This report comes at a pivotal moment for our nation’s race debate. We need to place that debate on objective and democratic foundations – ones that include people of goodwill, of all races and ethnicities. The purpose of this report is to lay the ground for a country built on the full participation and trust of all communities. We envisage a country more at ease with itself because it can recognise where progress has been made. One that is confident that, where unequal access to opportunity persists, whether among inner city ethnic minorities or the left-behind from the ethnic majority, it is being addressed.

The report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, 3 months overdue and 9 months after the Commission’s inception, is a script that has been written for 10 Downing Street. The people involved in this Commission had no interest in genuinely discussing racism, but even this Government does not go as far as to say that we are post racial. The least the Commission could have done is acknowledge the very real suffering of Black and minority ethnic communities here in the UK.

In the face of adversity, allies come together. It's clear this Commission wants to set race relations back by 20 years - we're not going to let that happen. Stay mobilised, stay engaged, stay positive. In case you missed our event, catch it here.

What the Commission on Race & Ethnic Disparity said about why ethnic minority people are more likely to die from covid-19 (left).What the ONS report they cite to support this claim actually says (right). pic.twitter.com/TjhLIJPUze— Jonathan Portes (@jdportes) March 31, 2021

Jonathan Portes @jdportes - I & others have pointed to errors/misrepresentations in the report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Diversities. To be fair, there is plenty of good or uncontentious stuff. But leaving aside the specific empirical analysis, a short thread on the conceptual framework.