The new government commission on racial inequalities, set up by the Head of the Number 10 Policy Unit, Munira Mirza, is coming under fire from progressive anti-racists who are interested in neither social progress nor fighting all forms of racism.

Mirza has previously criticised the politics of grievance, which acts as a barrier to meaningful policy change on issues of race and ethnicity. Radical leftist figures, in predictable fashion, have wasted little time in directing racially charged slurs towards her. Novara Medias Ash Sarkar has labelled Mirza as a racial gatekeeper a term used for non-white people who supposedly provide political cover for perceived injustices based on race.

Arguably one of the most toxic voices in Britains race relations debate, Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, has called Mirza a brown executioner of white supremacy. The acceptance and normalisation of the most egregious forms of racism from Left-wing social activists, reinforced by identitarian academics operating in Britains universities, is a worrying development to say the least.

Debates on race-related matters and ethnic inequalities are being infected by the virus of tribal identity politics. Radical Leftist figures in the spheres of politics, academic, media, and policy are intent on framing every single racial inequality as a direct outcome of structural racism. This includes the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the UKs ethnic minorities, where myriad potential factors may be at play including lifestyle choices and genetics.

While there is a serious discussion to be had on enduring forms of racial discrimination in the UKs labour market, the creation of socio-economic ethnic inequalities is a complex phenomenon. Mirzas role has ruffled feathers because she will not shy away from delving into politically sensitive territory. This includes exploring the role of internal religio-cultural norms and social behaviours in the production of socio-economic disparities between British ethnic groups.

This is deeply unsettling for Leftist ideologues who refuse to acknowledge the possibility that family dynamics, lack of female empowerment, and a general failure to cultivate aspirational attitudes in the household may be holding back the progress of certain non-white communities in the UK.The debate on race relations and ethnic inequalities must not be hijacked by extreme-Left ideologues who are not only uninterested in holding level-headed discussions, but are directly complicit in one of the most dehumanising forms of racism: that an individual must think a certain way on a range of social, economic, and cultural issues, purely on the grounds of their racial identity.

A notable number of self-labelled anti-racists do not truly prioritise ethnic-minority advancement, nor the empowerment of marginalised sections within non-white communities. Unfortunately, a growing number on the Left are ultimately obsessed with framing British society as a white-supremacist superstructure, and locking non-white people under a perpetual state of victimhood. There really is no surprise that Mirza is being subjected to racially motivated attacks from this dangerous political cult. A successful working-class Northern woman of Pakistani Muslim origin, who refuses to tow the identitarian line, is the radical Lefts worst nightmare.

Dr Rakib Ehsan is a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. Twitter: @rakibehsan

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Munira Mirza is the bigoted Left's worst nightmare - Telegraph.co.uk

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