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One of the many Covid-19 pandemic tragedies is the revelation that a disproportionate number of deaths have fallen amongst the UK’s ethnic minorities. The data is startling, Black men are four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than White men.
The government has rightly launched an inquiry to better understand the causes of this disparity. While NHS Trusts are doing their best to protect frontline staff, there nevertheless remains much fear and concern in BAME households across the UK about why they are more at risk.
Many experts have suggested BAME people fill a higher proportion of those frontline service roles required to have continued contact, even during lockdown – roles such as doctors, nurses, care-home workers, bus and delivery drivers and shop staff.
We know socio-economics, including the lack of social mobility, impacts many ethnic groups. However, to better understand the employment landscape it’s worth looking back at UK’s immigration policies and actions throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s during which Blacks and Asians, including those from the Windrush Generation, were either called upon to help rebuild post-war Britain, or as in Uganda and Kenya were fleeing repressive regimes.
First-generation ethnic minorities, like our parents or grandparents, took whatever jobs they could get, working in factories, as bus drivers, working for British Rail and the NHS to help plug the gap in Britain’s workforce in the post-war period. Many of that generation were skilled workers but would often settle for basic employment. The idea for the vast majority was to work and then return home, but many of them set roots here in the UK and became part of the fabric of the diverse society we now see. However, the country they helped rebuild nearly 50 years ago, did not equitably share its prosperity with them.
The more uncomfortable truth, as highlighted in the government’s Race Disparity Audit, shows a poverty trap, that could get even worse as we face the biggest economic downturn for 300 years. Before Covid-19, one in four children in Asian households, and one in five children in Black households lived in poverty, in comparison to one in ten children in White households. Young BAME men and women are more likely to be working on low wages and or on zero-hour contracts, with little or no working rights.
To tackle this issue, we must have a holistic approach that centres around proportional representation for BAME people at all levels of civil society. Adequate representation ensures that BAME people’s concerns and voices are at the centre of the decision-making process. Despite having the most diverse parliament in UK’s history, the Covid-19 epidemic has shown there is still so much more to be done.
If there is one silver lining in this crises, Covid-19 has laid bare our structural inequalities that leave some communities much more vulnerable than others. We strongly believe that if we are bold and brave enough, we can build something positive from the despair of this virus. We must formulate a Covid-19 Race Equality Strategy, that will do more than save lives, and mitigate the worst effects of the economic downturn.
Out of this crisis, with all the deaths and heartache, we must construct something worthy in which we can say to future generations: Covid-19 forced us to rebuild a fairer, more dynamic and inclusive society, education system and workforce.
The foundations we build from this episode will last for generations.
Imran Sanaullah MBE is CEO of the Patchwork Foundation
Sir Simon Woolley CBE, Baron Woolley of Woodford is Founder and Director of Operation Black Vote