Book contents
- Frontmatter
- COntents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The long road ahead
- one BLAME the BAME
- two COVID-1984: wake MBE up when Black Lives Matter
- three Black vaccination reticence: HBCUs, the Flexner Report and COVID-19
- four Pregnancy, pandemic and protest: critical reflections of a Black millennial mother
- five It’s alive! The resurrection of race science in the times of a public health crisis
- six It’s just not cricket: (green) parks and recreation in COVID times
- seven Muslim funerals during the pandemic: socially distanced death, burial and bereavement experienced by British-Bangladeshis in London and Edinburgh
- eight Racial justice and equalities law: progress, pandemic and potential
- nine Out of breath: intersections of inequality in a time of global pandemic
- ten An exploration of the label ‘BAME’ and other existing collective terminologies, and their effect on mental health and identity within a COVID-19 context
- eleven COVID-19 in the UK: a colour-blind response
- twelve Reviewing the impact of OFQUAL’s assessment ‘algorithm’ on racial inequalities
- thirteen The impact of COVID-19 on Somali students’ education in the UK: challenges and recommendations
- Conclusion: Long COVID, long racism
- Index
eight - Racial justice and equalities law: progress, pandemic and potential
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- COntents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The long road ahead
- one BLAME the BAME
- two COVID-1984: wake MBE up when Black Lives Matter
- three Black vaccination reticence: HBCUs, the Flexner Report and COVID-19
- four Pregnancy, pandemic and protest: critical reflections of a Black millennial mother
- five It’s alive! The resurrection of race science in the times of a public health crisis
- six It’s just not cricket: (green) parks and recreation in COVID times
- seven Muslim funerals during the pandemic: socially distanced death, burial and bereavement experienced by British-Bangladeshis in London and Edinburgh
- eight Racial justice and equalities law: progress, pandemic and potential
- nine Out of breath: intersections of inequality in a time of global pandemic
- ten An exploration of the label ‘BAME’ and other existing collective terminologies, and their effect on mental health and identity within a COVID-19 context
- eleven COVID-19 in the UK: a colour-blind response
- twelve Reviewing the impact of OFQUAL’s assessment ‘algorithm’ on racial inequalities
- thirteen The impact of COVID-19 on Somali students’ education in the UK: challenges and recommendations
- Conclusion: Long COVID, long racism
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The landmark act of parliament known as the Equality Act 2010 received royal assent on 8 April 2010 and came into effect a few months later, on 1 October. It was the culmination of a legislative process that, by 2010, had lasted in the UK for at least 45 years, had been deeply influenced by parallel developments in other European countries and the US, and had entailed much campaigning and deliberating, and much organising and reorganising (Hepple, 2010). Its most promising features included (1) a general duty imposed on all public authorities not only to avoid adverse impacts of their policies and practices but also to promote greater equality of outcome, (2) specific duties whose purpose was to support, focus and clarify the general duty and (3) a holistic approach to non-discrimination, namely one that was based on the commonalities between different strands and facets of diversity such as age, disability, gender, race, religion and sexuality.
One significant and indeed foundational piece of reorganising occurred in the UK in 2007. During the last week of September that year, farewell newsletters were sent to their friends, contacts and supporters by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC, founded in 1975), the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE, founded in 1976) and the Disability Rights Commission (DRC, founded in 1999). All three of these had been supporting an aspect of equalities legislation in England, Scotland and Wales. A few days later, on 28 September, all three would cease to exist as separate entities, and from 1 October 2007 onwards each would instead be part of a new body formed by each merging with the other two. The CRE told its friends it was becoming part of a body to be named the CEHR, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights. The DRC and the EOC, however, each made a slightly different announcement. They for their part, they said, were joining a body to be named as the EHRC, the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
At the time, the confusion did not appear to matter. Certainly it was trivial compared with other issues facing the fields of disability, gender and race equality at that time. Nevertheless, the confusion looked suspicious and ominous.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- COVID-19 and RacismCounter-Stories of Colliding Pandemics, pp. 129 - 145Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2023