Artificial Harmony

We live in a world of constant change. Every second that we breath, something is changing in the world we live in. Sometimes that change is so small, we don’t even realise it. At other times, the change alters how we live so fundamentally that we begin to call it our new normal. This is not only inevitable, but necessary. The question I continue to ask, however, is how satisfying are the changes we make? How proud are we of the world we leave behind?

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exasperated inequalities that have been entrenched within our societies for a very long time. Specifically, the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on ethnic minority communities has been heart-breaking.

Further studies by the ONS and others in England have repeatedly concluded that ethnic minority individuals in the UK are overrepresented in public-facing jobs where they do not have the luxury to work from home. They are also more likely to live in overcrowded housing, more at risk from government alleged failure to facilitate COVID-secure workplaces, and more likely to struggle financially. At the same time, Britain is said to be an exemplar of racial progress for all other majority white countries.

In a post-COVID world we have a choice to make: do we continue to live with artificial harmony or do we embrace and address the complex and uncomfortable realities of our world?

For our problems are not novel, but our solutions can be if we decide to want better than our status quo…