Supplementary Memorandum by the Commission
for Racial Equality (CRE) (SOC 24(a))
Looking first at terminology, the CRE dislikes
the term community cohesion as it lacks clarity. The CRE is increasingly
attracted to the notion of an integrated society.
We believe there are two principal barriers
to the creation of an integrated society. First, inequality. Clearly
socioeconomic class has an important impact on achievement, for
example in education and the labour market, but ethnicity also
has an independent effect. We need to tackle some of `the disparities
such as the 2:1 ratio of young black males entering prison to
those entering university which stubbornly persist even after
25 years of the CRE. We also need to get away from thinking about
race and ethnicity in terms of the black, Asian and white communities;
contemporary British society is growing more and more complex.
All sectors have a responsibility for remedying
inequality but the role of central devolved and local government
is pivotal. The CRE sees the Racial Equality Duty under the Race
Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 as a principal lever for achieving
change. It is worth noting some current areas of CRE work which
illustrate this: our formal investigation into racism in the police
service, our role in the Department for Work and Pensions' task
force on ethnic minorities in the labour market, and work with
The Treasury on developing equality public service agreement targets
within the Spending Review process.
The second barrier to an integrated society
is poor community relations. Attempting to improve community relations
raises several questions for example, what should an integrated
society look like? And should it be a policy goal to prevent the
development of mono-ethnic minority communities? Regarding the
latter, the CRE's developing view is that mono-ethnic minority
communities are not undesirable per se but become problematic
where there is a concentration of poverty in that community and
there is an absence of social bridges between communities through,
for example, shared public spaces. The CRE believes that there
is a need to look again at area-bound initiatives. By focusing
on 88 poorest local authority areas many excluded communities
are being missed out.
The CRE is addressing this issue through its
work on a guide to good race relations, shifting work of organisations
we fund under section 44 of the Race Relations Act (Racial Equality
Councils and others) to community relations and conflict avoidance,
and our Safe Communities Initiative. We are also interested in
looking at the role of local media in helping and hindering good
race relations.
Trevor Phillips
Chair of The Commission For Racial Equality
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