EALING and other West London groups have hit out at the Government-commissioned review into racial disparities as 'victim-blaming' and a 'whitewash'.

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities published its report on March 31 which found there is 'no longer' a Britain where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities, but that other factors such as family, religion and socio-economic background have a more significant impact on life chances than racism.

The report also accepts the UK is not yet a 'post-racial society' and that outright racism exists which has 'no place in any civilised society'.

It adds: "But we have ensured our analysis has gone beyond these individual instances, to carefully examine the evidence and data, and the evidence reveals that ours is nevertheless a relatively open society.

"The country has come a long way in 50 years and the success of much of the ethnic minority population in education and, to a lesser extent, the economy, should be regarded as a model for other White-majority countries."

The review was prompted in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests last year, which also saw solidarity from the local communities including with protests staged in Ealing Borough - specifically Ealing Common and Southall.

But Barbara Karayi, acting director of West London Equality Centre, said she and colleagues were 'very surprised' at the report, adding there was 'no interrogation' as to the reasons why certain minorities were disadvantaged in the first place.

She said: "So, for example, was it racism that was contributing to the lack of opportunities for minorities in the job market which meant they were more likely to be in low paid jobs and treated less favourably than their white counterparts when they try to move up the ladder.

"At this moment, job applicants with foreign names are less likely to be interviewed so there is clear evidence of a lack of opportunities based on race.

"In effect victims were being blamed for being victims."

She added: "There was also a sense that it can't be all bad if Asians are doing better.

"The fact that the Asian population tend to set up their own business and employ other Asians was not considered, as that is a way of avoiding glass ceilings and being independent of any systematic racism.

"Nor were the many Asians who were not doing very well at all brought into the mix, such as the Bangladeshi community.

"We at West London Equality Centre continue to enable people to achieve the best within our current system, and while we help anyone who comes, most are from an ethnic minority struggling to access basic services."

The report also drew criticism nationally for describing a 'new story' about the slave period not only being about profit but 'how culturally African people transformed themselves into a re-modelled African/Britain', which Ms Karayi called 'plain bizarre'.

Anti-racism charity The Monitoring Group, which was originally set up in Southall in the 1980s by community campaigners fighting racism in the area, has slammed the commission's report for having 'no credibility'.

It previously sought to file a Judicial Review to stop the selection of Dr Tony Sewell, the commission's chair, claiming he had a record of 'minimising' institutional racism.

A government spokesperson said at the time the Prime Minister was confident in Dr Sewell in his commitment to maximising opportunity for all.

Director of The Monitoring Group, Suresh Grover, said: "We were very clear this review will not be independent, it won't be impartial.

"Our reaction to this is that we were vindicated, we should have proceeded with the action."

Among the 258-page report, 24 recommendations are made including to extend school days – starting in disadvantaged areas – to help pupils catch up on learning missed during the pandemic, to increase legitimacy and accountability of stop and search using body-worn video and to scrap the term 'BAME', the acronym for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic.

However, Mr Grover fears that the government may cease policy monitoring of racial disparities through ending the use of BAME, making it harder to track inequalities based on race.

And on community impact, he said: "I think the report is devastating for areas like Southall which have a rich history in dealing with discrimination, and people have suffered from it but overcome it, but they've only overcome it by people accepting the problem and dealing with it properly.

"This report totally evades [state] responsibility."

Campaign group Clean Air for Southall and Hayes (CASH) has long warned of environmental racism on the multicultural community, through the impact of the odour nuisance from work being carried out at the former gasworks site for years.

Numerous public meetings have been raised to address concerns of the development, residents and CASH claim toxic chemicals from the site pollute the air which has left people with breathing difficulties, vomiting, and even cancers.

Work was completed in 2019 to treat the soil where chemicals such as benzene were found, and Public Health England has said in multiple reports that it is unlikely there is a direct toxicological risk to the long-term health of neighbours to the site.

Responding to the Government-commissioned review, the campaigners said residents living near or on the gasworks development, known as Southall Green Quarter, have been on the receiving end of 'institutional racism', due to Ealing Council's failure to take enforcement action against the developer for causing statutory nuisance.

"Southall's residents drawn mainly from ethnic minorities are victims of Environmental Racism, as we are denied recognition for our experiences of air pollution and procedural justice," they said.

"CASH has campaigned for the council to serve an abatement notice and are dissatisfied that the council's position is that there is not a basis to demand a cessation of works on the site."

Following the Black Lives Matter protests, Ealing Council set up a Race Equality Commission to investigate structural inequalities across areas such as education, housing and employment in the borough.

Lord Simon Woolley, previously the advisory chair to the Government's Race Disparity Unit from 2018 to 2020, is the independent chair leading the Ealing probe, and has also added to the backlash against the Government report.

Writing in the Guardian, Lord Woolley said the report was a 'huge missed opportunity' at a time when the nation feels ready for change to undo racism.

He said: "This report has almost no answers to the plethora of inequalities that COVID has uncovered, in education, health, housing and employment.

"To have published it any time in the last 20 years would have been seen as a whitewash; to do so after the months of heartache and the awareness-raising of the past year is almost criminally negligent."

And he added: "Instead of the embarking on a potentially transformative conversation, this shameful commission report has retreated into denial."

Despite campaigners' disappointment, there is also optimism that the outcry will unify groups to talk and protest more about systemic racism and that 'never before' has British society been so receptive to understanding the effects of racism.