Trevor Phillips should stand up to racism, not pander to it

If Mandela or Martin Luther King were alive today, its obvious that they would oppose what Trevor Phillips has just said. His latest article suggests that anti-racism has been damaging the fight against racism, clamping down on freedom of expression which in turn has fuelled the growth of the far right.

This has been met with condemnation and rejection from anti-racist campaigners who have branded his position dangerous, irresponsible and out of touch with reality. Most shockingly, he presents stereotypes about BME communities as if they are fact, and out of context. Racist stereotypes are based on racist lies. It should come as not surprise that it is being championed by the Daily Mail, Richard Littlejohn and Melanie Phillips.

If anti-racist campaigning was the cause of the growth of parties like UKIP, this fails to explain how their far-right counterparts have grown to their highest levels in decades, where migrants are denied citizenship and black communities are routinely vilified, whilst Muslim communities and others are subjected to the banning of religious symbols.

Europe today is an epitome of failure to integrate black communities by denying them fundamental rights and by failing to fight racism. The far right have done very well out of this disaster. Phillips' claims that it is a failure of 'frankness' on ethnic segregation and other such issues that has aided the far right suggest he has lost his political bearings.

In Britain it was possible to stop the BNP and the EDL advancing, precisely because campaigns such as Unite Against Fascism exposed the mortal danger of fascism, alerted the broadest number of voters to turnout against the threat and, most importantly, placed the communities that the far right targeted, such as the Muslim community at the centre of its alliance.

In this very same period, London saw a fall in racist attacks in no small part due to the progressive policies of the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone who carried out an anti-racist program which included hosting 'Rise', the largest anti-racist festival in Europe, as well as proactive policies towards policing. Racist attacks fell in London as a result.

By uniting communities in the wake of the 7th July bombings, the Mayoral office played a role in ensuring reprisal attacks did not occur in the same way that they had after 9-11, which had included a Sikh man being shot dead after he was mistaken for being a supporter of Osama Bin Laden. It is disappointing that this legacy of how to challenge racism in the 21st century appears to be largely ignored.

Instead, Muslim communities have been portrayed solely as the purveyors of terrorism and extremism. The national panic around the Trojan Horse 'conspiracy' by Muslims in Birmingham schools has been found to be untrue. Yet Trevor Phillips presents it as fact in his article: 'a revelation that schools in Birmingham had been taken over by a small, religiously motivated clique — ... children’s education is at risk of being sacrificed on the altar of religious orthodoxy '

Phillips' tenure at the CRE saw it being shut down, which weakened the fight against racism. This was accompanied by headline-grabbing pronouncements about society 'sleepwalking into segregation' that were easily undone by experts.

In the midst of the economic crisis, Black communities are facing increased unemployment, racism from the police continues, stop and search of the Muslim and African-Carribean communities remains unacceptably disproportionate and there is a media barrage of racism and Islamophobia that serves to distract from those who created the crisis by vilifying our communities.

The shocking recent Chelsea racists video helped expose the casual racism and anti-semitism in football that is still endemic in Britain. The day in, day out campaigning of the families of those murdered in racist attacks or who have died in police custody and groups such as Operation Black Vote, BARAC, Muslim Council of Britain, United Friends and Families, Jewish Council for Racial Equality and many, many others is ever present for those who face racism or wish to oppose it.

To suggest that anti-racism has been wrong undermines years of progress. Now is the time to re-assert the challenge to racism. The shooting dead of numerous African Americans, which sparked the #BlackLivesMatter movement, is a reaction to the continuation of the racist legacy of slavery in America.

The deafening silence only a few weeks ago of the shooting dead of three Muslim students shows Sayeeda Warsi was correct to say that Islamophobia passed the 'dinner table' test. It would be grotesque to turn history on its head and suggest that modern day racism was a product of the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement, instead of the racism that accompanied the building of the empire.

In Britain, there are experiences of the Black communities which question whether Black lives matter. Not one police officer has faced justice for the disproportionate deaths of Black people in police custody.

The revelations of police spying on the families of Stephen Lawrence and other families striving for justice are shocking and the recommendations of the Macpherson report which labelled the police institutionally racist risk being lost as they have been deprioritised by government over the last decade. None of this has happened because of the anti-racism movement. On the contrary, it is because more voices need to join us.

We can all stand up to racism, Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism and fascism. We call on all those who oppose racism and fascism to stand with us on 21 March 2015, UN Anti-racism day. Last year, ten thousand people joined our national demonstration.

Just before the general election, this is a chance to make a stand for African Caribbean, Muslim, Migrant communities and others being kicked around like a political football in a race to the bottom to show who can be toughest.

The demo also takes place two days after the airing of Phillips' documentary, Things We Won’t Say About Race That Are True, making it an opportunity to stand up to racism, rather than driving back anti-racism.

Join us on the UN anti-racism day demonstration 12pm, BBC Portland place on 21 March 2015. Info: Www.standuptoracism.org.uk @antiracismday

Denis Fernando