Is racism really a problem in our profession?

I must comment on the perceptions of Elsy Gomez Campos, president of the UK Black Pharmacist Association, and Nigel Praities, who interviewed her for ‘There are too many excuses justifying the unjustifiable’, published in the August issue of The Pharmaceutical Journal.

Praities says the Black Lives Matter marches in the UK have led to “much soul-searching over the discrimination black people face in society”. Most people I talk to are dismayed at the associated lawlessness, including attacks on police and damage to buildings and statues.

He also implies that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people are more susceptible to COVID-19 owing to inequality caused by societal discrimination. This is not the case; for example, some Asian groups are more prone to diabetes and some African groups to sickle cell anaemia.

Praities also implies that the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is biased against BAME pharmacists in fitness-to-practise investigations. And surely students fail the preregistration exam because they didn’t meet the required standard, not because of the GPhC’s bias.

Gomez Campos is concerned that BAME candidates are excluded from achieving office, but there have been many Asian presidents of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS). If BAME candidates apply and are not appointed, there must have been a stronger candidate.

Gomez Campos makes several sweeping statements such as “discrimination, isolation and inequality is happening daily”; “people [… are being] isolated, physically attacked and [having] their reputations destroyed”; and “serious problem in pharmacy.” How can these comments be substantiated?

She also states that some black people are at a disadvantage because they have no family support networks here in the UK. Has she thought of overseas students who are here coping with the same issue?

The pharmacy culture she alludes to does not reflect my experience. I have never come across any discrimination. I have worked with black, white and Asian pharmacists in harmony. How can there be institutional racism when a substantial proportion of pharmacists seem to be Asian?

In the UK, I have appointed black candidates to senior positions. My workforce was mostly black when I worked in Africa. I did not discriminate against them; neither did they give me a hard time because I was English.

Gomez Campos says she does not want tokenism, but she seems to want preferential support for BAME students. She appears to pressure the RPS, the GPhC and pharmacy schools to tilt the slope of the playing field in their favour.

Looking for problems (particularly around race and gender) where they do not exist is common. Often this can attract the law of unintended consequences.

David Norris, Fellow, Royal Pharmaceutical Society