Racial harassment

Wolverhampton City Council is committed to working in partnership with Wolverhampton Racial Harassment Partnership (WRHP) to tackle and prevent  racial harassment and racial incidents. The Council acknowledges that everyone has a right to live, work and play in a safe environment and that legally it has a statutory duty to address and prevent racism.

Whether you are/are not a victim of or witness to an incident of racial harassment the Council hopes you find the following information useful in assisting you to report and tackle this.

What is racial harassment?

Racial harassment is an incident or a series of incidents intended or likely to intimidate individuals or groups because of their colour, race, nationality or ethnic origin.

The Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 adds to this by defining racial harassment as "when someone's actions or words, based on the relevant grounds, are unwelcome and violate another person's dignity or create an environment that is intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive".

The Council together with WRHP accepts that a racist incident is " Any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person".

Racial harassment/incidents can take various forms such as:

• Physical violence
• Damage to property  (including racist graffiti on the victim’s property)
• Circulating or displaying racist materials
• Malicious phone calls
• Verbal abuse – eg threats, making nuisance/abusive telephone calls, name calling, derogatory remarks and jokes about a person’s culture, ethnic origin, religion, sexuality, and disability, bullying and intimidation
• Unfair allocation of work based on race
• Unfairly pressuring employees about the speed and quality of their work
• Unjustifiable complaints made by a group (e.g. tenants) or individuals against someone of a different ethnic origin
• Arson or attempted arson – eg at the victim’s home, or to the victim’s possessions.

Please note, this list is illustrative not exhaustive.

Who are the victims?

Victims are usually people from visible ethnic minority groups. However, other groups can be affected such as Gypsies, Travellers, refugees and migrants.

What to do if you are a victim of or witness to a racist incident

• Write down the date, time and location of the incident.
• Write down everything you can remember about what you saw and heard during an incident.
• If you are the victim make sure you get the names, addresses of any witnesses.
• Record as much detail as possible about the offender and any vehicle they might have used
• Report the incident as soon as possible to the police. If not the police report it to your local city areas housing office or WRHP.