Liverpool branded most racist city in Britain in terms of segregation and jobs

Diigo

A quarter of a century after the Toxteth riots, Joe Riley talks to a slavery expert who explains how the original black community came to Liverpool.  EVERY day, as a founder guide on Liverpool's slavery trail, Eric Scott Lynch has an appointment with history: his own and that of the city in which he was born 74 years ago.

For half that time - way before heritage and searching for family roots became popular - he has weighed the present against the past, and still found it wanting.

As the great grandson of black slaves in the Caribbean, he feels fully justified in declaring: "Liverpool is the most racist city in Britain in terms of segregation and jobs.

"We may see people with different skin colours on the streets, but they are not fully integrated.

"A truly multiracial city is where I walk into a bank and see people who are black and white, from the cleaner up to the director. Where is the Condoleezza Rice or Colin Powell in this country?

 "I have a son with a degree in philosophy and another with a degree in English literature and language. One has to work outside Liverpool to get a job to match his qualifications. The other can't get suitable employment.

"But I have a nephew who emigrated to Canada and is a multi-millionaire. He has the advertising franchise for every plane, train, bus and taxi. When they emigrate, the sky's the limit."

But Eric, a former TGWU shop steward in the building trade, has cause to be cynical, having spent his life in a city which became the richest in Europe "on the blood and bones of black people".

And while he urges tourists to "use their eyes and not their emotions"in touring the buildings and places of slavery history, he is adamant in insisting, even today: "Without slavery, Liverpool would never exist."

Diigo