence is deeply, deeply worrying, mentioned Halima Begum, chief government of the Runnymede Trust, a racial equality suppose tank.
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted racial fault traces, with Britons from Black African and Black Caribbean backgrounds dying from COVID-19 at greater than twice the speed as their white compatriots.
Black folks in Britain are 3 times as seemingly as white folks to be arrested and twice as seemingly to die in police custody.
Like different international locations, Britain has confronted an uncomfortable reckoning with race because the demise of George Floyd, a Black American, on the knee of a U.S. policeman in May 2020 sparked anti-racism protests around the globe.
Large crowds at Black Lives Matter protests throughout the U.Okay. final summer season referred to as on the federal government and establishments to face up to the legacy of the British Empire and the countrys intensive income from the slave commerce.
The toppling of a statue of Seventeenth-century slave dealer Edward Colston within the metropolis of Bristol in June prompted a pointed debate about how to take care of Britains previous. Many felt such statues extol racism and are an affront to Black Britons. Others, together with the prime minister, argued that eradicating them was erasing a bit of historical past.
