ONE of Britain's recognised influential blacks — Jamaican Paulette Simpson — has called for a movement away from heavy reliance on diplomacy to treat with racism and inequality in Britain.
“What I'm trying to articulate is that we have a society that is not equal and there is a certain group of people, namely the black people, who are not treated fairly; [and] are not having equal access that everybody should have,” Simpson, who is also an executive with The Jamaica National Group, pointed out that blacks and other ethnic minorities have continued to occupy key, but subservient jobs in the UK, where they neither collectively feel valued nor respected.
Supporting Simpson's comments, Labour MP Siddiq described as fantastical anyone who idealises the 'Black Lives Matter' movement, as an American problem.
“We need to do things to address what's happening in our own country that BAME (black, Asian, minority ethnic) people are 10 times more likely to be stopped and searched than a white person; three times more likely to be arrested and twice as likely to die in custody.
Even with apartheid, Britain was late in condemning apartheid; Britain was even late when it came to campaigning against slavery; Britain is late now in responding to COVID and how it affects black people,” as they sparred over a report by the Office of National Statistics in the UK, which shows that the disease disproportionately affects the BAME, as the risk of dying from COVID-19 was higher among BAME groups than among white groups.