Reflection: To Fight Hunger, To Fight Poverty, You Have To Fight Systemic Racism

Recently we added a display to the Reflection Table highlighting three examples of how systemic racism impacts communities in our borough of Croydon.

The exhibit titled “To fight hunger, to fight poverty, you have to fight systemic racism”, features two dolls – one white, one black. They were holding a 3 page flip book, speech bubbles on each page highlighting how different aspects of poverty impacts each child.

Life Expectancy

The first page looks at life expectancy, how living in a predominantly black/asian area of our borough cut your life expectancy by over 10 years compared to living in a predominantly white area just a mile a half up the road:

WHITE CHILD:

My family lives in a majority white area of Croydon, my life expectancy is 84.5 years.

(Selsdon, 80% white, 19% black/asian)

BLACK CHILD:

My family lives 1.6 miles away in a majority black/asian area of Croydon, I will live 10 years less, my life expectancy is 74.1 years.

(Selhurst, 26% white, 65.5% black/asian)

Child Poverty

The second page looks at child poverty which impacts children in black/asian/ethnic minority families 2.3x more than children in white families:

WHITE CHILD:

1 in 5 white children live in poverty in London (20%)

BLACK CHILD:

Nearly 1 in 2 ethnic minority children live in poverty in London (46%)

Homelessness

The third page focuses on homelessness – a non-white family is 3x more likely to be made homeless than a white family.

WHITE CHILD:

In Croydon, 1 out of every 4 families being made homeless or threatened with homelessness is white.

BLACK CHILD:

In Croydon, 3 out of every 4 families being made homeless or threatened with homelessness is non-white.

Source

  • Life Expectancy:

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/datasets/lifeexpectancyestimatesallagesuk

  • Child Poverty:

    https://endchildpoverty.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Local-indicators-of-child-poverty-after-housing-costs_Final-Report-3.pdf

  • Homelessness:

    26% of those threatened with homelessness ( owed prevention duty) or homeless ( owed relief duty) in Croydon are white families.

    Department for Levelling up, housing & communities, statutory homelessness: detailed local authority-level tables Oct – Dec 2022 (revised 25 July 2023)

  • 2021 Census – Ethnic composition

    London: Asian (20.7%) Black (13.5%) Mixed (5.7%) White (53.8%) Other (6.3%)

    Croydon: Asian (17.5%) Black (22.6%) Mixed (7.6%) White (48.4%) Other (3.9%)

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