Racism remains a cancer on society and organisations and businesses across Bristol need to do more to combat it, a high-profile debate on the issue heard.
Members of black and minority ethnic (BME) communities were more likely to underperform at school, be unemployed or fail to fulfil their potential at work, the event, part of the End Racism this Generation campaign, was told.
And even when major organisations such as the city council or police try to tackle racism by promoting diversity in their workforce they failed to make a significant impact. 
Panellist Roger Griffith, chair of Ujima Radio and a former city council manager, said black workers at the authority encountered a “concrete ceiling” not a glass ceiling if they sought promotion while city councillor Hibaq Jama accused Mayor George Ferguson, both also on the panel, of failing to address the issue by bringing in measures to promote a diverse workplace.
“He has come here and is just giving warm words,” she said. “BME officers at the council are constantly being overlooked.”
As the debate became more heated, the mayor responded: “Don’t dare say that I am doing nothing. You know perfectly well that my heart is in this.”
He admitted there was more to do but defended his record after 11 months in office pointing out he had recruited an executive to look at the issue and had brought in measures to help and encourage BME staff into more senior roles and to ensure that white senior managers were aware of BME talent within the organisation.
Also on the panel were Avon & Somerset police and crime commissioner Sue Mountstevens and Jude Smith Rachele, co-founder of the Abundant Sun consultancy which works with major organisations and businesses to promote diversity as part of their ethics and values.
Mr Griffith had earlier described racism as “a curse and a blight. It's a cancer on our society” – a phrase picked up by Cllr Jama to describe the underachievement of black pupils in Bristol’s schools.
Cllr Jama, a human rights lawyer, urged the students in the audience to visit schools in her ward of Lawrence Hill – parts of which are among the UK's most deprived – to be role models and inspire the students.
“I can't tell you what it meant to me at the age of nine to meet a black female laywer who visited my school,” she said. “Before that the only lawyers I had ever seen were middle-aged white men.”
The event, at the Bristol University’s Wills Building, was organised jointly by Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading independent race equality think tank, and The Great Debate Tour.
The End Racism This Generation campaign aims to raise awareness of racism and race inequality in the UK and encourage individuals and organisations to take actions in their own lives, workplaces and communities to tackle the problem.
The three-year public awareness and advocacy campaign, led by Runnymede, aims to inspire action to tackle racial inequality, support people to work together in new ways to tackle racism and create lasting solutions to racial injustice so that the next generation will live in a fair, just and equal society.
A pop-up shop in the Galleries has brought the message to shoppers and been the venue for a number of meetings, seminars and debates.
