Addendum to the bristol manifesto for race equality v 3

Addendum to the Bristol Manifesto for Race Equality Principle 1 - Equality is not just a constitutional right, but is also a human right as laid out in Articles 1 and 2 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. As such Equality goes beyond issues related to skills, knowledge, experiences, and creativity and reaches into the very essence of being human.

Any society, democratic or otherwise, has a duty to recognize this and a responsibility to ensure pluralistic inclusivity in all areas of social, civic, and private life. This duty includes a commitment from the extant institutions, systems, and structures of Bristol’s society to:   

Deliver practical racial equality as defined by minimum baseline equality standards; Ensure systemic change through effective reviews of institutional systems and the implementation of necessary changes; The implementation of wholesale institutional programmes to remove conscious and unconscious biases from organisational culture.

Principle 2 - Institutions of society need to implement changes such that intersectionality is taken into account in all actions and programmes that relate to delivering racial equality.

However, as the Equalities Act 2010 is flawed in its approach to intersectionality through its use of additive theory, rather than cumulative theory, organisations need to go beyond the legislated requirements to ensure that Principle 2 is met.

Approaches to intersectionality need to be devised that utilise the cumulative approach, rather than additive theory, and extend the included characteristics to embrace those that are not considered immutable, particularly education and socio-economic status. Organisations need to make use of these approaches when addressing Principle 2.

Principle 3 - To deliver against Principle 3 there neds to be systemic change within the decision-making processes and structures, and culture change within the institutions and societies of power so that hidden and unspoken discrimination is removed, such as the impact of White Privilege, the ongoing Orientalist paradigm, and the colonialist legacy of supremacy, which prevent true equality in decision-making.

The meeting of this expectation will create the conditions where BAME people will participate equally in decision-making processes.

In the first instance, a specific and detailed review of political systems and power structures operating in Bristol is required to identify factors of inequality that act as barriers to political participation by BAME people.

Principle 4 - Racial stereotyping plays no part in the normative communication functions of society and its institutions. With regard to the elimination of racial discrimination, a critical reflection on Whiteness, White systems, White Privilege, and Cultural Historical White identity factors that perpetuate racial discrimination needs to be undertaken, otherwise this essential element of race equality work will remain undelivered, given the propensity for White people and institutions to be blind to, or simply deny its existence.

Much like the other areas of life in the UK, there are long-standing cultural prejudices and paradigms that give rise to many of these obstacles.

Each element of this manifesto should drive forward actions to address these, or the promotion, recognition, declarations, and action plans will all ultimately fail.

Principle 5 – With regard to the Expectation, the analysis can only be truly effective if the lens through which it is undertaken is undertaken by those who are affected by the policies and procedures. The process through which policies and procedures are developed must not just 'take into account' a race equality perspective but must themselves be truly inclusive.

Equalities Impact Assessments have not, to date, effected any real significant change, yet these could be claimed to take into account a race equality perspective. Organisations need to establish standing BAME Policy & Practice Development Groups that include internal and external members of the BAME community to assess the policies, procedures, and practices of the organisation using the previously devised tools.

Principle 6 - There needs to be an externally devised mechanism or process to ensure that race equality action plans are going to be 'effective' according to a specified benchmark of equality. This benchmark must be appropriately determined and clearly defined such that specific actions and targets can be formulated within race equality action plans. The mechanism must include robust monitoring systems that have authority and the power to sanction a failure to meet this benchmark - the Equalities Act 2010 in itself is clearly insufficient as some 5 years after its introduction there are still public sector institutions that do not met the obligations set out in the Act. Principle 7 - The improvement needs to be in relation to benchmarks and targets that describe racial equality in Bristol. There needs to be much work done to change cultures and underlying philosophies/paradigms that perpetuate racial discrimination for there to be a real, sustainable improvement in the social and economic position of BAME people in the city. Improving the racial profile of organizations' workforce and customers will not achieve this on its own.

Organisations in Bristol need to monitor and take action to improve their workforce and customer/service user racial profile such that it meets or exceeds the determined benchmark for racial equality’