Racism in Britain: the time for denial is over

In the context of Black Lives Matter, I have read little that is more shameful and quietly eloquent than your interview with Danny Rose (Tottenham’s Danny Rose tired of police stopping him to ask if car is stolen, 3 August). Danny is right: nothing will change, because sexism and racism seem so ingrained in some institutions as to be hardly worthy of notice. After all, institutional racism does not exist in the Metropolitan police according to its commissioner, Cressida Dick, nor elsewhere according to some government advisers.

Let us imagine that Harry Kane, say, was stopped, searched and breathalysed, with no proper cause, or questioned on the propriety of his sitting in a first-class carriage – it would be front-page news and the commentariat would be up in arms.

“Why didn’t Danny report the train attendant?” I thought as I read the interview. Ah, but then, it would be his word against Danny’s, and we can guess the likely outcome.
Terry Walsh
Cartagena, Murcia , Spain

• Given the Guardian’s excellent coverage of race and the Black Lives Matter movement over the last few months, I find it surprising and pretty offensive that the Danny Rose story appeared in the sports section of your website. This is not a sports story. It is a news story. Relegating it to the sports section devalues an excellent piece and belittles an important issue.
Caroline Flatley
Oldham, Greater Manchester

• As a widower of 87, retired editor and lay magistrate, I have great admiration for the courage and commitment of the vast majority of police officers. As the grandfather and great-grandfather of mixed-race young people, I am aware of the institutionalised racism that stalks a small minority of police.

Having read with horror last week’s heart-rending Young, British and Black interviews (29 and 30 July) and your Danny Rose interview, I am not merely deeply ashamed to be white British, but I call on every police chief, politician and opinion-former to root out police officers who blight the name of those who seek to protect us. No one should be subjected to the racism recorded from teachers, the public, authority figures and the police. Words are not enough. Action – real, purposeful and meaningful – is required now. Would that those in charge had the guts to see it through.
Ron Jeffries
Ilford, London

• It is no longer enough to call on the government to review the curriculum to include more black, Asian and minority ethnic history (‘Tone-deaf’ ministers reject BAME review of English curriculum, 30 July). The astounding accounts given by the interviewees for your Young, British and Black series make it clear that anti-racism training should be a core part of the national curriculum. I find myself reviewing my 40-year career at all levels in education. I hope I was never as insensitive as some of the teachers and pupils these people encountered. None of us can be sure that, even inadvertently, we haven’t flaunted our white privilege or unwittingly offended those from BAME backgrounds with whom we came in contact. I hope ministers can reflect and realise that the time for denial is over.
Linda Rhead
Hampton, London

• “It is a movement, not a moment,” says Dawn Butler (Interview, 4 August). It is both. The noun form of the adjective “momentous” is indeed “moment”.
RA Jones
Worcester