Labour advisor : "You're white and your entire existence is drenched in racism.".

So 'feeling unheard' gives you the right to smear the Suffragette movement by calling them white supremacists?

I do think feeling unheard makes people, eventually, very angry at which point they may over emphasise the issues they are trying to raise - we see it on here. I may not agree with what she says but, as I said, she is one of a group the LP are talking to and this will give them a sense of how angry some people are - and some are not - and they can then try and find out why and what can be done.

Many of the people who voted for Brexit were equally angry and yet those in the worst circumstances, who voted in large numbers to leave, may now be hit by the worst aspects of leaving and go deeper into poverty.

People do not become poor or disenfranchised because they make bad decisions. They make bad decisions because they are poor or disenfranchised. If the Labour Party has chosen those very people to talk to I can see no harm coming from it and possibly a lot of good.

www.irr.org.uk/research/statistics/poverty/

Black, Asian and minority ethnic people are more likely to be homeless.
The link is from the previous article.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/06/white-people-solution-problem-munroe-bergdorf-racist

A white human rights lawyer's view on the problem.

Have you actually read WHAT she said and WHEN?
It was after the Charlottesville shootings in America, about American suffragettes.

"She explains that, the morning after the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where an anti-racist protester was killed by a white supremacist, she wrote a Facebook post in response to that event. “It was an epic three-parter about how racism is a social structure and how, if this is the case, what can you do to combat racism?” She says the post was deleted by Facebook for breaching its terms on hate speech; the racist, transphobic comments made about Bergdorf, however, were left up. (A Facebook representative said: “We haven’t yet got to the bottom of what happened to Munroe’s post”, but “we are looking into it.”) The post was then filleted for its most incendiary lines: “Most of ya’ll don’t even realise or refuse to acknowledge that your existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour,” she wrote. “Your entire existence is drenched in racism. From micro-aggressions to terrorism, you built the blueprint for this shit. Come see me when you realise racism isn’t learned, it’s inherited and consciously or unconsciously passed down through privilege. Once white people begin to admit their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth … then we can talk.” "

So 'feeling unheard' gives you the right to smear the Suffragette movement by calling them white supremacists? She's on TV and radio regularly, has written for magazines, has plenty of media contacts, a decent (40k) twitter audience ..... how much more 'heard' does she need to be?

I absolutely agree that the numbers on homelessness don't show all sorts of reasons why some people are more at risk than others. That was not the question I was addressing though. I'd like to know if white homeless people 'have white privilege' so it's easier for them to not be homeless. That seemed to be a quick and easy way to start bringing some actual evidence into the discussion.

MaizieD, I realise that and was also referring to the 19th century, when Manchester’s population grew along with the industrial revolution. My great great grandfather abandoned his wife and six children in around 1859. She somehow managed to keep the family together. We have researched our family history and had verbal history from my grandparents.
I agree that inhumanity and oppression was not confined to slavery but still believe there is a huge difference between the lives of slaves in the USA and miners, mill workers, navvies who built the railways and so on.

Sorry, Iam. I was talking about the 19th century. About the same time that the slave trade and the institution of slavery were abolished by the British and the minimally regulated Industrial Revolution was absorbing 1,000s of poorly paid, poorly housed and overworked children and adults into the factory system. That's the period of Dickens and Engels, not the early 20th century.

I was just trying to point out that inhumanity to sections of the population was not confined to the institution of slavery.

Oh for an edit button. I posted in haste and apologise for going so far off post.

MaizieD, I've just caught up with this thread and your question as to whether I've read Dickens, Engels and so on. Yes I have. I also live in the north west in a former mill town on the edge of Manchester. My great grandparents and grandparents lived and worked in what is now Greater Manchester, many of them in Ancoats or Angel Meadows during the mid 19th and early 20th century so yes, not only have I read about the history of working class people in Manchester, we have our own verbal history. My uncle was born in the Salvation Army hospital in the 1920's. They lived hard lives and I didn't say they had huge choices about where they lived or worked but they were free to make limited choices without a slave catcher pursuing them.
My paternal grandmother and her sister escaped from service at the age of 12 and 13 and got themselves to relatives in the north west so they could rent a room and work at the mill. They hated being in service and talked about the comradeship at the mill and their sense of freedom. Slaves didn't have that choice.

I think a homeless black man would be housed just as soon as a white man in the UK.A great deal of social housing staff are black or Asian in any case.

Eloethan I agree, and I agree with Bridgeit when she says

No country can change the past & put the then wrongs, right. But I do believe (& I hope this is so ) that we do acknowledge the unsavoury behaviours we as a country have been guilty of.

But I don't think this deals with Munroe Bergdorf being appointed as an equalities adviser to the LP. I feel we have to remember how "unheard" many people in this country have felt, how experts have not been believed in because they do not convey what people are feeling in the situation they are analyzing but others are living. Munroe knew exactly what it felt like. She was also part of a group, not the only adviser. From them you would hope that the LP, or any party brave enough to use people who have actual experience, would 'hear' the reality and be able to do more to meet it.

I have only just seen this thread and haven't read all the posts so I'm sorry if I am touching on what others have said.

I agree that the words this person used to express her ideas are badly chosen and somewhat inflammatory. But I think I understand what was meant. If you are black and living in a country where most public figures and people with political/social/economic influence are white, you may well feel quite alienated, especially when you find yourself treated differently with respect to the justice system, housing, education and employment.

The fact that the number of black and Asian homeless people in London is the lowest means very little because there is no accompanying information to explain why the figures for certain groups are higher and others are lower.

One factor may be, for instance, that black and Asian families are more likely to live in London, near to relatives and close friends, and are therefore more able to accommodate anyone who finds him or herself homeless. They may also be more amenable to offering help.

True, trisher.

I usually find 'missing' relatives spending the census night elsewhere. But, regrettably, I have no-one heroic in my ancestry

But she could also have been in a caravan, a skating rink or any of the other weird and wonderful places the women chose to spend that night.

That gives me something to look for tomorrow while I am snowed in and the schools are closed.

It makes me wonder where the second one was.

There could be a perfectly prosaic reason for that, dj (as opposed to heroic refusal to be enumerated until enfranchised). She could have been staying with friends or other family members. Mind you, if you can't find her anywhere at all the heroic explanation may be the true one...

I think the person making or supporting the assertion should have the burden of evidence Jen.

But in the spirit of getting to the bottom of it, here's some evidence for London. London has the top 10 boroughs and 18 out of the top 20 boroughs with the highest rates of homelessness according to Shelter. The largest group of rough sleepers are 'White Other'. The blue bar shows the percentage of rough sleepers by ethnic demographics. The red line shows the percentage of Londoners according to the last census of that ethnic demographic. So it's not the same year comparison, but that won't be available until the next census, so it's the best available.

I would imagine that immigration from Eastern Europe has an influence on those numbers to make them the most over-represented group, the next group are travellers.

The most under-represented group, proportionately are Asian British, with Black - British (African) and (Caribbean) roughly at the same percentage as the population.

I totally understand that homelessness is wider than rough sleeping but it's a start.

Baggs I can see why someone would use that to describe her attitude!

I've just seen Bergdorf's attitude described as middle-class misanthropy rather than anti-racism.

Perhaps it depends on the which parts of the country this is referring to, some rural towns obviously don’t have the same diverse ethnic mix & or homelessness as larger communities .

How many Grenfell families are still homeless?

Where is your evidence that she is wrong?

I would like to read this , thanks for the Title DJ

She says that the homeless white man will be rehoused before a homeless black man, what do you think about that?

I think - where's your evidence?

Do the homeless charities discriminate?
Is Shelter a racist organisation?
Do homeless shelters discriminate?

I think that's what you're implying if you agree. There is racism within the network of organisations who help the homeless.

That's why this book is very important, Deeds Not Words, The Story of Women's Rights Then and Now.
I wonder if my 18 year old granddaughter has read her copy yet.

No country can change the past & put the then wrongs, right.
But I do believe (& I hope this is so ) that we do acknowledge the unsavoury behaviours we as a country have been guilty of.

Obviously ones who didn't want to be counted!
Some women wrote "not enfranchised" in the infirmity column.