"The refusal to gather statistics on ethno-racial diversity is unusual"
Not gathering racial statistics is the norm in continental Europe. It's mostly Anglo-Saxon people (us, uk) and their love for the idea of "race" that is the exception.
Not gathering racial statistics is the norm in continental Europe. It's mostly Anglo-Saxon people (us, uk) and their love for the idea of "race" that is the exception.
In the UK, statistics are collected on the ethnic origin of people in order to provide insights into important issues. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that deaths from COVID-19 are higher among black and South Asian groups. Without these statistics we might not back have identified that these communities are more vulnerable to COVID-19.
Another example: statistics have identified that South Asians have a much higher incidence of diabetes. That insight means health professionals can research why the risk is higher in those communities.
Statistics that capture ethnic origin can also provide insight into issues of inequality, health, employment, housing and more. In my view, capturing this data is important and helpful. Without it, insight and analysis will be incomplete.
What stands out for me in particular is that there is often talk in academic achievement and income level as a function of race, but it turns out that the far less discussed variable of the time of the year one was born in, is a bigger indicator than race.
It feels as though it be a self-fulfilling prophecy to me. They think race is so important that the moment they find anything that correlates as a function of it, they chant it, whereas race is often not even the actual proximate cause, but something else that correlates with it such as, for instance, urban residence, and no such chants are made when even higher correlations are found with other variables they don't seem to care as much about.
The first problem is how will you collect this data? Self report? Assigned by the government based on your parents? DNA test?
Who will you give this data to?
What will you do with the conclusions? Say for Covid-19, will you make rules stricter for some ethnicities? Or prioritize them for vaccines?
How do you even know how correct this data is? There's a big correlation between ethnicities, wealth and social customs. Or do you want to give the researchers also information about that?
For me all the answers on those questions are negative. I see no way to do this in an ethical way.
We already know there are issues with equality, employment etc of some ethnicities, I think collecting statistics on it will only make the racists in our society believe stronger in their views. I don't believe we can stop racism by introducing more (positive) racism.