lansbury

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...-heterosexual/

civilservant

I can't believe there are 4 Constabularies that don't have a single black officer!

BritInParis

Depends which constabulary and what you define as 'black'.

Former Lancastrian

Not this old chestnut again but with a twist. Back in the day when I joined the boys in blue admittedly there were very few visible minorities in all of the forces. As the cries for affirmative action became louder then force attempted to hire visible minorities and in particular black officers after the riots in Toxteth, Moss Side and Brixton areas.I distinctly remember a high ranking officer from one of the forces in the Midlands being asked would that force be hiring and why had they so few. His answer was Yes I would hire them providing they meet the current hiring standards and as to why his force had so few he stated well if they are not applying then how can he hire them. He was never promoted further after that.
I have seen and worked with visible minorities hired and once they had graduated they were put to work in areas where residents of their ethnicity lived. Some were not very well received by these residents. Some cultures have a complete lack of trust with the Police to begin with so hiring people from these cultures becomes somewhat difficult.
Introducing quotas didn't work either as the targets set were not met.
Is it harder for a visible minority to be hired by some forces compared to others I would say yes for a variety of reasons which would include a racial bias towards certain groups.

I also tend to think in todays world some would not apply due to the pay they receive and the shit they have to put up with is much different to my time.

Hotscot

When the aliens turn up humanity has no chance. Too immersed in PC 'issues'.

spouse of scouse

Look on the bright side, if you hadn't lived to see the day you'd be dead.

scrubbedexpat099

Not surprised at all.

Gordon Barlow

Regrettably, in the USA - and in Britain, too, these days - a person is often described as "black" when he or she has the barest trace of African blood. I think it was the slave-owners in the British American colonies who first did that, and it's a shame that Western descendants of Africans choose to continue the fiction. So a light-brown person with African blood is called "black", whereas a black person from southern India is "not black"! Here in the Caribbean, we tend to speak of "American Blacks", while describing non-white persons of other nations as whatever their actual colours are. When I first came to Cayman I was uncertain of where "black" began or ended, so I asked a young employee in my office what colour she would call herself. "Dark chocolate", she told me with a smile - and that was spot on!

scrubbedexpat099

Now it would be how you self identify.

neill

True. Now there's a Dutch man who wants to change his age.

Hiro11

This reminds me of the current Asian-American lawsuit against Harvard. Harvard has spent millions and delayed for years in dealing with this lawsuit because they're well aware of the Pandora's box that will open if they are forced to truly reveal their admissions policies. For similar reasons, universities are often very cagey about the academic results of students who have benefited from Affirmative Action or similar pro-racial diversity admissions policies:
https://www.theatlantic.com/national...action/263122/

Of course, some argue (usually from those firmly in the pro-Affirmative Action camp) that minority students thrive under Affirmative Action. I have to admit that I find these arguments wishy-washy and cherry-picked if you take a look at the data. It makes sense that a less qualified student would do worse once accepted.

BritInParis

Only if they are held to the same standards. You only had to look at the collapse in reputation of the South African higher education system to see what happens if this is taken to its logical conclusions.

scrubbedexpat099

The racism of low expectations.

Boomhauer

That's because black has always been accepted as a synonym for a person of full or partial Sub Saharan Ancestry. So while many South Asians are black in the skin tone sense, they aren't black in the racial African sense. Same logic is why light skinned East Asians were never considered "White" despite having a fair skin tone. Black, white, red, brown, yellow weren't ever just descriptive of skin tone, they always carried association with racial classifications and origins.

Gordon Barlow

Well, not everywhere, of course. For me, growing up in Australia in the 1940s & '50s, a black person ("blackfella") was a full-blood Australian aborigine. And I seem to recall reading somewhere that the original use, in British English at least, of what we must call "the N-word", was for Indian-Indians in and from India. (Is that correct?) The US and UK usage would have derived from the African slave-trade. I myself have never considered "black" as having any racial connotation, except in the US and UK. Not even in the West Indies, as I indicated before.