We live in a strange space for talking about race – a time where Priti Patel can successfully take down a Labour MP for challenging the government on its treatment of minorities, a time when a respected commentator of colour is interviewed on radio for her support of taking down statues is asked by the host if she hates Britain so much why she doesn’t “leave”, a time when a white man stands down from his role as a board member of Reddit because there needs to be a black person there.

The other day I was standing on a suburban high street waiting for a bus and staring at a lone young woman standing on a traffic island wearing a Black Lives Matter banner across her and I wondered whether there was a better use of her compassion, her genuineness, her desire for something better. The tearing down of statues and daubing of Churchill being a racist only serves to deviate discussion away from the real facts that need addressing – that racial inequalities are real and alive in Britain and show little signs of getting any better.

For nearly a decade I chaired the DWP’s Ethnic Minority Advisory Group which served under Labour, Conservative and coalition governments on how to solve problems like the fact that young black men were twice as likely to be unemployed than white counterparts. For years I put forward proposals with the group to ministers of all political colours and they invariably were supportive of what we presented but the senior civil servants who were asked to put them in action never, ever did.

If you want to know whether institutional racism really is a thing in Britain – and I didn’t believe it was – then talk to a permanent secretary. I don’t really discuss this kind of thing outside of BAME circles, but it appals me. It doesn’t stop me from being proud to be British, but it seriously tarnishes that pride.

In this country we like to look down on how the American criminal justice system works, but on race, we’re worse. I head a body called Equal addressing ethnic disproportionality in our prisons, within the police and in our probation service. If you’re young and black, you’re 4.3 times more likely to be picked up on Stop and Search by the police in London, which reflects the fact at 43% of all people in a cell right now between the ages of 15 and 17 are black.

Most readers of the One Hundred Magazine are from the world of business, so let me show you the impact on business of racial inequality. Three years ago, the government commissioned the Conservative peer and once a FTSE 250 CEO Ruby McGregor-Smith to look at the impact to the economy of cold stats like the fact that whilst BAMEs make up 8% of the working population, only one are in 16 in a management position. She calculated the cost to the economy as £24billion each year.

You probably haven’t heard about the report because the government that commissioned it, decided to bury it.

Racism isn’t just about skinhead thugs and Paki bashing – we can all condemn that. But look at all your charities, social enterprises and purpose-driven businesses. Look at the ethnic composition of your workforces and boards because invariably when I do, you’re left lacking.

Am I angry? Yes, I am.

Because today you’ll wring your hands on race but tomorrow, you’ll find something else to worry about. And you’re the good ones.

Iqbal Wahhab OBE is the founder of London restaurants The Cinnamon Club and Roast and long-time campaigner on race.