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The British prime minister has been criticized for his use of language as he announced the launch of a government commission designed to look into racial inequalities.
Writing in the Telegraph, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer, which has seen widespread protests in the U.K. against racism, the prime minister said he wanted to look at "all aspects of inequality."
He wrote: "There is much more that we need to do; and we will. It is time for a cross-governmental commission to look at all aspects of inequality - in employment, in health outcomes, in academic and all other walks of life."
The prime minister also said that he couldn't ignore the feelings of thousands of people who marched peacefully for Black Lives Matter.
"I, as a leader, as someone in government, I can't ignore the strength of feeling", he said.
Johnson has also said he wanted to change the "narrative so we stop the sense of victimization and discrimination", a statement that has been criticized.
Labour's shadow equalities secretary Marsha de Cordova condemned the prime minister for his use of the word "victimization."
She said: "We are in the midst of a global health pandemic that has sharply exposed deep structural inequalities which have long since needed urgently addressing."
She described the language used as "condescending" and designed to let "himself and his government off the hook."
Lord Simon Woolley, founder of Operation Black Vote and the advisory chair of the government's Race Disparity Unit, said Johnson's comment s were "frankly unhelpful" but that he was pleased to see that the prime minister has "clearly acknowledged the deep-seated and persistent racial inequality in education, health and the criminal justice system".
Lord Woolley said: "The use of the word victimization is an unnecessary distraction and to some will be seen as unhelpful. To be honest, I am sure Boris doesn't think that, so I hope he and his Whitehall team focus on the challenge of understanding the deep-seated pain that BAME communities have felt over the past weeks and months."
Johnson also said that the U.K. should not try to "rewrite the past" by removing statues, a reference to the ongoing debate in the country over the place of statues of historical figures who had links to slavery.
The statue of Winston Churchill had been sprayed with the words "was a racist", while the statute of slave trader Edward Colston in the city of Bristol was torn down and thrown into the harbor during a Black Lives Matter protest.
The prime minister said the country's heritage should be left "broadly in peace" and that it was "deplorable" that Churchill's statute had been under attack.
