Author: Khutso Dunbar
The cost of living crisis has brought us face to face with one of the same issues we vowed to address in the aftermath of Covid-19: namely, ethnic inequalities. Just as we were all affected by Covid, but racialized minorities were disproportionately affected, so too the cost of living crisis is hitting racialized minorities harder due to a multiplicity of systemic, historic, and contextual factors. Racialized minority communities have fallen further into poverty following the many pandemic reports highlighting ethnic disparities; except this time there is no widespread outcry or clarion calls. While the percentage of White Scots living in poverty remained stable at 18% between 2020 and 2022, the percentage of racialized minority people living in poverty increased from 43% in 2020 to 48% in 2022 for Black and Mixed populations, and from 41% in 2020 to 49% in 2022 for British Asian/Asian groups. These disparities are also found in area-based deprivation, with 25% of individuals who identify as Black or Caribbean living in areas of high deprivation (the most over-represented group in these areas) compared to the under-represented 14% White British group. These stark inequalities mean that the aims of A Fairer Scotland For All (2016) to “change deep-seated, multi-generational, deprivation, poverty and inequalities” (page 2) are not being realized. Policymakers must view these negative trends as progress slipping further out of reach as we near the 2030 targets set within both the Fairer Scotland Action Plan and the Race Equality Framework.
The reports we see in the Scottish media speak of the cost of living crisis as uniform. The lack of advocacy and adequate representation within key sectors such as the media, academia and politics sometimes means that marginalized communities can be left out of the debate and are thereby rendered invisible, entrenching marginality. My research which centres on the experiences of racialized minority women dealing with poverty and adverse mental health means that I’m tracking economic trends to see how community organisations and the communities they serve are adjusting and adapting. I was dismayed to see that although in England these inequalities were being broached in the media, this was not the case in Scotland. Here, the unequal impact of the cost of living crisis was largely being ignored and being handled as a fringe issue. I decided to add to those fringe voices in the hopes that the few will become the many until we can reach the critical mass necessary to have ethnic inequality front and centre of the social agenda until it is eradicated. I published an article with a major news outlet on some of the findings within my literature review, highlighting how the current cost of living crisis is exacerbating inequalities faced by racialized minorities, something that was being missed within the popular discourse.
This was only possible because of the clout of being a researcher. I am unaccustomed to inhabiting privilege, but I recognise its presence and prospects. For me, a PhD is more than an academic award: it is a platform of privilege from which much can be achieved. As a social justice advocate, I see it as a great vantage for tackling inequalities from multiple angles. I have recently become a member of ‘Pass the Mic Scotland’, an initiative that aims to increase visibility for racialized minority women in the media - an opportunity I would not have otherwise had if I wasn’t doing this PhD.
The research project itself is of course key in exploring solutions and contributing to the understanding of the challenges faced by racialized minority women experiencing poverty and mental health adversities as well as helping to combat the dearth of research on racialized minorities in Scotland. Looking ahead, I see this award as a gateway to joining the less than 1% of Black academics in the UK, thereby increasing representation in lecture halls and within academia, as through representation we can better attend to the blind spots that make some inequalities invisible. However, I also recognise that its implications are far greater than my personal ambition. This PhD is also a bridge from the institution to the surrounding communities: a conduit of service, utility, and value to explore how community-based organisations can better serve this vulnerable demographic and build more resilient and sustainable communities.
I’m currently in the second year of a 3-year PhD and I am aware that my position as a researcher, even at this early stage, holds power to speak on issues of great importance. Along with focusing on producing a socially useful PhD project, I intend to continue to leverage this newfound privilege of voice to shed light on the ‘invisible’ inequalities within racialized minority communities as well as working with colleagues to produce research that informs better policies.