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Have you noticed something? Hardly anyone mentions racism anymore when describing or analysing problems faced by black and Asian Britons. Since
9/11, the war in Iraq, now the attack on London, the national conversation now is focused on Muslims, on questions of identity, patriotism, terrorism, asylum seekers, and anxieties about what this nation is to do about "them", those swarthy folk of barbaric beliefs and duplicitous ways.

Why, even the Commission for Racial  Equality is content to let racism slide away from its central focus. And yet, I would contend that racism has got manifestly worse, more in-your-face and acceptable again in British society. 


We have also seen a dispiriting fragmentation within and between black and Asian groups who once were able to unite  against injustices and support each other. Disenchantment with politics and foreign policies in particular has led to an increase of generic hatred of the West and of white people and cultures of violence.

These developments threaten our complex, multifarious, rich mix of a society. Look around the cities and see what we have made together and why the Olympics are coming to us. So much is at stake; the forces of bigotry need to be beaten back.

So when Trevor Phillips, a smooth operator and enviable communicator and a black man who intimately knows the reality of discrimination, decides to make a significant speech full of foreboding one would expect some strong condemnation of these growing racist practices and some show of strength and belief in this collective.

He didn't do that. Instead, he notified the nation we were becoming as segregated as New Orleans and that the disintegration was well under way (a warning which will provide succour to bigots who already want to believe this is the case). There was much careless talk in this speech - which grabbed the headlines - little pride and hope, alarmist sentiments and not enough on worsening racism. It matters hugely what Phillips says; white folk listen to him as to no other. We are not the US and never will be because we have no history of legal segregation and nor are there any areas in Britain that are fortresses held by black or Asian groups and no-go areas for others. But there are in Northern Ireland and Glasgow where white Christian tribes hate each other. But that never worries leaders as much as it should.


Two respected academics have responded to Phillips' statements with corrective facts. Oxford professor Ceri Peach says: "There is not a single ward in Britain where the population is 100 per cent ethnic minority population. Tracts of up to 90 per cent are common in the US." He adds that between 1991 and 2001 studies reveal a decrease in levels of partial segregation in all areas.

There are enclaves that have serious problems and little social mobility. They are poor neighbourhoods with bad schools and social disorder. They include black, Asian and white Britons. It is extremely unhelpful to ignore these disenfranchised whites and concentrate on "ethnic minorities". Inequality between the haves and have nots has increased under New Labour. Phillips, a loyalist Blairite, does not point this out. Social workers and others are today working in an angrier environment and there is a new national mood which wants to reclaim Britain for whites.

Some practitioners will share such attitudes. Others will feel paralysed if they start to believe that certain areas are ghettos where they will be greeted with hostility. A number may also feel resentful that leaders concentrate on race and religion instead of poverty which is colour blind.

In order to work effectively and positively these feelings need to be addressed. Unfortunately the high-octane intervention by Trevor Phillips will have helped to cause greater anxiety and aggravation which is exactly what we don't need.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a writer and broadcaster
"Social workers are today working in an angrier environment and there is a new national mood which wants to reclaim Britain for whites"