Why Yorkshire Theatre-Makers Should Buy Dr Sewell A Drink

Liz Ryan unpicks the controversial Race And Ethnic Disparities Report, asking what it means for our region

This is extra content. The main Newsletter, containing the What’s On guide, is scheduled to hit your inbox at 2pm every Thursday -- and this week will be no different.

I never wanted it to be like this: A humble What’s On guide plunging headlong into some of the most contentious issues of our time. But that was naive. Of course, theatre engages with this stuff. And living and working in Yorkshire, I found the emphasis the Commissioners placed on ‘geography’ as a determinant of life chances difficult to ignore.

Both Trevor Phillips, a former Chair of the Equality And Human Rights Commission, and diversity report Commissioner Mercy Muroki have urged White people to speak up about this issue: if we remain silent because we have no ‘lived experience’ of racism we have already given ground to a subjective world view that prizes victimhood over an ability to analyse data.

On top of this, the Left-leaning sections of the media, and the race relations establishment, raised such a furore that yo…