Many people use the term “systemic racism” but when they are asked to define what they mean by that, there either isn’t an answer at all or they will site the disparities in success in wealth between black and white communities. Well for the record, there is not one institution in the United Kingdom that offers opportunities to white students that aren’t offered to black students. There is not one law that specifically targets black people. Many people will site that more black people are convicted on drug crimes even though white people consume more drugs. That’s because the people being thrown in jail for drugs aren’t being jailed for smoking it they’re being jailed for distribution. And the numbers of violent and drug crimes happen to be disproportionately committed by black people especially in places like London. This is not to say that because someone is black they are a criminal, this is just to say that lower income black communities suffer from higher rates of single motherhood and gang activity which is not conducive to success in an academic or financial sense and therefore younger men are more likely to commit crime. However there is no solution the government can propose to fix the disparities beyond just handing out cheques to minority families in some sort of deluded apology for the history of maltreatment. We can make no progress looking back, and throwing money at the problem is not going to solve it. The cure is more charity involvement primarily church and on a social level to try to change the mindset of the younger people through coaching programs, higher police presence in the areas to crack down on the crime. And before you know it higher amounts of people will be graduating high school, crime will be down and success in black communities will be up. The solution is not looking back and condemning, and not making unbacked allegations against the very fabric of this great nation that has developed and moulded into true liberty. The past is the past let’s move on, the solution is positive action and good decision making. Feel free to challenge this.

TL;DR: There is lots of room for individual bias within British institutions. A wealth gap inherited from the past, while also a problem, is definitely not the only reason for the link between wealth/opportunity and race.

It is often argued that systemic racism is not real as policies and laws that target different races by name no longer exist. However, this does not mean that systemic racism does not exist, as there is always lots of room for subjectivity and individual bias in institutional practice.

It is argued that the numbers of non-white people in higher education, in prison, etc. can be explained solely by economic background. It is argued that while this is bad, and a remaining legacy of racist policy in the past, it can't be defined as 'systemic racism' I would question this narrow definition, however even accepting it as true, there is still evidence for systemic racism:

Rates of incarceration and unemployment are not only defined by income. For example, home office data suggests that a black person is eight times more likely to be stopped and searched for drugs than a white person, but less likely to be found with drugs. Another study suggests that job applicants with ‘white’ names get called back 50% more of the time than applicants with ‘black’ names, even with resumes that are identical.

This is an uncomfortable pill to swallow. We could argue endlessly that individual biases do not govern our institutions, however, saying so is willfully ignorant. Passive racism and unconscious bias are very much real and there is definitely space for it to exist within and govern British institutions.