Black and Asian NHS workers have spoke out against the disproportionate amount of Covid-19 deaths within BAME communities citing racial discrimination within hospital wards and the way staff are utilised.
In a shocking survey of 2000 BAME NHS health workers ITV News uncovered a potentially uncomfortable and challenging assumption about race relations in British society. [‘Discrimination’ on frontline of coronavirus outbreak may be factor in disproportionate BAME deaths among NHS staff]
In the survey one BAME NHS worker said “All BAME nurses [have been] allocated to red wards and my white colleagues [are] constantly in green wards“, indicating that people from BAME backgrounds are deliberately and calculatingly being pushed to the Covid-19 front lines.
Another BAME NHS worker mentioned how doctors from BAME backgrounds were the only ones being put forward for Covid-19 deployment.
One BAME NHS worker in A&E mentioned how white staff avoid working in Covid-19 areas, instead ordering BAME staff to work in those areas.
The survey also found that BAME NHS workers from overseas fear losing their visa status and their jobs if they speak out against racial discrimination.
We Were Never All In This Together
Long term readers of this website will know that the NHS has a long history of racism towards BAME health staff and BAME communities.
Articles like Black nurse who fought against racism in the NHS dies of cancer, Racist nurse was shockingly hired by council and wrote policy on race hate and Disturbing link to race in detective investigation at Cumbria hospital maternity ward, conveys a very disturbing picture of race relations in the NHS.
This is why I for one was surprised when the mainstream media and the government were parroting the lines that we were all in this together. When you look beyond the romantic veil painted by media pundits and government officials, the ugly truth is that BAME lives don’t matter in the NHS and perhaps even within British society.
Some may say that I have gone too far in my last point, but I challenge British society to prove me wrong and defeat the evil of racism.
We often hear neat phrases such as the ‘the majority of British people are tolerant’, and ‘only a minority of British people are racist’. I would argue that if this was the case BAME health staff would not have to feel like this in 2020. Where there is smoke there is often fire it is said.
Whilst I commend ITV News for probing into a sensitive issue like this, I do believe that the mainstream media should be angry like I am. I believe that white Britons should be angry like I am. Angry, that in this day and age BAME lives are still seen as expendable.
My last article was written on VE Day, and I spoke about the sacrifices that people from BAME backgrounds gave for Britain.
Now these communities feel that they are being pushed to the front lines of the Covid-19 war at the expense of their lives.
How much blood do BAME communities have to spill before British society accepts them as equals?
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