Black people are entitled to be respected and included across society.

However, progress towards Black people being represented in the halls of power and across the breadth of British culture is slow. This affects the ability of our wider society to understand and respond to the aspirations and concerns of Black communities and, crucially, impacts the ability of Black people to effect the change they want and need.

• 85% of Black people agree Black role models are needed across all levels of society, not just in sport and music.⁴⁰
• Two thirds of Black people say the media portrays them unfairly.⁴¹
• Across influential and pervasive areas of media like the creative arts, representation of Black people remains low. Black actors are twice as likely to be cast in a supporting role rather than a lead in British TV shows and films.⁴²
• Only 25% of respondents felt their local LGBTQI+ spaces are welcoming for Black people and people of colour. This is far less than the 67% of White LGBT people, surveyed by LGBT in Britain, who found their local LGBT community welcoming.⁴³
• The theatre world has a racial pay gap, with white producers paid 20% more than Black colleagues ⁴⁴
• Racist mass-chanting has risen in the last year⁴⁵ and stretches as far back as the 1980s when racist language and actions were normalised against Black players.⁴⁶

Despite efforts to squash whilst simultaneously appropriate Black British culture, our identity which is expressed through art, sport, food and hair remains an influential component of modern day Britain.