On 1st June, Suman Fernando and ROTA presented an Institutional Racism and the Mental Health Act Review conference, hosted at University of East London. The event showcased ways of counteracting institutional racism in mental health services by promoting culture-change in professional practice and safeguarding human rights of people who use mental health services or are caught up…
More than a third of BMER workers in the UK have faced bullying, abuse and racial discrimination by employers, while BMER young people in particular are much more likely to be underemployed and to find themselves in precarious employment (such as zero hours contracts) subject to short-notice hour-reductions. These worrying facts together with the fast-rise…
On 26th February, we held our AGM for the financial year 2016/17 followed by "Race, Identity and Belonging" conference with over 50 people attended, despite the cold weather. We were joined by Afua Hirsch, a writer, broadcaster, barrister and human rights development worker of Ghanaian, English and Jewish heritage. Afua spoke about Race Equality in the 21st century and…
On 17th January 2018, Race on the Agenda and London Metropolitan University presented the launch of Dr Suman Fernando's recent book – Institutional Racism in Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology: Race Matters in Mental Health. Dr Fernando is an Honorary Professor at London Metropolitan University and formerly consultant psychiatrist in the NHS. The event was chaired…
Year 2017 was ROTA’s 20th anniversary year and to celebrate we held a special Anniversary event at the House of Lords on 30th November 2017. Race on the Agenda (ROTA) is a social policy think tank set up in 1997, devoted to issues that affect Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in London. Race on…
On 20th November 2017, ROTA held a one day conference to explore multi-disciplinary approaches to tackling inequality at the intersections of race and class. At the conference we heard from legal experts on the domestic and international legislative framework protecting socio-economic rights. In addition to this, speakers also included those who have successfully used collective action…
On 21st April 2017 ROTA was back in Birmingham for a seminar on BAME employment in the West Midlands. With Black people three times more likely to be unemployed in Birmingham than White British people, the seminar focused on the barriers and solutions to unequal employment outcomes. Co-hosted with local equality think tank BRAP, the…
On 28th March 2017 ROTA held its second seminar on employment rights. This was particularly poignant as Article 50 to exit the EU was triggered the next day. This government has done little, if anything at all to instil confidence that it will protect the rights of workers i.e. labour as opposed to protecting the…
Watch Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn deliver his race equality and multiculturalism speech. He was speaking on 18th March 2017 in Birmingham Council House, at an event jointly hosted with the Runnymede Trust. Read the full speech HERE. This was the second in a leaders series, following Lib Dem leader Tim Farron. We aim to…
This year’s ROTA AGM and Conference held on November 28th was a great success with over 80 participating in a number of lively workshops and plenary sessions with great speakers: Suman Fernando, Yvonne Christie and Patrick Vernon. Transcripts and notes from many of the sessions are now here: Event Delegate Pack Presentation Slides: The whiteness…
