Jane is a British woman of Maori descent who has lived in the UK all her life. She was racially abused and is taking her case to a tribunal. In the run-up to the case, many of her colleagues and bosses stopped talking to her and her boss even put her on suspension. This is an example of victimisation which is a form of direct racial discrimination which is supposed to be protected by the Equality Act. Supposed to at least. Adam, who was born and bred in Kent but who comes from Pakistani descent, was walking through Camden town market in London coming home from work where he is a veterinary surgeon at a top surgery in Europe. He accidentally bumped into a vendor where he was then verbally assaulted with many racial slurs. Unfortunately, these 'stories' are very much real and occur throughout Britain every day despite the government claiming they are doing everything they can to stop these sorts of things from happening. They don't do enough to prevent ethnic minorities from being subject to racism on a daily basis and they especially don't do enough to support these minorities in everyday life.
Unfortunately, in modern society in Britain, the relative poverty rate is roughly 16.4%. Of that 16.4%, 65% are from ethnic minorities. Clearly, this paints a picture of just how lackadaisical the government is when it comes to supporting ethnic minorities. In London's Bethnal Green which is one of the poorest and most poverty-ridden areas in Britain, the crime rate is extraordinarily high for an area of just 3.1 square kilometres. Between September 2017 and August 2018, there were just below 800 cases of anti-social behavior, and that made for only 24% of the crime in the area. The second highest crime was violence and sexual assault in which there were 738 cases making up for 22% of all crime in the area. The largest ethnic group in Bethnal Green today is Bangladeshi which accounts for 38% of the population. Whilst it's certainly not a social minority in Bethnal Green, according to the most recent census it only makes up 0.7% of the UK. This comprehensibly shows that the government isn't doing nearly enough to combat poverty in areas with low socioeconomic status and high numbers of ethnic minorities if the people in these areas are being forced to turn to crime to survive. The government needs to either better accommodate immigrants into an environment in which they are more likely to thrive or try to further help the ethnic minorities already living in poverty in order to achieve this goal.
According to Gov. uk, there were 298,949 stop and searches in the financial year of 2016/2017 in Britain which is the highest since 2009/2010. However, the rates vary between different ethnic groups drastically. For white people, there were roughly 4 stop and searches per 1000 people compared to 29 stops per 1000 black people. This obviously makes us think that either black people walk down the high street wearing ski masks with money erupting out of the rucksacks or the British police force is stereotypically profiling ethnic minorities like black people despite there being any evidence to do so. Now, saying every stop and search in that year took place without sufficient evidence or that every Policeman or woman walking down the street will do this, but I think we can all agree that there isn't a major difference in rates of stop and searches between white people and black people just by coincidence. If we look at the incarceration rates between ethnicity it tells a different story. Of the roughly 90.000 prisoners currently in prison today roughly 70% of them are of white ethnicity. So why are so many more stop and searches occurring for black people compared to white people? It's down to the police officers carrying out the stops. A quick solution would be to formally punish them for this via either suspension or being told there is no need anymore, but a long-term fix would be to educate the officers instead.
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As I've mentioned before many ethnic groups with a low socioeconomic status tend to turn to crime. Again, not their fault. However, upon their return to society, they quickly return to their lives before incarceration due to the fact that they do not know how to cope without the appropriate skills needed to maintain a life without poverty. Again, not their fault. For some apparent reason, the government keeps complaining about poverty and crime rates, yet they let these people go around in a circle from birth to poverty to crime to prison and back around again (not to birth. Obviously). They have to see the simple solution. That being, to educate the prison inmates and provide appropriate skills necessary to cut out poverty from their lives. This will not only benefit the government and raise their approval rating, but it will also benefit the prisoners who get to go on and get a job and start providing for their families. As 46% of prison inmates have literacy below the national 5/GCSE standard giving them basic training in maths and English or even introducing a course to achieve a qualification such as a couple of GCSEs like they have done in America will mean they can put that on a CV and get a basic job and start earning and climbing above the poverty line.
Due to pop culture, ethnic minorities have come to have a strong hatred and distrust for the police force. This is prevalent in society through uprisings and riots in recent times. This distrust also causes ethnic minorities to refuse the aforementioned help from the police and even the government and the local council that they desperately need. This is why it's almost necessary for the government to reinstall trust in the police force. There could be a counterargument that before of this happens the police force itself needs to be 'cleaned'; for all the bigoted and corrupt policemen and women to be removed as I have already mentioned. Once that has happened then and only then can the ethnic minorities who have been abused by the police and government for years upon years start to trust the authorities again.
Time and time again I hear the phrase 'that's just how they were brought up' or - 'that's just how that generation thinks' or something like that. By that generation, they mean the generation that grew up in the 1950s/60s and I think everyone knows what they mean by 'the way they think'. Yes, that generation grew up witnessing some of the worst racial tragedies. That doesn't mean that they necessarily have to be bigoted or racist. In fact, they should know better due to witnessing those events. They need to be educated. This will drastically decrease racism as a whole in the UK and it will raise the standard of living for ethnic minorities instead of getting yelled at for coming to a country they thought they were welcome in.
To conclude, yes, I think life in Britain for ethnic minorities is rising but there is still so much we can do to raise their standard of living and decrease their fear of everyday life. We have to combat and educate bigoted people who believe that it's okay to have racism in the government and police. It's totally vital to attempt to revitalize the lives of prisoners in the outside world in order to fight against the poverty threshold. With all of these solutions in good time, we can make Britain a country that welcomes legal immigrants. A country that not only welcomes immigrants but fulfills their dreams and wildest ambitions. We can once again be the country everyone believes and wants us to be.
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