'We need to make York a city of hope'
Campaigners in York say more hope is needed in the city to battle racism and abuse, after hate crime incidents increased by 239%.
Last updated 22nd Oct 2021
There are calls to make York a 'city of hope' to defeat the growing rise in hate crime incidents.
It's as figures show a 239% increase in race-related recorded hate crime since 2012, increasing from 152 to 515 incidents last year.
A motion discussed at City of York Council's meeting last night (21st October) says that:
- York is the UK’s first Human Rights City;
- race-related hate crimes tend to account for around 60% to 80% of all local hate crimes each year;
- systemic racism continues to affect the lives of those significantly and disproportionately from marginalised ethnic and refugee communities;
- marginalised ethnic groups continue to be under-represented in local governance structures;
- despite the efforts of many agencies, racism remains a problem in York.
The motion makes a request to "aspire to make York an Anti-Racist and Inclusive City, and requests that Executive:
- supports the setting up within three months of an independent, ethnically diverse and intersectional working group, to include people with lived experiences, that will: work to its own terms of reference, collaboratively develop and implement a long-term anti-racism and inclusion strategy and action plan for the city that:
• identifies, acknowledges, and tackles structural barriers to understanding the impacts of racism and to implement change in all public bodies in our city;
• identifies, acknowledges, and works to tackle institutional racism wherever it exists in all public bodies in our city;
• encourages the participation of marginalised ethnic groups in all aspects of civic and city life;
• works to ensure equitable representation from marginalised ethnic groups in local governance;
• ensures equal access for those same groups to health (including mental health) and social services;
• ensures that the narratives and visibility of York's history are acknowledged and that citizens from marginalised ethnic groups are promoted and celebrated for what they have to offer.
- agree to receive the strategy and action plan after 12 months and act swiftly to implement the latter; and
- collaborates with the working group to assess what resource it will require to support it in producing
the strategy and action plan before bringing a resourcing proposal back to Council.
Haddy Njie is the founder of Speak Up Diversity in York, one of the groups who backed the motion:
"It's really worrying and frustrating to see the level of racial hate crime increasing every single year. It has had an increase of 239% since 2012. Just imagine that; not an increase of 100%, but 239%.
"We're not doing much to tackle the casual racism and systemic causes of racism. This is not everyone reporting hate crime. I can assure you that many people on a day to day, hour to hour basis, experience hate crime but don't report it.
"This demonstrates the urgency and the need for us to act on this issue that is affecting people of colour, marginalised communities and those that experience racism in the city".
"It's a paradox, because we want York to be seen as a human rights city network, a city of sanctuary; let's be frank about this - there's a perception and ideology that York is a 'white city'. For the life of me I don't understand what this means; does it mean it just belongs to white people? I'm sure most people would like to see other people who don't look like themselves to be in the city.
"We really need to investigate what we really mean by York being an anti-racist city, a city of sanctuary. It seems as if marginalised communities continue to suffer from this disease as I call it; once you experience it it stays with you forever.
"Despite this, we call our city a human rights city; what do we mean by this? I'm asking this question for us to think about, and then that's when we can start doing the work".
Haddy says that adopting the motion will send a powerful message to deal and tackle with the issues of racism in the city.
"This should have been done 50 years ago, 10 years ago, 2 years ago. However, we must not look at the past; let's look at the future.
"It brings hope to people who have experienced racism to know that there are dedicated people who want to bring positive change. It is a beautiful city, but not everyone is enjoying the city as we all should be.
"Hope is a very important thing to have. We must have a backed up action plan, and our plan is to mobile a multiracial and intersectional working group who would be responsible for developing initiatives in every sector.
"This needs to be done to really tackle the policies, systems and structures that are affecting marginalised communities in York".