Further demonstration that structural racism, entrenched prejudice and ‘white
superiority’ is present in Westminster is found in the experience of some MPs. Black
MP, Dawn Butler reported being in a members lift when she was told ‘this lift isn’t
really for cleaners’, and also being challenged about being on the members terrace by a minister who commented ‘they’re letting anyone in nowadays’. 19 MP Abena
Oppong-Asare was mistaken for staff and given a bag to look after by a Conservative
MP and another MP mistook her for another black MP expressing surprise that ‘there
were more of you’. Florence Eshalomi was also mistaken for another black MP as she came out of the voting lobby. 20 In addition to this there have been overt acts of
individual racism, and disrespect, such as Boris Johnson demonstrating Islamophobia
by referring to veiled Muslim women as ‘letterboxes’ after which Islamophobic incidents rose by 375%. 21
Despite the ‘post-racial narrative’ 22 of the Sewell Report, incidence of institutional
racism continues to manifest in Britain. In August 2023 Dr Begum, the head of the
UK’s leading race equality thinktank, ‘the Runnymede Trust’ resigned saying that the
continued denial of institutional racism created an issue of credibility for the government. 23 Begum said ‘every time they denied institutional racism, some other
event would happen that showed the realities for people of colour living in Britain. If
19 Katie Proctor, ‘Black MPs Tell of Being Confused with Other Politicians’, The Guardian (2020), <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/12/black-mps-tell-of-being-confused-with-other-politicians>.
20 Proctor. 21 Proctor. 22 Shand-Baptiste, p. 1.
23 Aamna Mohdin and Amelia Gentleman, ‘UK Failing to Address Systemic Racism against Black People, Warn UN Experts’, The Guardian (2023), <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/27/uk-government-failing-to-address- systemic-racism-against-black-people-un-working-group-of-experts-on-people-of-african-descent>.
10
Made with FlippingBook HTML5