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‘BLM: A Voice for Black Britons?’ by Dr Rakib Ehsan (Henry Jackson Society, Feb 2021) – A Review.
This is a 64 page, downloadable summary based on on-line interviews of both a representative national sample of 1000 people (so presumably including around 100 people of South Asian background and around 50 black people) and a separate group of 558 black people, between 8th and 16th January of this year.
So, is BLM a representative voice for Black Britons?
“According to its official funding page, UK BLM is dedicated to the dismantling of the market economy and committed to the defunding (and eventual abolition) of the policw. It has expressed explicit support for direct action to achieve “black liberation”” (p 11). In these terms the answer to the report’s question is a resounding ‘No’. Only 18% of Black British people want reduced investment in the local police force; only 25% want to replace capitalism with a socialist economy; only 16% view tearing down statues as an acceptable form of political protest. “The core objectives and political methods of the UK Black Lives Matter organisation . . . are far from being inclusive and well supported” (p 52).
More Broadly, how do Black people regard life in Britain.
Here the situation is a lot more complex, and alarming.
* Almost 40% of Black British people perceive of UK Race Relations as being bad (as against 23.5% of the General Population), especially those who voted for Labour or Remain.
* 58% of Black British people think the UK is a fundamentally racist society (as regards the USA the perception is 78%). This is a very significant divergence from the view of the General Population where only 29% think the UK is fundamentally racist.
* As regards experiences of discrimination over the past 12 months, they were reported by 39% of Black British people concerning race, and 18% concerning ethnicity. (Did the two categories overlap?) However as regards the source of the discrimination suffered by Black Britons, whilst 33% came from white people, 23% came from other ethnic groups, including 8% black-to-black discrimination. (To speak to my own identity, the next highest experience of discrimination for both cohorts was because of our age (11%) – higher than for gender, sexual orientation and social class!)
* As regards specific public institutions, Black Britons expressed particular perceptions of unfairness in the police force (57%) - in strong contrast to the perception of fairness in 61% of the general population; and in the education system (49%), again a strong contrast with the general population. Parliament also came out badly, whilst Local Councils and the NHS had an overall favourable balance.
* Whilst support for the explicit aims of BLM was minimal, there was a strong perception in the Black British sample (including those who voted Conservative) that BLM had a positive impact on UK Race relations (59 %, as opposed to 41% of the General Population).
* A question on Reparations was poorly and clumsily phrased as whether we should ‘support the payment of reparations to UK-based people whose ancestors were directly impacted by British colonial activities’, which seems to be asking ‘should we be giving money to people who are black?’ Unsurprisingly, 61% of black people thought so.
Nonetheless there were other factors that indicated a more optimistic view of race and ethnicity in Britain.
* Black British people have an overwhelmingly favourable perception of ‘White British’ people (59%), as against a much smaller group perceiving the contrary (8%). Curiously the ethnic group perceived most unfavourably was Eastern European (13%).
* As regards Black British perceptions of selected countries, the United Kingdom was regarded favourably (56%, as opposed to 16.5% unfavourable). Canada got the highest rating. Jamaica scored high (51%, as opposed to 8%), whereas Nigeria didn’t (34%, as opposed to 21%).
* 62% of Black Britons thought British National Identity was important to them – only 1.4% lower than amongst the General Population,
* As regards the overall question of ‘Satisfaction with Life’ both cohorts returned remarkably similar results. For both the General Population and Black Britons 7% described themselves as Very Satisfied, and 9% Very Dissatisfied. The only variation was that the General Population was slightly more inclined to be Fairly Satisfied (35% as against 31%), and Black Britons to be Fairly Dissatisfied (235% as against 21%).
Going more deeply, a very significant chart (p 48) broke down the Life Satisfaction of Black Britons according to four variables – birthplace, education, ethnicity and age. It reveals significant contrasts amongst Black British people that are often overlooked. Those born abroad, with degrees, of immediate African background, and aged over 55 were more likely satisfied with life in Britain. Conversely those born in UK, without degrees, of Caribbean background and aged 18-24 were more likely dissatisfied. Those with on-the-ground experience will readily recognise the force of the distinctions; they are too often obscure to those who make policy. Also a fifth variable of gender might have produced another interesting contrast.
Specific Topics.
a) Religion.
Whilst religion was not a major feature of the report, it was touched on in some questions and will be of particular interest to the readers of this blog. A question on the General Populations perception of faith groups gave Christians the most favourable response (54%), with other faith groups (including atheists) in the 43-46% range, apart from Muslims who recorded both the lowest favourable score (34%) and considerably highest unfavourable score (18%). For all the other faiths only between 5-7% were regarded unfavourably, with atheists being the least unfavoured.
The Black British sample was broadly similar with Christians 61% favoured and all other faiths (now including Muslims) in the 41-44% range. Muslims though were still seen the most unfavourably (by15%), with Christians getting the lowest score (5%) but atheists now notably more unfavoured (10%). Overall, there is no evidence for the view that Christianity is seen as ‘toxic’ by either sample, but rather is widely regarded with favour.
On the question of religious identity, for the General Population it was important for 37% of the population as opposed to 56% of the Black sample. Within that group, over four-fifths of Black Africans saw it as important as against just over half of Black Caribbean people. Conversely over a quarter of the latter saw religious identity as not important at all, twice the proportion of Black Africans (27% to 13%).
b) Ethnic distinctions.
One of the reports seven ‘Discussion Results’ is headed ‘The Myth of the ‘Black Community’. It continues: ‘While political organisations such as UK BLM have used homogenising terms such as ‘Black diaspora’, the findings in this report show that the notion of there being a ‘Black community’ in Britain is nothing but a fictitious social construct, a myth which continues to be peddled for political purposes” (p 53). The Report’s ‘Executive Summary’ lists that people of Black African origin compared to people of Black Caribbean origin are:
* more likely to think that race relations in the UK are in good shape; that religion is an important element in their personal identity; to be satisfied with their current-day life in Britain;
* less likely to view Britain as a fundamentally racist society; to have had an unstable family life during their childhood.
Interestingly, perceptions of the other between the two Black groups was asymmetrical. Only 6% of Africans regarded Caribbean people unfavourably, whilst conversely 16% of Caribbean background people regarded Africans unfavourably. Favourable perceptions of the other mirrored this imbalance. It is worth speculating how far this is fuelled by difference in social class. Differences between the two groups therefore are substantial and real and can not be ascribed to a manipulative ‘divide and rule’ establishment agenda. Further since very many people in the wider society make little attempt to distinguish between African and Caribbean background people the differences can not be seen as socially generated.
c) Family
Respondents were asked to report on the stability of their family life during childhood. 46% of the General Population reported Very Stable as opposed to 33% of the Black British population; who conversely reported 21% as either Fairly or Very Unstable (14 for the General Population).
When broken down into specific black groups, 41% of Africans and 34% of Caribbean background respondents described their childhood family as Very Stable, as opposed to 14% of Mixed Black/White ethnicity. (A category that rather confusingly appears only here). As regards Very Unstable the responses were 2%, 7% and 11% for the above three categories.
Takeaways,
The Report ends with ten Policy Recommendations and Conclusions. Overall for me, the following issues stood out:
a) Proposed measures to reduce discrimination in employment, such as name blind interviews, and keeping a register of employers found guilty of racial or religious discrimination; and a possibly elusive proposal to add social class to the list of Protected Characteristics.
b) Rather imprecise concern about Far-Left Activity, and the high level of Black British concern about the influence of Political Activists - assumed to be left-wing rather than right-wing (falsely?). There were passing mentions of the teaching of Critical Race Theory and ‘white privilege’ in schools, but the Report would have benefitted from direct and critical appraisal of these issues.
c) There was an interesting distinction in the Black sample of ‘bridgers’ who related widely with white people, and ‘bonders’ who relationships were very largely within their own ethnic group, who are less positive about UK race relations, have a more unfavourable view of the white British mainstream, and to believe that banking and entertainment are disproportionately controlled by Jews. Unfortunately the Report gives no indication of the relative proportions of the two groups, or of how they match up with diverging black ethnicities.
d) For Christians, a major and welcome conclusion of the report is the emphasis on family – ‘a social unity which does not feature much at all in pro-BLM narratives’ (p 54). Noting the ‘robust academic research’ on the impact of family structure on such issues as cognitive development, physical and mental health, criminal justice involvement and social and emotional development, the report calls on the government of a Family Tsar leading to a package of measures to strengthen family life. So near its conclusion the Report speaks of “a need to address forms of inequality which may be viewed as ‘unfashionable’ through the prism of cultural modernity”, referring especially to family breakdown and class-based barriers to social mobility (p 58).
The Report’s concludes with the challenge that those who are critical of BLM ‘have a responsibility to provide an inclusive and uplifting plan for creating a more socially cohesive and democratically satisfied UK’ (p 59). I hear that as a clear call for the church to both exhibit an ethnically inclusive and socially cohesive common life, and to strengthen the theological and theoretical resources that will undergird it.
Add ons
‘Inculturation: its scope and limits’. Lecture by Bishop Michael Nasir-Ali on Tuesday, 2nd March at 2pm from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. Contact nwoods@ocms.ac.uk for Zoom details.
Really helpful to have some of the complexity of these issues brought out...... and holding onto the vision that the Church can make a key contribution in facing up to these issues and tackling them.