The TUC survey also draws further attention to the psychological and physical toll workplace racism can have. 44% of participants reported that workplace racism had impacted on their mental health, which was reported as leading to stress, anxiety, panic attacks and suicidal feelings. Nearly a quarter of participants reported that workplace racism had impacted on their physical health, while nearly one in five reported that it had resulted in them having to take a period of sick leave. A further 23% reported that workplace racism had impacted on their personal lives.

In light of this, my co-authors and I titled our report for the TUC, Racism Ruins Lives, because we were struck by the thousands of personal statements which detailed the emotional labour and trauma that reliving experiences of racism can entail, whether that be for the purposes of research, in the workplace or during union meetings. As one participant put it: ‘Frankly it’s just too painful. It’s ruining lives’. Indeed, this was often a major reason why many people did not seek out any kind of support, never mind from a trade union.

Racism – not just a problem of the ‘far right’

Since the publication of the Equality, Diversity and Racism in the Workplace: A Qualitative Analysis of the 2015 Race at Work Survey in 2016, I have regularly been asked to speak at trade union events. At these events I have met some brilliant people doing vitally important anti-racist work. This work is primarily being undertaken by people racialised as non-white, sometimes in coalition with white allies, fighting against the kind of odds outlined above. There are a number of things that stick in my mind having attended and contributed to these events.

First, with the exception of the TUC Black Workers’ Conference, there has been a general reluctance to engage with the above criticisms of the trade union movement. Second, when speaking on panels organised to focus specifically on workplace racism, the discussion has all too often been re-routed away from the labour movement and onto fighting the far right. Time and time again I have read reports and heard speeches which reference the trade union movement’s ‘proud history of fighting racism and fascism’. And there have been episodes where trade unionists have played a vital role in opposing both. As Satnam Virdee’s work points out in meticulous detail, Irish Catholic, Jewish, Indian, Caribbean and African socialists have long played a ‘catalytic role in labour movement efforts to secure social justice inside and outside both the workplace and the movement itself’.

So, yes, anti-racist work must focus on the far right, but at the same time it should not distract from the forms of racism routinely articulated across the political spectrum. The growth and normalisation of racist and fascist formations occurs, at least in part, when racism goes unchallenged in society. Racism in society (and in the labour movement and the workplace) feeds into the emergence and legitimisation of the far right. So it’s critical that the trade union movement develops an over-arching, holistic anti-racist and anti-fascist strategy which addresses racism and the far right at the same time, rather than prioritising one over the other.

The voices of people subjected to racism are often ignored. At one event a comrade stood up and told the room that she was ‘sick of turning up to these events and being the only black woman in the room’. No one in the room responded!

White privilege, white allies

I have had numerous quiet conversations with white British people as to whether they can also experience racism. Quite often these conversations lead to the suggestion that racism ‘cuts both ways’, thus diverting attention away from the institutional and structuring capacity of racism. I have listened to people explain the levels of emotional labour and stamina that is required when talking to white trade unionists about racism. This includes feelings of exhaustion and frustration when reliving personal experiences of racism, as well as trying to assuage the emotional reactions of white trade unionists which can range from being dismissive, defensive and sometimes aggressive. And there have been occasions where white people, often well intentioned, co-opted the discussion by performing the kind of ‘white tears’ and ‘white guilt’ that Reni Eddo-Lodge has previously written about.

In the preface to Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Eddo-Lodge re-visits a blogpost written in 2014. In the blog, Eddo-Lodge details the various discursive and rhetorical gymnastics that white people often use to ‘deny or avoid discussing structural racism and its effects’ (p. IX). Eddo-Lodge explains that the original blog: