Hey, we're building Parlia as a place for truly civil debate, especially around the most contentious issues. Rhetorical questions - 'Racism isn't that big of an issue?" and injunctions to 'educate oneself' don't help the quality of the conversation ;-) Always make your case against the idea, never the person. Check out our ['Keeping it Civil'](https://www.parlia.com/article/keeping-it-civil) and ['Rules of Parlia'](https://www.parlia.com/article/rules-of-parlia) blogs - they're just the beginning of community guidelines, so please also make suggestions.

No, I don't think it's that big of an issue. I'll go over your points step by step The racial abuse received by footballers is just one example that supports my argument that racism is still a big issue. -I've already gone over this, but I'll repeat myself. The overwhelming majority of people defended the football players, versus a handful of hooligans dishing racial slurs, hardly a support for racism being a big issue. Name calling to me isn't a big issue. Mortality rates of Black pregnant women compared to other ethnicity groups. -I'll assume you read this from the Guardian so I'll quote: 'Almost all of those who died during or after pregnancy had multiple issues such as mental or physical health problems, were victims of domestic abuse, or were living in a deprived area. More than half of those who died were overweight or obese. Cardiac disease represents the largest single cause of indirect maternal deaths.' The actual report says 8 white mothers died per 100,000 pregnancies versus 34 black mothers. It's not great, but realistically it's 0.00034% of the population, not to mention the report itself says 'Maternal suicide is the fifth most common cause of women’s deaths during pregnancy and its immediate aftermath, and is the leading cause of death over the first year after pregnancy.' Not very nice statistics, but I don't think it indicates a white supremacy culture within the NHS. The banning of the hijab if working in a face to face environment. -First of all Islam is a religion, not a race, but I digress. I believe in religious freedom, so I'm against this. At the same time the ruling was in favour of businesses banning religious or political clothing to promote neutral images. To put that in perspective, how would you feel being served by a man in a KKK hood? Incarceration rates of ethnic minorities compared to white people. Stop and search rates by race. -I'll lump these in together seeing as they both tackle crime. First of all, the statistics I've found show BAME constitute 16% of the general population and 27% of the prison population, which to me isn't a huge difference considering the rest are white, but let's see why that is. A guilty plea will often result in a lesser sentence, up to a third of a sentence length, compared to a not-guilty plea. Looking at the people who hand over a not-guilty plea, 37% were BAME versus 27% white, meaning BAME will spend longer in prison, so no doubt there will be an accumulative effect occurring. This is assuming they're convicted which happens 79% of the time compared with 85% of white people. So BAME will actually be convicted less often than white people, is this evidence of racism against the white population? As to stop and searches, we see that the most common crime BAME people are convicted for is drug offences and possession of weapons, and that the majority of stop and searches happen within London, where the BAME population is 41%. I'll conceed the police are disproportionately stop and searching blacks, but make of that what you will. Media treatment of Meghan Markle -Not really indicative of racism. The majority of the public and the media were excited about the Royal wedding. Meghan Markle makes a big song and dance about how she's constantly the victim, but when you look at all the factors surrounding her; the fact her dad wasn't invited to the wedding, the high staff turnover rate, the absconding of her and Harry from the UK, there's one common denominator. Is Meghan really a victim or is there no smoke without fire? Systematic racism in UK schools -Not really heard of this one, honestly. Is it that black students often hear racist language? Or that they're given detention for adopting hairstyles from their cultural tradition? If the latter, that's not surprising, schools are always getting into the media about uniform regulations, how many times have you heard of boys wearing skirts in protest during the summer? As to racist language, I don't agree with it, but we're talking about teenagers here. So is racism a problem? Absolutely. Is it a big problem? I think that's debateable. Are we to assume that everything different that happens to the BAME population will be the result of racism? Or shall we accept that there are cultural clashes that cause disparities between us? Are we going to ignore that Chinese pupils do better in standard education? Or that the majority of homeless people are white Or that Indians are the most employed? Or that the Chinese (again) are the most well paid? I'd encourage you to 'get informed' but that would be uncivil.