MEND Report Yorkshire with Richard Burgon MP

Categories: Past Event Articles
Tuesday July 07 2020
Last week our Leeds Working Group hosted Richard Burgon MP on our latest webinar series: MEND Report Yorkshire. Richard Burgon, Member of Parliament for Leeds East, spent some time discussing Islamophobia and Racism with our Leeds volunteer Haris, who hosted the session.
The session started off with Richard thanking MEND for hosting the discussion and the efforts of our Leeds team in the local community. From this, our first question was focused on Public Health England’s recent report which detailed that COVID-19 was affecting BAME groups and individuals more so than others. Richard highlighted that the virus has ‘shone a light on the systematic inequalities that exist’, and also mentioned the unconscious racism existing in society, as well as the disproportionate representation of those from BAME backgrounds in a number of professions that have meant they are facing the possibility of infection directly.
Following this, Richard encouraged non-BAME individuals to educate themselves on the discrimination faced by minorities in our society and he also delved into the hot topic of name-blind recruitment processes and issues of conscious and unconscious racism in workplaces. He suggested that we need to listen more to the voices of minorities and encouraged individuals to join trade unions. In the final portion of this webinar Richard was able to answer some questions from viewers.
This discussion with Richard was very insightful and relevant, and we thank Richard for showing his support of our work and attending MEND Report Yorkshire.
If you missed this webinar you can now catch up on our Facebook page @mendcommunity or by clicking here.