UK’s Johnson creates anti-racism commission, critics want more

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he will establish a commission to look at racial equality in the United Kingdom, a move that comes after two weeks of protests spurred by the death of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

Opponents accused the Conservative government of opting for talk rather than action.

Writing in Monday’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, Johnson said the body would look at “all aspects of inequality — in employment, in health outcomes, in academic and all other walks of life.”

“What I really want to do as prime minister is change the narrative, so we stop the sense of victimisation and discrimination,” he wrote.

“We stamp out racism and we start to have a real sense of expectation of success. That’s where I want to get to but it won’t be easy.”

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in hundreds of demonstrations across the UK since Floyd was killed on May 25, demanding that Britain confront its own history of imperialism and racial inequality.

Johnson has repeatedly been accused over the years of making racist or offensive statements for which he has declined to apologise.

He has called Papua New Guineans cannibals, used the derogatory term “piccaninnies” to refer to members of the Commonwealth and compared Muslim women who wear face-covering veils to “letter boxes.”

Johnson said the new body would investigate “discrimination in the education system, in health, in the criminal justice system,“ but gave few other details.

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