Last week, the IRR expressed our concern at the appointment of David Goodhart as a commissioner at the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Goodhart has in the past attacked diversity and opined about the need to understand ‘majority grievances’. His appointment could be a prelude to a new assault on equality laws and anti-discrimination legislation and is the latest in this government’s multi-pronged attack on organisations and initiatives seeking to combat structural racism. The other significant development is its new approach to regulatory bodies such as the EHRC. Having previously sought to starve these bodies out of existence through a defunding strategy, it has now moved on, arguably, to that of regulatory capture. Read more on our twitter thread and in Newsweek. At a time when the very institutions that are meant to protect BME communities from systemic racism are being packed with appointees who either redefine institutional racism as failure to combat ‘extremist’ attitudes, or deny it exists at all, it is important to understand the long history of systemic racism in the UK and its continuation in the present day. Listen to IRR chair Colin Prescod draw attention to this history and the legacies of anti-racism in relation to Steve McQueen’s TV drama on the Mangrove 9, the first in his Small Axe series, aired this week on BBC One. Next week we will be publishing a timely report on Deadly Crossings and the Militarisation of Britain’s Borders, detailing 296 border-related deaths in and around the English Channel since 1999 – an average of one death every 4 weeks. Featuring a timeline and interactive map, showing the deaths chronologically and geographically, the report hopes to give each person who has died an identity and a history. Sign up to the mailing list here to receive the report straight to your inbox. IRR News team | 
