Racism Isn’t Being Tackled

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Conference
2013 National Black Members' Conference
Date
19 September 2012
Decision
Carried

Conference notes, according to research carried out by Durham, Northumbria and Teesside universities, Police forces in the North East are failing in their duty to tackle racism in the region. The report explores issues relating to the increasing black and ethnic minority populations in the region and highlights racism in both urban and rural parts of the North East and says tensions exist between the police and ethnic minority groups, as well as there being issues in schools and the business world.

This report is further supported by the latest statistics in the Race and Criminal Justice System report. This report shows a 20% increase in Stop and Search of Black, Asian and Minority people and a decrease in the number of race related incidents being reported to the Police. In the light of the Stephen Lawrence case, the subsequent publicity regarding the behaviour of Police towards Black and Minority communities and the reporting of racist incidents, we can see there is still a long way to go regarding accountability, lack of trust and the preparedness of Black communities to report racist incidents. Without these in place dealing with racism, the recording, responding to, monitoring and tracking of incidents is needed to assemble an accurate picture of racism in the UK.

Given this information we ask the National Black Members Committee to;

1)Set up a campaign on Race and Criminal Justice

2)Use a survey to gauge black members personal experience regarding racism and the Police and the Criminal Justice system

3)Use regional and branch based groups as a point of reference, alongside individual black members

4)Identify ways forward for our union using the data and information gained

5)Liaise with Labour Link to develop a strategy and a next step campaign

6)Report progress through Black Action and other UNISON press and media and next year’s National Black Members Conference.