Equality Newsletter #6 (April 5, 2021)
Racism in Britain under attack; crackdown on LGBTQ rights in Hungary; gender pay disparities among Australian artists, and more.
RACE
Britain’s Record on Racial Equality Under Attack
A report published last month by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights in the United Kingdom has criticized the the British government for failing to stop discrimination against Blacks in the nation’s criminal justice, immigration and public health systems and for denying Blacks voting rights equal to Whites.
Blacks, including those of African and Afro-Caribbean descent, comprise roughly 3% of the total British population. In recent years, a number of official studies have found them suffering from racial inequalities across nearly all state institutions and processes. The recent Parliamentary Joint Committee report examined those earlier studies and found that of the few policy recommendations that had been implemented, none had made a significant dent in reducing existing disparities.
Particularly damning was the report’s assessment of the work of the government’s own Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which was set up in 2007 to replace its Commission for Racial Equality. Since its formation. the EHRC has had its annual budget slashed by 70%, from £70m to £20m, making it harder for the organization to support the laws that protect Black people’s human rights, the report noted. Overall, the report found that EHRC had failed to “adequately provide leadership and gain trust in tackling racial inequality in the protection and promotion of human rights.”
The Joint Committee report also presented the results on an online poll among Blacks which found that the vast majority believed that they suffered from extreme racial disparities. For example, 85 percent of Black people in the UK do not believe that they are treated equally by the police. In addition, 60 per cent of British Blacks -- including an astounding 78 percent of Black women -- feel they suffer from racial health disparities in terms of equal access to quality affordable care for major diseases. The report also found that British Blacks were 50% more likely than Whites not to be registered to vote
Among other recommendations, the Parliamentary report recommended that the British government sponsor annual opinion surveys among Blacks and other minority groups about the extent of racism and discrimination in Britain. The committee also recommended that Parliamentary select committees “have a regular focus on race equality through their inquiry work”, and “use best endeavours to facilitate the recruitment of Black and minority ethnic staff into senior roles and report annually on progress”.
The government should also consider the adoption of an automatic voter registration system to increase democratic participation among Black people and other ethnic minorities and to reduce the current registration gap between Black and White people, the report noted.
LGBTQ
LGBT Community Under Renewed Attack in Hungary
Hungary’s campaign of hostility toward the country’s LGBTQ community took another ugly turn last month when the government announced plans to amend the nation’s constitution to restrict adoption to couples whose marriages are formally recognized by law -- a restriction that has the effect of limiting adoption rights to heterosexuals.
The new adoption bill does not explicitly mention LGBTQ couples. However, by recognizing only legally married couples as eligible for consideration it effectively excludes them from consideration, along with single people and unmarried different-sex couples. (In fact, unmarried heterosexual cuples can still apply for an exemption, but same-sex couples cannot).
Hungary has struggled with the issue of same-sex marriage for decades. Without full legal recognition, LGBTQ couples and ondividuals remain vulnerable to persistent abuse and discrimination. In May, the Hungarian parliament, during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, passed a law banning transgender and intersex people in Hungary from formally changing their sex identity assigned at birth. That move followed increasingly hostile anti-LGBTQ statements from high-ranking public officials, including the nation’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán Fidesz.
International human rights organizations have begun speaking out on these issues, noting that Hungary, as an EU member, is obligated to guarantee equal rights to sexual minorities. However, Hungary’s conservative government has pointed to the COVID pandemic and the demands for sheltering in place and social distancing as a pretext for limiting those rights.
Both new laws are careful not to formally ban LGBTQ individuals from enjoying the same rights as heterosexuals. But critics note that the practical effect is the same. Moreover, the laws contain inflammatory language declaring that marriage must be consistent with Hungary’s “Christian traditions,” which sends a chilling message to the LGBTQ community and also leaves them vulnerable to more abuse.
“It seems nothing will derail this government from cruelly and pointlessly targeting one of the most marginalized groups in Hungarian society,” said Lydia Gall, senior researcher in the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch. “Under the pretext of combating a misguided conception of ‘gender ideology,’ the government further restricts rights and stigmatizes thousands of Hungarian citizens.”
The new adoption law, like the gender identification law, still has to be debated in parliament, but Orbán Fidesz’s party has a two-thirds majority, sufficient to make the needed constitutional amendments.
GENDER
A just released study conducted by researchers at Macquarie University in Australian found a pronounced disparity in income between female and male artists in the country. On average, women in the arts earned 25% less than men, the study found. The grim finding is the result of an analysis of income data from 826 working artists across multiple art forms – from visual arts and music to performance and writing – in 2016 and 2017, conducted by the university’s economics department.
The authors of the study looked at a variety of mitigating factors that might explain the disparity, other than gender discrimination. These included factors such as type of art, number of hours worked and level of education. However, even when researchers controlled for these factors, the income disparity remained.
“We’re left with the conclusion that women [working in the arts] seem to be the subject of gender-related discrimination,” Dr. Sunny Yin, one of the study co-authors, said.
The study also found important differences in the way male and female artists described the reasons for their success. Female artists highlighted the collegial support and guidance they received from family and friends, and from other artists, especially other women, Men, by contrast, tended to attribute their success to the strength of their own artistic talent.
The Australian arts industry, beginning from the first day in arts school, heavily favors men, according to female artists interviewed in the study. The nation’s culture is slowly changing but still tends to celebrate the male artist struggling alone as its iconic hero, they say.
A separate study by the Australian Arts Council found that 36% of female artists had suffered layoffs due to the COVD-19 pandemic compared to 27% of men.
With this deteriorating trend, the income gender gap among artists can only worsen in the short term, researchers say.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Emancipation Proclamation wasn't written by Abraham Lincoln with the intention of abolishing slavery. The proclamation freed enslaved people in designated areas in the South, but it was actually written as part of Lincoln's military strategy, according to History.com. Historian Lonnie Bunch has called the Proclamation “without doubt the most misunderstood document in American history.”
In fact, slavery wasn't formally abolished until the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.. However, a loophole in the 13th Amendment still exempts criminals from its application. As a result, states can make criminals work without pay, often under inhumane conditions.
In fact, the danger that the 13th amendment might allow some forms of slavery to survive was recognized at the time. Then-Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner wanted the amendment to include the phrase, “All persons are equal before the law.” But the Amendment survived in its original form, allowing prisoners to be subjected to de facto slave conditions.
For more on the Emancipation Proclamation as part of Lincoln’s evolving war strategy, see Burrus M. Carnahan, Act of Justice: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky.