‘Fantastic’ that the term BAME could be scrapped
FORMER TEACHER SAYS IT SHOULD NOT BE ABOUT ‘WHITE VERSUS NON-WHITE’
A POLITICAL commentator who recently spoke out about the racism he has experienced, has welcomed suggestions that the term BAME could be removed.
Calvin Robinson, a former teacher from Mansfield, is mixed race, and has been calling for the word – which stands for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic – to be scrapped “for a while”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s racial disparities commission is reportedly set to recommend the term should no longer be used, over suggestions it has become “unhelpful and redundant”.
The term BAME has been a key part of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities’ analysis following its formation after the Black Lives Matter protests last year.
The commission is set to publish its report this week, and The Telegraph reports that the term could be removed because it is “masking the lived experiences of individual groups”.
Mr Robinson has welcomed the news, suggesting the BAME term is “not helpful in any way”.
“I think it’s fantastic, it’s something myself and other people have been calling for, for a while,” he told the Post.
“I don’t think it makes sense to group everyone together in one group of non-whites, it’s not helpful in any way really.
“If we’re talking about ethnicity in a serious way and we want to discover if there are inequalities or disparities, we need to be looking at a clearer picture than white versus non-white.
“It’s not the case that all black kids are the same in any way shape or form, and anyone with common sense knows you can’t group people together in that way.” Mr Robinson adds that ethnic minority groups should b e “looked into individually” and that the term BAME is “potentially detrimental” to further advancing the issue. He said: “If the Government wants to look at disparities with the black African and Caribbean communities, the Pakistani or the Bangladeshi community, they need to be looked into individually. “This term was initially used for academic purposes and demographic, statistical data, it wasn’t meant to be used for identity.
“But people have taken it on board as a label for identity, and that’s troubling because it takes everything down to white versus non-white.
“It’s potentially detrimental to what we’re trying to do, which is bring everyone together and not separating people out.”
Speaking to Sky News, Labour’s shadow justice secretary David Lammy also believed there was scope to move away from the BAME term.
He said: “The problem is there are vast differences across and within ethnic minority groups here in the UK.
“I think there is a call to move away from it. The question is what do you replace it with?
“We will have to wait and see what the Government come forward with this new commission.”
Mansfield MP Ben Bradley has also welcomed the news, suggesting the term provides “no favours by lumping people in to big macro-categories”.
The commission’s report will be published in full later this week.
I don’t think it makes sense to group everyone together in one group of non-whites, it’s not helpful in any way.
Calvin Robinson