A Diplomatic Dialogue to solve race anxiety

An overview on race anxiety, why it creates barriers for those supporting people at risk of forced marriage, and how Universal Truth’s Diplomatic Dialogue can overcome this challenge.

What is race anxiety?

Race, or racial, anxiety describes the nervousness professionals feel when challenging what they see to be cultural practices. This is because they fear being labelled racist or culturally insensitive, and that they’ll be met with distrust or hostility.

Race anxiety results in timidity with police, government, and other agency workers as they fear these accusations. Very often, it’s because white people are so concerned about appearing to be prejudiced, they limit or avoid contact with people of colour.

It’s a key barrier for professionals working to prevent forced marriage yet talking about race anxiety can be difficult. This, in turn, is a reason for the low conviction rates when it comes to forced marriage.

The evidence

Research by the Scottish Government shows many professionals report unease when dealing with issues relating to race and culture including honour-based abuse and forced marriage.

The research cites a respondent’s quote: “when a practitioner is dealing with someone from a different community and culture, they’re not going to want to be non-PC or say anything that’s taboo. A lot of them fear offending people or being culturally insensitive.”

A report by the College of Policing references practitioners’ nervousness because of fears they will be accused of racism. Repetitive media scrutiny also fuels racial anxiety for professionals as little is said to support their actions, especially when their suspicions doesn’t lead to their concerns being founded.

This Rights of Women research notes women affected by forced marriage describing racism and structural barriers that manifest itself through direct comments or through poor institutional practice.

And the review by the government’s faith adviser, Colin Bloom, published in April 2023 tells us the forced marriage unit is not working well. Bloom states efforts to stop forced marriages are failing because the unit set up to tackle them is under-valued, under-resourced, and poorly led.

This reinforces that racial anxiety is a key barrier for professionals working to prevent forced marriage, and it clearly stems from a lack of education and awareness about the struggles and difficulties that people at risk of forced marriage face.

There’s an answer

While professional practice is formally encouraged to use a person-centred approach using judgement free support, further help is needed to help professionals overcome the barriers created by race anxiety.

It’s important to note race anxiety is an understandable and normal response to the complex social and cultural dynamics surrounding race and ethnicity; it’s not a reflection of individual weakness.

However, talking about and confronting race anxiety can be difficult.

This is why Universal Truth has developed Diplomatic Dialogue; a way to facilitate curious conversations held with care.

Delivered through workshops, it creates an open conversation based on compassion, curiosity, and evidence from lived experience. It encourages keeping an open mind about the impact on attitudes and stereotypes, and challenges assumptions around bias and race in a controlled, trusted space.

Addressing and resolving race anxiety through Diplomatic Dialogue will reduce the serious failures we are currently witnessing when it comes to convicting those guilty of forcing people into marriage.

Contact us for more information or to schedule a call to speak to someone who has real lived experience of forced marriage.

Universal Truth is committed to stamping out this exploitative practice.