Lord Iain Blair slams London's racism

What’s interesting about the psychology of race, politics and the media is that black concerns about racism are usually ignored until repeated by a white person. It replicats the dynamics of sexism where women, for as long as time can remember, have noted that their opinions are routinely ignored until repeated by a man. Racism has a tendency to render mute the expressed concerns of black people. I call it a “ whiteout” of black opinion.

That phenomena could be witnessed recently in the reporting of the comments of former Met Police Commissioner Lord Blair who launched a withering and brutal attack on both London Mayor Boris Johnson and the Coalition Government failures in addressing the issue of race equality.

Speaking at the recent inaugural Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust Criminal Justice Lecture in London Lord Blair echoed increasing criticisms made over the course of the two years by a range of leading national black figures including Doreen Lawrence.

Lord Blair, who was Met Commissioner between 2005 and 2008, said Stephen's Lawrence death in Eltham in April 1993 was a watershed moment in police black community relations “ but that his legacy of a "more inclusive and equal Britain" now needed to be "driven on" further.

He added:

So while there is hope, there is a long way to go. Worse we, those committed to justice, also have to accept that the current climate has some aspects which seem very unfavorable to the righting of the very structural injustices which the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust was set up to fight.

He described the Governments explanation of the August riots as being largely the result of ‘ pure criminality” as “ a seriously inadequate explanation for the worst civil disturbances we seen since the Gordon Riots”.

Lord Blair expressed serious concerns about Mayor Boris Johnson control of the Metropolitan Police Service and his apparent non commitment to tackling race equality issues in London

Speaking about the current economic crisis Lord Blair said that the Afro Caribbean community would be among the hardest hit.

I welcome Lord Blair comments precisely because they are reflecting the broad range of concerns that have been expressed by people like me and others for the last 2 years.

Those very same opinions repeated, by Lord Blair in the context of institutionalised racism in the media, have a news currency and a weight that is rarely extended to black people.

Interesting that the London Evening Standard covered his remarks so extensively and yet has curiously and consistently fail to offer such space to those who hold similar opinions.

This is not good for London democracy. Black London is seething with anger and hostility and that anger is directed primarily against the police, local regional and central Government.

This anger fuelled by a long list of genuine grievances such as; stop and search, deaths in custody, youth violence unemployment, EMA and growing levels of homelessness and poverty, remains both unacknowledged and ignored by mainstream media and London politicians.

In this context of deep marginalisation that anger is rising.

The print media is not the only guilty party in this London conspiracy of silence on race equality issues. The forthcoming Mayoral elections will see these burning issues being taken up by the smaller London parties such as the Lib Dems, the Greens but not I suspect by Boris Johnson who has no interest in these matters or the Labour candidate Ken Livingstone.

Surprisingly and despite the on going deterioration of the relationship between London’s police and black community the prospects increasingly deprived black communities already burdened with the weight of discrimination and poverty Labours Mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone has remained remarkably silent on these issues.

One hopes that he has not become muzzled by Labours high command on these issues.

The same can be said for the London Assembly who has singularly failed to press Boris Johnson on the issue of race equality or indeed ventilate or articulate the acute anger out there in London’s black communities.

Now that Lord Blair has launched such a strident and uncompromising attack on both the London Mayor’s and Government abysmal record on race equality lets hope others will be encouraged to make their views known soon.

The media whiteout of black opinion poisons the well of London’s democracy. Such deep marginalisation is a profound threat to the on going stability of the city.

Only broad acknowledgment of issues of race by both the media and politicians can begin to stem this dangerous and toxic deterioration.

These concerns have to be reflected in the public sphere in the context of genuine public and political debate.

Lord Blair has made an invaluable and much needed contribution to this important debate but has said nothing new. The reality is, he made news because he is a white middle class man. We are ignored because of the obvious racial bias in press reporting so we are forced to wait for white people to repeat our complaints so they get heard.

Lee Jasper