"As societies become ever more multi-racial and members of minority groups reach positions of power and influence, subtle racism will be the predominant form in all countries in the 21st century. ... Racism is implicit in behavior." (1)

2006: "Every year 1000 Black pupils are permanently excluded and nearly 30,000 receive a fixed period exclusion. Black pupils are three times more likely to be excluded than their White peers, after all other background factors are taking into account. Although the absolute exclusions gap narrowed somewhat during the late 1990s, at a time when overall exclusions rates were falling, the size of the gap appears to have stabilised, and shows no signs of going away." (2)

2006/7: "Black people constitute 2.7% of the population aged 10–17, but represent 8.5% of those of that age group arrested in England and Wales. As a group, they are more likely to be stopped and searched by the police, less likely to be given unconditional bail and more likely to be remanded in custody than white young offenders. Young black people and those of ‘mixed’ ethnicity are likely to receive more punitive sentences than young white people." (3)

2007/8: Nearly eight times more stops and searches of Black people per head of population than of White people; four times more arrests of Black people per head of population than of White people and five times more Black people in prison per head of population than White people. (4)

2009: People from Black and Minority Ethnic communities are three times more likely than the average to be detained under the Mental Health Act. There is no evidence that this is declining. (5)

Disproportionate rates of exclusion from school; disproportionate representation at all levels of the Criminal Justice System; disproportionate detention under the Mental Health Act. What on earth is going on?

To paraphrase Ian Fleming, Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times should be ringing loud alarm bells. Time we stopped talking about making Britain more inclusive and fair for our ethnic minority population and do it. We could start by insisting that every public body bound by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 complies with the law. Not much to ask but it would be a positive step in the right direction.

References
1) Rajiv Kapur, "Signs of Racism", 1999.
2) "Priority Review: Exclusion of Black Pupils “Getting it. Getting it right”"
3) “Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System”
4) “Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 2007/8“
5) "Count me in 2009 Results of the 2009 national census of inpatients and patients on supervised community treatment in mental health and learning disability services in England and Wales."