News feature

Britain's Black Olympians win,
but no gold for race equality

Kelly Holmes Olympic gold medalist

While the public revels in the Olympic triumphs of gold medal winners, Afro-British Kelly Holmes and a quartet of sprinters, and the media cast them as flag-waving honorary Great Britons, a moment's reflection proves there is still a long way to go before people of Afro-Caribbean heritage are treated equally in society, as well as sports.

The best example of this lagging social justice is the government's plan to dissolve the 28-year old Commission for Racial Equality. The sole government-backed protector of equal rights body is destined to be scrapped in favour of a single equality law. It will reappear as part of a Commission promoting Equality and Human Rights regardless of age, gender, ethnicity and disability, or race and religion, said Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister of State for Women.

Case for the CRE
No one denies that the CRE, forced to operate under an imprecise Race Relations Act of 1976, has had its share of triumphs and failures. Tackling deep-seated prejudices and promoting race equality can't be easy.

But there have been some victories, say seasoned observers. For one, the CRE's expert advice to the Stephen Lawrence enquiry targeted London's police force as "institutionally racist". It pressed for more education and leadership "to ensure effective policing in a multi-ethnic society".

Furthermore, staff on the publicly funded non governmental body respond to daily complaints of racial discrimination. They have often negotiated agreements that lead discriminators to change their ways. Two widely publicised "partnerships" for better race relations have been undertaken with the Ministry of Defence and the London Borough of Hackney council.

Again, CRE lobbying led to the inclusion of equal opportunity practices in new regional political organisations the Greater London Authority, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. In addition, the CRE has urged regeneration and regional redevelopment agencies to address racial equality issues and involve minority groups in programmes.

However, the CRE's job in an increasingly divided race-class society is not finished by a long shot. While many whites have benefited from periods of high growth and falling unemployment, Government studies show that Black and Asian joblessness has risen sharply, Blacks are also more likely than whites to be stopped and searched by police, deemed troublemakers and excluded from schools, and to be falsely prosecuted and detained in prisons and mental hospitals.

CRE studies show "There have been alarming increases in the number of racist incidents in Britain, and most disturbingly, rising levels of openly acknowledged racial prejudice".

False illusions
Despite all the hoopla about the huge personal and monetary rewards awaiting Ms Holmes and her gold-winning colleagues, there is reason to believe this is but an illusion. Outstanding Black Olympians, sports luminaries such as Tessa Sanderson, Daley Thompson and Linford Christie of the 1980s and 1990s have never been welcomed or made a mark in the higher echelons of national sports authorities, as white stars have.

(Javelin thrower Sanderson, the first Black British woman to win an Olympic gold medal, gained Queen's honours for her voluntary contributions to sports; Thompson, the great Olympic decathlete, once described as "cocky" for failing to carry the Union Jack in the 1982 Commonwealth Games has failed to gain lucrative non-athletic career possibilities; and Christie, the outstanding 100m Olympic sprinter, called "difficult" and taunted as a "black immigrant", saw his non-athletic chances disappear in a cloud of drug accusations.)

Broadly, it seems the powers that be in amateur and professional sports have a problem with people of colour, says writer Akinsola Akinlose . Football is of course the most obvious example. Despite the large numbers of outstanding Black professionals in football, perhaps a rising third or more, very few have made the leap into post-career positions in management, senior coaching and not at all in administration and the boardroom.

Stand fast
Surely, now is the time to give more power to the CRE, the most highly-placed defender of race equality rights. Not to do so, given disastrous trends in race relations, is thoughtless and criminal, say many critics.

Of course there are questions that could be raised about the CRE's value and its lack of robustness. But what is needed is more not less single-minded attention and resources devoted to the eradication of race prejudice and discrimination.

Upon his retirement, former CRE chairman Sir Herman Ouseley argued for "urgent reform" of the 1976 Race Relations Act under which the organisation operates. This must include two antidote's to virulent institutional racism, he said in an annual report.

There must be legal recognition of the rights of individuals and groups to protection against race discrimination. Furthermore, Britain's corporate and institutional leaders must be made responsible by law for positive action to ensure black and ethnic minority entry and advancement in their organisations, he said.

Black response
The government's proposal to scrap the CRE has come therefore as a surprise. Young Afro-Britons, and many others, watch this and their anger swells. The merger sought by a New Labour government is seen as subversive to the interests of Blacks who are overwhelmingly Labour party voters.

Black organisations have overwhelmingly rejected the merger plans. Clarence Thompson MBE, chairman of the oldest surviving immigrants and civil rights group, the West Indian Standing Conference, has expressed a sense of betrayal in his petition to the government on the merger. (The WISC sprang up in 1958 from the popular reaction to the racial riots in Notting Hill and murder of the Black youth, Kelso Cochrane, by white teenagers the following year.)

In Thompson's view, the race relations act creating the CRE offered Black communities a ray of hope after two decades of struggle against illiberal, anti-Black immigration policies.

Thompson says, in his unheeded report to the government protesting the proposed merger, "WISC argues for a balanced approach· [and] fears that in a single equality and human Rights body, race will be relegated to the backwater."

Supporters claim the CRE is still a work in progress. Trevor Phillips, who chairs the CRE, opposes the government's plan. His management board voted unequivocally to reject the merger "when racial issues are still at the top of the political agenda."

Yes to victory on and off the track
Fears continue that the merger plan will send the wrong signal to ethnic minorities and weaken race equality protection. Leaders of the Black-led people's rights organisation, the 1990 Trust, condemn the merger and predict the new multi-issue body would be remote and inaccessible to Black people, according to reports in the Guardian.

This unanimous rejection of the CRE closure by every leading Black group has been ignored by government ministers. Speculation is rife among Black communities that sinister forces are at work. A Black-led equality organisation is not acceptable in the corridors of power, say some. New Labour has succumbed to conservative and right-wing racist pressures, say others.

Patricia Hewitt Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister of State for Women

Unperturbed, Patricia Hewitt, the responsible minister, has won the backing of the home secretary, David Blunkett, to press ahead with the planned merger, according to reports in the Guardian. She is looking for a slot in the Queen's speech with the aim of the new body coming into force at the end of 2006.

Peering into the future two aspects of the Olympian victories of Black athletes seem clear.

The first is that by defying the limitations of decades-old prejudices, Afro-British achievers have set new standards in athletics and will bolster the pride of Blacks in their heritage.

The second aspect is the recognition that the long struggle of Black people and their organisations, supported by a revitalised CRE, must continue. With this combination it is more certain that Blacks can win the race for gold in society and help correct systemic deficiencies in equality that plague the majority of Blacks in Britain.