BAFTA-Nominated Filmmaker Says More Progress Needed to Tackle Systemic Racism in UK

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th August, 2021) More progress is needed to tackle the systemic racism that still exists in the United Kingdom despite the advances made by society over the past five decades, George Amponsah, a BAFTA-nominated British filmmaker, told Sputnik in an interview.

"There's two things I'm clear about: there have been a lot of gains made, a lot of progress, but there also needs to be a lot more progress and it [systemic racism in British society] still does exist in all its various forms. So it's a paradox," Amponsah, whose 2015 documentary film The Hard Stop was nominated for a British academy of Film and Television Arts award, said.

Reflecting on the gains made since the 1970s, Amponsah referred to the booing of the England national soccer team for "taking the knee" ahead of some of the team's recent EURO 2020 games.

"What we see today, with 22 players on a football pitch all taking a knee, and some idiots in certain sections of the crowd booing them, that is just so far removed from how it used to be. A lot of people don't know that, but I remember what it was like," the director said, contrasting this with "the hooliganism and racism" that was rife in the 1970s and 1980s.

In March of this year, the UK government's Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, headed by Tony Sewell, drew criticism after it published a report that argued there was no evidence institutional or structural racism exists in the country.

The authors of the report did, however, admit that efforts must be made to tackle the "overt" prejudice that remains in society.

"The problem with the report, by its existence, is that it has allowed sections of the media to report on it as confirming that there is not a problem with systemic racism in Britain today, which is really not what is needed at this stage," Amponsah stated.

Despite criticizing the England team for "taking the knee" at EURO 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted that he did think "racism is a problem" in the United Kingdom after three Black players who missed penalties in the tournament final were subject to a torrent of racially abusive messages on social media.