Maajid Nawaz: Race report 'missed an opportunity' to tackle colonialism

3 April 2021, 15:38

Maajid Nawaz addresses failings of race report

The Government's race report failed to address the legacy of British colonialism on ethnic minority communities, Maajid Nawaz claims.

Maajid Nawaz insisted that "there is evidence that there is disparity of outcome" in the UK when it comes to race, despite the findings of the race report which denies the presence of institutional racism.

"I believe in the sense of institutional racism to mean 'unfair outcomes,' of course that still exists in Britain. In particular that still exists for mail Afro-Carribbean Brits and male Pakistani Brits," he claimed.

While the report argued that the plight of these groups is "more to do with the class, cultural and familial backgrounds," Maajid accused the report's authors of ignorance on this part.

"Why do you think there's such a break-up of the family in Afro-Carribbean communities if not for the historic trauma that the break-up of families that slavery and colonialism imposed on those communities?"

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He argued that the legacy of colonialism "led to a culture...passed on from generation to generation," and should therefore be recognised as institutional racism.

He stressed that there's "no genetic predisposition," in these communities to be more likely to have broken families, which is what the report suggests by neglecting colonialism.

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Maajid then went on to speak about the impact of colonialism on the Pakistani community, where through British intervention in the subcontinent, class divisions between groups in India became further entrenched.

He explained that while some Indians were shipped across the Empire to be police, other groups, such as Pakistani Muslims, were left in poverty – and the impact of these interventions is still felt.

"All of this becomes relevant in this conversation and I feel the authors of the report missed an opportunity," Maajid insisted.

He believed that the race report massively failed to contextualise social disparity between ethnic groups "in the context of colonialism."