Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic People

We understand that the term BAME is often contested and risks simplifying the depth and diversity of the challenges faced and eclipsing groups within the term. We will consult upon the preferred terms on an ongoing basis.

Plaid Cymru recognise that racial, ethnic and religious intolerance is systemic and institutional. We are committed to combating Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-migrant sentiment, anti-Gypsy and Roma Traveller sentiment, and all forms of racism and bigotry in politics, our party, on our streets, online and in our media.

We would create and implement a Race Equality Action Plan for Wales, taking forward the detailed report and recommendations of Professor Ogbonna for the Welsh Government.

In education we would address the education attainment gap between children from different home backgrounds. We would implement the recommendations of Charlotte Williams’ report on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities, and Cynefin in the New Curriculum.

We would work with the Education Workforce Council and other providers of teacher training to ensure that at all stages of their careers, teachers are trained in anti-racist practice, cultural competence, how to recognise and respond effectively to racism and to develop authentic diversity in the curriculum.

In our workplaces, we would introduce anonymised shortlisting practices into our processes and require the public sector to institute these to eliminate bias due to personal details such as name/postcode/ birthdate.

We would promote anti-racist training such as unconscious bias and gender stereotyping training. Positive action schemes will be implemented both to prepare BAME people to be successful at recruitment and to progress into management roles. We commit to targets to increase BAME representation at all levels of workforce. We would support employers to recognise and take account of religious festivals and religious observance in the workplace.

In public and political life, we would publish ethnicity data in relation to pay gap, elections, public appointments and health outcomes, as well as improving ethnicity categorisation in Welsh public bodies’ data capture. We would fund more mentoring, shadowing and anti-racism programmes and investigate the culture of public and political bodies at all levels to identify potential barriers. We would openly encourage political parties and political and public bodies to consider legal positive action to achieve equal outcomes which reflect the ethnic make-up of constituencies.

In health and housing, we would implement the recommendations of the Welsh Government BAME Covid Advisory Group, and work with Local Authorities to address the housing needs and affordability concerns specific to BAME communities.