Home Office
Shifting perceptions of racial discrimination
Home Office data showed that Black and Asian people were less likely to trust public services to treat them fairly than White British people. Senior civil servants wanted to understand what drove these perceptions and if anything could be done to change them. We conducted in-depth interviews with a carefully stratified sample of 120 Black and Asian people to find answers.
We discovered that, overall, Black and Asian people tend to underestimate the extent to which racial discrimination exists because most people only perceive racism visible in interactions; they are largely unaware of structural or institutional discrimination.
Importantly, people who are attuned to structural and institutional racism clearly distinguish between poor and specifically ‘racist’ service; between discrimination based on race, faith, gender and class; and between public services (local schools, local surgeries, social housing, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Courts, the Prison Service and the Probation Service) and individual providers. They also notice change over time, both positive and negative, and can point to the specific reasons to justify their views.
Galvanised by these insights, leaders across all eight public services reviewed their policies and practices, resulting in year-on-year increases in trust in public services among Black and Asian people.
