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Boris must get it right on race
Evening Standard comment9 May 2008
Our interview today with Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, is a reminder that the new Mayor of London must do his utmost to build cohesion among London's ethnic groups. After an election campaign in which Ken Livingstone's supporters tried to portray Boris Johnson as a racist, the new Mayor must repair some of the damage.
Mr Johnson has an ethnically mixed ancestry and his wife is half-Sikh; he could represent the best of London's history of integrating new arrivals if he so chooses. He must, however, avoid being seen as a champagne-swilling representative of privilege if he is to tackle the prejudices against him.
Mr Phillips, meanwhile, has a deep understanding of how racial segregation can emerge in a city apparently at ease with diversity. As he points out today, the ability of the better-off to buy up all the housing in the best school catchment areas can increase ethnic divisions.
At a time of rapidly increased immigration, when the British National Party has won its first London Assembly seat, the Mayor has to be aware of the dangers of increased racial tension. Mr Livingstone operated a political strategy of old-fashioned racial politics, indulging the sense of grievance among some groups and treating individual communities as separate vote banks to be bought up with favours to their leaders. He rubbished Mr Phillips, comparing him to the BNP and, as we learn today, failed to cooperate to confront the BNP during the campaign.
All that must change. Mr Livingstone's approach to ethnic issues, supported by his disgraced aide Lee Jasper, was the wrong one. Mr Johnson must focus on the problems in housing and acquiring skills that are common to people of different backgrounds. Mr Phillips has, for example, pointed out that some white working-class boys face more serious challenges in gaining educational qualifications than any other ethnic group. He has dared to point out that the impact of migration must not be placed in the box marked "too difficult to talk about".
The new Mayor cannot overestimate the prejudice that exists against him in some communities. His appointment of former prison governor Ray Lewis was a good start - but he must continue to draw his advisers from as wide a range of backgrounds as possible.
