In a recent report from Inside housing, it has been stated that Liverpool City Council may now be institutionally racist! Not against Black and Ethnic Minority groups but White working class groups.
Liverpool City Council have improved areas in the past(not under this administration it must be said), that have been aimed at improving the living standards of people that were from Black and other Ethnic minorities which was much needed as this area had indeed suffered generations of racism in all forms of their lives, however Liverpool City Council has not improved the lives of other people who are from the white working class group.
DON'T PLAY INTO THE RACIST BNP'S HANDS!!
Last updated: 01 June 2007 at 09:21 GMT
Race advisor warns of institutional racism in regeneration projects
The way housing professionals neglect the needs of the white working class in major regeneration projects could be labelled as institutional racism.
The warning comes from a former government advisor who helped write race relations guidance for the Communities and Local Government department.
Demetrious Panton has recommended that Liverpool Council’s housing market renewal team speed up the regeneration of predominantly white estates to avoid fuelling feelings of resentment.
In a report into the effect of Liverpool Council’s pathfinder team on race relations in the city, Mr Panton says staff felt ‘slight discomfort with the premise that white neighbourhoods were just as valid as other neighbourhoods which tended to have one dominant large ethnic group’.
If the discomfort was applied to ethnic minority groups it would be labelled as institutional racism, the report indicated.
‘There is no doubt that if we had seen a similar discomfort in recognising the needs of other ethnic communities we would be describing the process by which institutions discriminate against particular groups,’ it states.
Mr Panton, a senior consultant with WM Enterprise, said housing had become ‘the biggest issue in race equality’. ‘There are many issues here but I think there are national ones about what happens to white working class neighbourhoods,’ he said.
‘When we asked officers what they thought about white neighbourhoods there was a sense of discomfort. The sense that those individuals themselves might experience discrimination wasn’t on the radar.’
The findings come after a row over Margaret Hodge’s comments that allocations policies were fuelling resentment (Inside Housing, 25 May).
The report also uncovered evidence of racist behaviour towards people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. In two cases this had resulted in residents moving from high-quality social housing to lower-quality private rented housing to escape.
Liverpool was the only council to have carried out such a study, Mr Panton said.
Cath Green, director of housing at the council, said that the report states the pathfinder’s work was not having an adverse effect on any ethnic group.
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