Scotland has a well developed shrug when it comes to racism, usually claiming at the same time to be a world leader in tolerance. Unless you are English, in which case another set of complex rules of tolerance are called up.
Last year, research into how Scotland's NHS and Universities performed on making equality of employment opportunity happen for BME people showed things were not that great. Not good. Not good at all. It appears Scotland's tartan-beribboned, shortbread-tin brand of Brigadoon-like tolerance does not include equality of employment opportunity for BME people, with thousands of BME people posted missing from the payrolls of NHS and University employers.
One year on from when public sector employers published their first reports in which they supposedly profiled their workforce by protected characteristics [many did not, but that is another blog], a look at what evidence has been published by Scotland's 32 local authorities tells us that councils are just as bad as the rest of the public sector, with all the evidence available suggesting institutional racism is embedded in the daily employment practices, policies and cultures of Scotland's councils. How else to explain the 17,700+ BME people missing from the payroll of Councils ?
Put another way, the best
performing local authority in Scotland on race equality in employment is, by
its own standards, failing to meet a quite modest target of employing BME
people. The implications for race
equality in Scotland’s other 31 local authorities are profoundly disturbing.
It is inevitable that if BME people are being excluded from work with the NHS, Universities and Councils in Scotland, then the experience of BME people in accessing and using what is on offer from these key building blocks of Scotland's society will be one where racism is systemic and a daily experience for too many. Scotland seems all to willing to applaud the courage of Rosa Parks in refusing to accept segregation on the buses of Montgomery and give up her seat to a white man, and yet is unable to find the same courage to deal with the systemic racism in its own public sector workplaces.
This is simply unacceptable.
If all the BME people missing from the payrolls of Scotland’s local authorities were to form a queue to speak to their MSP in Scotland’s parliament about the race discrimination in council employment, that queue for equality of employment opportunity would reach 10.6 miles and take us all the way from Holyrood to Broxburn and close to where the oxymoronically titled Improvement Service is based.
People can either continue to pretend that there is no racism in Scotland, or emulate the courage of Rosa Parks in some small ways.
Share the report with your friends and colleagues. Giving oxygen to the evidence of this systemic racism is vital if we are to secure real equality of opportunity. Ask your councillor what she or he thinks of the performance of your council and what action they will take to employ more BME people over the next 5 years.
Ask your MSP what she or he knows about the performance of councils and what they will do to to eliminate the discrimination which clearly exists. And finally, but no less importantly, John Swinney is the Scottish government minister with responsibility for local government. Get on his case and demand real action leading to real change and real equality of employment opportunity for BME people.
You can email John Swinney with your demands using this link.
You can also tweet him via Twitter, demanding that he and Scottish government take real and immediate action, and end the betrayal of Scotland's BME people.
Tweet to @JohnSwinney
One year on from when public sector employers published their first reports in which they supposedly profiled their workforce by protected characteristics [many did not, but that is another blog], a look at what evidence has been published by Scotland's 32 local authorities tells us that councils are just as bad as the rest of the public sector, with all the evidence available suggesting institutional racism is embedded in the daily employment practices, policies and cultures of Scotland's councils. How else to explain the 17,700+ BME people missing from the payroll of Councils ?
Not
one of the 32 local authorities across Scotland manages to get close to, never
mind exceed, the standard [12.3% of the workforce identifies as BME] set by the BBC. Edinburgh City Council is the
nearest, almost 10% points behind at 2.7%.
It is germane to note that Edinburgh’s report which published this data
also reveals that the target it set for itself to attain by way of a BME
workforce profile was [at 2012] 4.7%. It
is even more germane to note that the target Edinburgh set itself and failed to
reach is in itself considerably short of the 8%
BME population in Edinburgh as at 2011.
It is inevitable that if BME people are being excluded from work with the NHS, Universities and Councils in Scotland, then the experience of BME people in accessing and using what is on offer from these key building blocks of Scotland's society will be one where racism is systemic and a daily experience for too many. Scotland seems all to willing to applaud the courage of Rosa Parks in refusing to accept segregation on the buses of Montgomery and give up her seat to a white man, and yet is unable to find the same courage to deal with the systemic racism in its own public sector workplaces.
 |
Bus segregation : Atlanta 1956 |
If all the BME people missing from the payrolls of Scotland’s local authorities were to form a queue to speak to their MSP in Scotland’s parliament about the race discrimination in council employment, that queue for equality of employment opportunity would reach 10.6 miles and take us all the way from Holyrood to Broxburn and close to where the oxymoronically titled Improvement Service is based.
 |
Job segregation : Scotland 2014 |
Share the report with your friends and colleagues. Giving oxygen to the evidence of this systemic racism is vital if we are to secure real equality of opportunity. Ask your councillor what she or he thinks of the performance of your council and what action they will take to employ more BME people over the next 5 years.
Ask your MSP what she or he knows about the performance of councils and what they will do to to eliminate the discrimination which clearly exists. And finally, but no less importantly, John Swinney is the Scottish government minister with responsibility for local government. Get on his case and demand real action leading to real change and real equality of employment opportunity for BME people.
You can email John Swinney with your demands using this link.
You can also tweet him via Twitter, demanding that he and Scottish government take real and immediate action, and end the betrayal of Scotland's BME people.
Tweet to @JohnSwinney
No comments:
Post a Comment