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A storm is heading straight for Selisse Berry but she does not seem unduly worried. Ms Berry, founder and chief executive of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, is in Florida for the organisation's annual summit and is expecting 4,000 people from more than 35 countries - Hurricane Matthew permitting - to participate in sessions promoting the rights of LGBT employees.

When we speak, the afternoon seminar on unconscious bias - the gut reactions we all have that govern our actions before we can even think about them - has already taken place. The aim of the session was to tackle this gulf between what people say and what they feel, a principal ambition of the LGBT equality campaign.

"We all grow up with homophobia," says Ms Berry, "so you carry that around with you." It is unsurprising, she adds, because most images that people see are of straight people.

The direct effects of unconscious bias are, by definition, hard to discern. However, you can see the effect of it in how few LGBT people come out in the workplace and in surveys which reveal how many LGBT employees feel uncomfortable or unwelcome at work.

As one example, there was no openly LGBT chief executive in the Fortune 500 until Tim Cook, Apple's head, came out in 2014. Given broadly accepted estimates that between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of people are LGBT, this is a significant underrepresentation.

When it comes to LGBT people's perceptions, Deena Fidas, director of the workplace equality programme at the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy organisation, says unconscious bias can contribute to a chilly atmosphere that drives a wedge between LGBT workers and their colleagues.

Research conducted by the HRC has begun to develop what Ms Fidas calls an empirical narrative that captures both the incidence of unconscious bias and its effects. HRC's 2014 study about workplace inclusion, " The Cost of the Closet ", found that more than half of LGBT workers surveyed in the US remain closeted and suggested a strong reason why that might be so - "water-cooler conversations".

Four-fifths of non-LGBT people said they felt that their LGBT colleagues should not have to hide who they were in the workplace but less than half of those straight respondents said they would feel comfortable hearing LGBT workers talk about dating. The main reason LGBT workers gave for not being open was the possibility that it would make people feel uncomfortable.

Organisations such as Out & Equal claim considerable success in changing people's explicitly stated opinions on sexual orientation or gender identity. Ms Berry insists workplaces can change attitudes by adopting policies that make it wrong to discriminate against members of the LGBT communities. "So much of it is education," she says, adding that it does not matter if you are talking about sexism, racism or homophobia. Education, she says, in all cases can help people to understand their unconscious biases.

Not everyone is convinced. "Sadly, I have not found any evidence suggesting that diversity training programmes work [on unconscious bias]. It is very hard to de-bias mindsets," says Iris Bohnet, a behavioural economist at Harvard University and author of What Works: Gender Equality by Design, a book that focuses on what can be done to address unconscious gender bias. Instead, she says, "we should focus on de-biasing our practices and procedures to make it easier for our minds to get things right."

If companies do not take action to identify when they are getting things wrong - perhaps inviting employees to bring spouses to a social event, without thinking to use the terms "partner" or "significant other" - they risk alienating their LGBT staff, says Neil Grogan of Stonewall, the UK-based LGBT advocacy organisation.

There are, however, some positive signs, he says. Stonewall's annual anonymous survey of employees has shown LGBT employees are now more likely to feel engaged and supported in their company and visualise themselves at the top one day.

A body of research in the US has picked up a change in attitudes over time. Academics analysed data from a psychological test designed to detect unconscious bias as well as explicit, or self-reported, bias. More than half a million people participated in the study between 2006 and 2013. The team found that unconscious bias against lesbian and gay people was 13 per cent lower in 2013 than in 2006. Explicit bias had fallen by 26 per cent in the same period.

"The two findings together offer a speculative interpretation: substantial explicit change may occur first and perhaps enable the slower implicit change that occurs later," wrote the authors.

If the US study is to be believed, Ms Berry's optimism about changing unconscious bias might not be misplaced.

Tips: Iris Bohnet's guide to de-biasing
Recruitment
1 Use "screens" - hide information on résumés that allows bias to drive poor hiring decisions

2 Compare two or more candidates against each other rather than measure them against your own ideas

3 Take out gendered language from your job advertisements (such as "competitive" for male-dominated occupations)

4 Ask candidates the same questions in the same order during the interview

5 Give candidates job-related tasks to complete as part of the selection process
Workplace
1 Collect data so you can diagnose problems and measure progress

2 Use goals and participate in rankings to motivate staff to compete towards equality

3 Remove barriers by presenting information in a simple, salient and comparative way

4 Add portraits to your walls - seeing is believing. Research shows that women who saw portraits of female leaders performed better on leadership tasks than those who did not

5 Evaluate your current diversity training schemes - do not assume they are working

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Employers battle ingrained prejudice against LGBT staff

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A storm is heading straight for Selisse Berry but she does not seem unduly worried. Ms Berry, founder and chief executive of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, is in Florida for the organisation's annual summit and is expecting 4,000 people from more than 35 countries - Hurricane Matthew permitting - to participate in sessions promoting the rights of LGBT employees.

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Shelter - The housing and homelessness charity

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Shelter believes everyone should have a home. More than one million people a year come to us for advice and support via our website, helplines and national network of services.

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A reader recently emailed us this graphic, apparently doing the rounds on social media, to ask whether or not it's correct.

While the broad picture is right, the exact figures aren't. If anything, this graphic understates its point a little, as the proportion of refugees in the population is less than it suggests.
Potentially out-of-date figures
The UK population was around 64.6 million according to the latest official estimate, made in 2014. That's the minor matter of 3 million people more than this graphic suggests. Even the 2011 census figure was 63.2 million.

It's unclear exactly where the 61.6 million figure came from. The closest official figure to this number we could find is a United Nations estimate of 61.7 million in 2008.

As for refugees, the UN refugee agency's latest estimate suggests that in 2014 there were around 117,000 refugees as well as 36,000 pending asylum cases and 16 stateless persons living in the UK.

The graphic's figure of 193,510 refugees appears to originate from the UN refugee agency's estimate for 2011, but which confusingly also appears as a separate UN body's estimate for the middle of 2013. We've contacted them to clarify this.

So this graphic may actually overstate the proportion of refugees in the population as of last year, when it was 0.18% of the overall population, whereas the numbers in the graphic suggest 0.31%.
What does "refugee" even mean in this context?
You might well wonder why the number of refugees in the UK has gone down in the past few years, given that we accept thousands of new refugees every year.

One possible answer is that "refugees"-people granted refugee status, or a similar form of international protection-don't necessarily remain refugees forever.

Refugees can apply to settle in the UK after five years (known as indefinite leave to remain). Once granted indefinite leave to remain, they can apply for citizenship.

Some refugees may also return to their country of origin after the initial five years because their status is revoked or not renewed.

The UN refugee agency told us that there's no official government figure for the number of refugees in Britain, so it has to estimate. It does so based on the number of successful applications for refugee status in the previous 10 years, as it assumes that anyone here for longer than that has become a British citizen.

We're trying to find out more about its methodology.
Refugees are a small proportion of the total population, but also of the immigrant population
People seeking refugee status here don't contribute hugely to UK immigration-they were less than 5% of immigrants in 2013, accounting for around 8% of net migration.

More broadly, the non-UK born population is now one in eight people. There are around five million foreign citizens-one in every 12.

You can read more about this in one of our recent articles.
Update 20 October 2015
We adjusted our description of the UN refugee agency's estimate for the number of refugees in the UK, following correspondence with the UN.

Isn't it nice to have the whole picture?

We rely on your donations to continue and grow our factchecking efforts - to help us maintain our independence we need 1000 donors to give £10 a month. We are currently at 502 - please help Full Fact grow.

By Conor James McKinney, Simon Wasser

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Ask Full Fact: how many refugees are in the UK population?

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A reader recently emailed us this graphic, apparently doing the rounds on social media, to ask whether or not it's correct. While the broad picture is right, the exact figures aren't. If anything, this graphic understates its point a little, as the proportion of refugees in the population is less than it suggests.

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We’ve put together some of the key facts on homelessness and rough sleeping in England.

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A charity that looks at Islamophobic hate crimes have called social media platforms "conveyor belts of hate".

Tell MAMA says it received 1,223 reports of street-based and online incidents in 2016 - with 953 of those verified.

Its annual report showed that the majority of incidents were "offline" - rising from 437 to 642 last year.

The charity's director, Iman Atta, criticised social media platforms in the report - saying they had become "conveyor belts of hate" which potentially contributed to an increase in attacks on the street.

In March, the charity issued a "truth" statement from a woman who was photographed on Westminster Bridge during a terror attack.

:: Terror attacks and EU referendum fuel record rise in hate crime

Tell MAMA, founded in 2012, uses data from 18 police forces plus reports from victims and members of the public to compile a picture of Islamophobic activity in the UK.

In 2016/17, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said a total of 14,480 hate crime prosecutions were completed across England and Wales, down 6.2% from the previous year.

The lead for hate crime at the National Police Chiefs' Council, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, recently said hate crime was "under-reported", and asked victims to continue reporting abuse.

Hate crimes are categorised as offences motivated by someone's hostility or prejudice towards an individual's personal characteristics.

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Islamophobia in the UK increasing, Tell MAMA report claims

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A charity that looks at Islamophobic hate crimes have called social media platforms "conveyor belts of hate". Tell MAMA says it received 1,223 reports of street-based and online incidents in 2016 - with 953 of those verified. Its annual report showed that the majority of incidents were "offline" - rising from 437 to 642 last year.

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What is Islamophobia?

In our reporting, Islamophobia includes when someone or something is targeted, discriminated against or excluded in any way, due to their/its actual or perceived Muslim identity. It also includes prejudice that promotes fear against Muslims and Islam.

To see further information about Islamophobia, see the 1997 Runnymede report - Islamophobia: A Challenge for us all

Islamophobia Awareness Month - November

Islamophobia Awareness Month (IAM) was co-founded by the MCB, with other British organisations in 2012 to challenge stereotypes about Islam and Muslims and highlight rises in anti-Muslim sentiment. Every year, in November, we raise awareness of the reality of Islamophobia, and how it blights the lives of Muslims in every day life.

Background

Islamophobia is growing in the UK, with ongoing and regular scaremongering about Muslims from certain sections of the media and with anti-Muslim hatred becoming more socially acceptable, having "passed the dinner table test". There is a real danger that such prejudice will further stoke up anti-Muslim hatred and provide the fodder for an already growing number of acts of violence against the Muslim community.

There have been in recent years, a rise in attacks against mosques, physical abuse against Muslims, anti-Muslim graffiti at a university, a rise in verbal abuse and hate mail, reports of Islamophobia in schools and continued online abuse against Muslims through social media.

This can be seen in our infographic (on the right), looking at hate crime statistics from 2016-2017. The data was collected through FOI requests by the Press Association to UK Police Forces, and the response from 42 out of 45 Police Forces. This is, notwithstanding, a lack of reporting on attacks, which makes it very difficult to grasp what the actual statistics are.

Further examples can be seen here: http://www.mcb.org.uk/rise-in-attacks-against-muslims-muslim-council-of-britain-calls-for-political-leadership-on-worrying-growth-in-islamophobia/ and here: http://www.mcb.org.uk/pm-apology-to-sulaiman-ghani/

Whilst the best way to defeat hatred is to build stronger bonds between communities, there needs to be a strategy to proactively tackle this divisive issue for our society at large and help reverse this trend in anti-Muslim prejudice. Britain can be proud of its record as a tolerant society and so can the Muslims for their continued positive contribution in that enrichment.

Statistics

Key relevant statistics demonstrating attitudes towards Muslims

- View of the British public on Muslims shows a growth in Islamophobia and its social acceptance (1):

o Muslims make up 17% of the population(2), compared to the reality of 5%
o 37% admitted they would be more likely to support a policies to reduce the number of Muslims in Britain (3)
o 62% agreed that Britain would lose its identity if more Muslims came to live here (vs. 48% in 2003) (4)
o 80% of readers' comments from a range of newspapers are critical or highly critical of Islam(5) and "the hateful way views are expressed against Muslims is notable(6)
o 55% would be bothered by the prospect of a mosque being built in their community(7)
o A quarter of Britons blame Muslims for the existence of Islamophobia(8)
o 33% agreed with the suggestion of UKIP leader Nigel Farage that ghettoes had sprung up in Britain where Sharia law prevailed and from which the police and other legal authorities had withdrawn(9)
o Almost 70 per cent think that Islam encourages repression of women(10)
o Only 3% consider that unfair treatment of Muslim workers by their employers is an urgent problem(11)
o Muslim men were 76% less likely to have a job of any kind compared to white, male British Christians of the same age and with the same qualifications (65% for Muslim women) (12)
o UKIP supporters believe Muslims in British society as 3rd most important issue facing the country (after immigration and economy); two thirds of UKIP supporters strongly disagree that Islam does not pose a threat to the West

Footnotes:
2 Average of sample in YouGov, 12-13 January 2015.
3 YouGov, September 2012.
4 BSA National Survey, 2013.
5 "Readers' Comments: What People Think of Islam - left, right and centre" by Islam Surveyed, February 2015.
6 "Anti-Muslim prejudice is real, and it's scary", Matthew Parris, Spectator, 21 March 2015.
7 BSA National Survey, 2008.
8 Comres poll on Britons, "Islamophobia and the Qur'an", 2011.
9 YouGov, The Sunday Times, 15-16 January 2015.
10 YouGov, "Exploring Islam Foundation survey results", May 2010.
11 YouGov, 25-26 February 2013.
12 The Independent, November 2014 reporting on research from Bristol University.

1 Growth in Islamophobia is real and dangerous according by the renowned Dr Chris Hewer, who has worked in Christian-Muslim relations for 30 years and has taught 1000s of Muslims and Christians in that period.

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What is Islamophobia? In our reporting, Islamophobia includes when someone or something is targeted, discriminated against or excluded in any way, due to their/its actual or perceived Muslim identity. It also includes prejudice that promotes fear against Muslims and Islam.

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"When I see someone walk towards me on the street with a bottle of water or something, I just freak out." Those were the words of Gina Miller, the City financier who famously took the UK government to court to ensure Parliament secured a vote on Article 50.

Speaking to UK media, she admitted she was now considering leaving the country. She has suffered weeks of threats amid a spate of acid attacks, having already endured dozens of death threats. She lives with her young family under 24-hour protection, and meets with her police handlers to discuss her protection regularly. The police have already issued eight cease and desist letters against her more determined harassers.

Aristocrat Rhodri Colwyn Philipps was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison last month after posting messages on Facebook offering 5,000 British pounds to kill Miller, or as he put it "the first person to 'accidentally' run over this bloody troublesome first generation immigrant ... If this is what we should expect from immigrants, send them back to their stinking jungles".

The three judges hearing Miller's case, one of whom later sought police protection, were labelled "enemies of the people" by a leading national newspaper. Rather than explicitly denouncing the threats of violence, the Justice Secretary Liz Truss had her spokesperson remind journalists about freedom of the press.

Even as a Remainer, I could see there were plenty of decent, non-bigoted reasons why people might have voted Brexit. These ranged from making sovereignty more localised, to opposing spending waste, and even parts of the immigration arguments - which needn't be presented in a xenophobic way, but so often are.

Nevertheless - there are disturbing and awkward realities about the groups of people in this country who supported Brexit. The way in which the Brexiteers won has clearly come at a high cost to the country. This is at a time when terrorist attacks and divisive leaders abroad are hardly making Western minorities lives any easier.
READ MORE: Protests in UK against post-Brexit racism
Some of the Brexit movement, for example, supported Tommy Mair, the killer of Labour MP Jo Cox. After she was assassinated, the neo-Nazi group National Action which supported him put out a leaflet reading "#VoteLeave, don't let this man's sacrifice go in vain."

You have to be in a special kind of gilded tower to think that neo-Nazis using your campaign slogans, judges hiding from assassins and Remain campaigners fleeing the country from acid attacks is the result of 'robust debate' and not veiled incitement.

Vote Leave was the name of the official Brexit campaign - run by now Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and recently reappointed cabinet minister Michael Gove. They were silent in denouncing National Action.

Gove, who later ran a failed bid to become prime minister, even defended the tone of his campaign after Cox was murdered. He said he had "shuddered" when he saw Nigel Farage's infamous " breaking point" Brexit poster, depicting refugees fleeing into Europe, but his wider point was the same as his colleague Liz Truss - "Free speech, robust debate, that is in the heart of our democracy."

You have to be in a special kind of gilded tower to think that neo-Nazis using your campaign slogans, judges hiding from assassins and Remain campaigners fleeing the country from acid attacks is the result of "robust debate" and not veiled incitement.

Brexiteers now exercise the logic of Donald Trump. He recently said there was blame "" in Charlottesville, when one of the sides was chanting Hitlerian slogans and celebrating black slavery. Nobody on the Remain side of the Brexit vote killed anyone, or even came close.

In February, an investigation by found hate crimes for three months after the referendum were at their highest since 2012.

Amazingly, one top Brexiteer columnist, Brendan O'Neill, attributed this to "the fact that various officials actively trawled for evidence of hate post-Brexit, imploring people to phone police hotlines".

He was duly published in the paper of record for the British conservative movement; the Spectator magazine, which lent unforgivable credibility to this madcap conspiracy theory.

Then last month, Conservative MEP and media personality Dan Hannan, "the brains behind Brexit", called the hate crime spike "idiotic" and a "preposterous statistic".
READ MORE: UK - Hate crime 'at record levels' after Brexit vote
The very same month, however, new figures actually showed that even eleven months after the result, hate crime was still rising.

Hannan, like so many Brexiteers, was clearly in denial.

This continuous rise was attributed to Brexit as well as Muslim terrorist attacks.

Muslims are regularly asked to denounce terrorism. Why then aren't the Brexiteers?

There has also been silence from Number 10 - no calls for calm or recognition that this rise in violence has been compounded by the particular type of Brexit campaign the lead Brexiteers chose to fight.

Likewise in the cabinet - key Brexit campaigners include the now Foreign Secretary, the International Trade Secretary, the Environment Secretary and the Brexit Secretary. They have been silent about a rising tide of violence, tucked away in their ministerial cars and, as white males, far from the danger themselves.

The collateral damage the Brexiteers have caused with their divisive campaign has also created a debt.

That debt comes in the form of a new environment they created. The Brexit campaign undeniably created an environment where abuse of anyone that looks "foreign" is increasingly normal, in which hate is legitimised by suited politicians and newspaper editors speaking not identical but strikingly similar language to the far right. In this environment they created, even - in the case of Jo Cox - murder is somewhat normalised.

Over a year from the referendum they won - this is a debt the Brexiteers must settle, and fast.
Alastair Sloan covers international affairs, politics and human rights for a variety of British newspapers and magazines. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alastair Sloan

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Brexit Britain: A United Kingdom of hate and denial

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"When I see someone walk towards me on the street with a bottle of water or something, I just freak out." Those were the words of Gina Miller, the City financier who famously took the UK government to court to ensure Parliament secured a vote on Article 50.

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Huge protests have gripped Sacramento after a video of police fatally shooting an unarmed black man was released. The distressing footage which quickly went viral showed the moment officers mistook the man's cell phone for a gun.

Demonstrators filled the streets of California's capital on Thursday evening. They were heard chanting "It's not a gun, it's a phone."
READ MORE: 'Gun, gun, gun': Police mistake cell phone for firearm, shoot suspect 20 times (VIDEO)
The protesters lined the streets, blocking the traffic in the city. Some of them marched into City Hall, demanding to see the chief of police. The demonstrators held banners, saying "We need answers," "His Life Matters" and "Stop killing us."

Earlier on Thursday Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said he had been appalled by the video. "Like any compassionate person, I was horrified by the death of a young Sacramento man who we later found out had two kids," Steinberg told a news conference. "What was my reaction? It was horrible."

Stephon Clark, 22, was confronted by police officers and shot dead in the back yard of the house he shared with his grandmother and his siblings on Monday. The footage from body cameras shows that the object he was carrying was not a 'toolbar', as police believed, but his cell phone. Clark was shot at least 20 times and died from his injuries.

Clark's family was outraged over the disturbing manner in which the young man died. "He was shot so many times, so many times," Clark's grandmother Sequita Thompson said emotionally, as cited by ABC.

Clark's fatal shooting is the latest incident in a series of killings of unarmed black men by police officers across the US. The death of black teen Michael Brown in 2014 led to massive Black Lives Matter protests worldwide and sparked national debates about racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, as well as the use of lethal force by police.

Since then, BLM protesters have rallied against the deaths of numerous other African Americans at the hands of officers or in police custody. The movement, sometimes referred to as the 'Black Spring,' quickly became global, sparking hundreds of demonstrations across the globe.

However, some argued that the campaign overlooked the importance of other categories of people, including police officers, who were also subjected to violence. Thus, 'All Lives Matter,' 'White Lives Matter' and 'Blue Lives Matter' (for police) emerged as a response to BLM.

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'His life matters': Protests sweep Sacramento after police fatally shoot unarmed black man

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Huge protests have gripped Sacramento after a video of police fatally shooting an unarmed black man was released. The distressing footage which quickly went viral showed the moment officers mistook the man's cell phone for a gun. Demonstrators filled the streets of California's capital on Thursday evening.

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March for Our Lives Highlights: Students Protesting Guns Say ‘Enough Is Enough’ (Published 2018)

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Hundreds of thousands of protesters, outraged by a recent school shooting, took to the streets in Washington and around the world, calling for action against gun violence.

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prejudice | Definition of prejudice in English by Oxford Dictionaries

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Definition of prejudice - preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience, harm or injury that results or may result from some action

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It is logically possible that there be prejudice without the pattern or a pattern without the prejudice in a particular case.

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

prejudice

These are words often used in combination with prejudice.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

blind prejudice

That shows that it is not mere blind prejudice of an obstinate bureaucracy.

cultural prejudice

Such defensive posturing indicated that the presentation of employment opportunities was not neutral but was framed to refute stereotypical cultural prejudice.

ideological prejudice

The scandal could not have reached the proportions it has had it not been sustained by a potent mix of ideological prejudice and institutional incompetence.

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

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prejudice definition: 1. an unfair and unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or.... Learn more.

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Date: Saturday, September 20, 2014
Speech by UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson at a special event for the HeForShe campaign, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 20 September 2014 [Check against delivery.]
Today we are launching a campaign called " HeForShe."

I am reaching out to you because I need your help. We want to end gender inequality-and to do that we need everyone to be involved.

This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN: we want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality. And we don't just want to talk about it, but make sure it is tangible.

I was appointed six months ago and the more I have spoken about feminism the more I have realized that fighting for women's rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.

For the record, feminism by definition is: "The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes."

I started questioning gender-based assumptions when at eight I was confused at being called "bossy," because I wanted to direct the plays we would put on for our parents-but the boys were not.

When at 14 I started being sexualized by certain elements of the press.

When at 15 my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn't want to appear "muscly."

When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings.

I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word.

Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive.

Why is the word such an uncomfortable one?

I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights.

No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality.

These rights I consider to be human rights but I am one of the lucky ones. My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn't love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn't assume I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influencers were the gender equality ambassadors that made me who I am today. They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists who are changing the world today. And we need more of those.

And if you still hate the word-it is not the word that is important but the idea and the ambition behind it. Because not all women have been afforded the same rights that I have. In fact, statistically, very few have been.

In 1995, Hilary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women's rights. Sadly many of the things she wanted to change are still a reality today.

But what stood out for me the most was that only 30 per cent of her audience were male. How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?

Men-I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too.

Because to date, I've seen my father's role as a parent being valued less by society despite my needing his presence as a child as much as my mother's.

I've seen young men suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make them look less "macho"-in fact in the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20-49 years of age; eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. I've seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don't have the benefits of equality either.

We don't often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that that they are and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence.

If men don't have to be aggressive in order to be accepted women won't feel compelled to be submissive. If men don't have to control, women won't have to be controlled.

Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong... It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of ideals.

If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by what we are-we can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about. It's about freedom.

I want men to take up this mantle. So their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too-reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more true and complete version of themselves.

You might be thinking who is this Harry Potter girl? And what is she doing up on stage at the UN. It's a good question and trust me, I have been asking myself the same thing. I don't know if I am qualified to be here. All I know is that I care about this problem. And I want to make it better.

And having seen what I've seen-and given the chance-I feel it is my duty to say something. English Statesman Edmund Burke said: "All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing."

In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt I've told myself firmly-if not me, who, if not now, when. If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you I hope those words might be helpful.

Because the reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children. And at current rates it won't be until 2086 before all rural African girls will be able to receive a secondary education.

If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists I spoke of earlier.

And for this I applaud you.

We are struggling for a uniting word but the good news is we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen to speak up, to be the "he" for "she". And to ask yourself if not me, who? If not now, when?

Thank you.
To see a video of Emma delivering her speech, visit HeForShe.org

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emma watson gender equality is your issue too

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Emma Watson Gender equality is your issue too

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Date: Saturday, September 20, 2014 Speech by UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson at a special event for the HeForShe campaign, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 20 September 2014 [Check against delivery.] Today we are launching a campaign called " HeForShe." I am reaching out to you because I need your help.

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Young Muslims in Wales say they have been frequently stared at in public, called "terrorists" at school and been told by strangers to take off headscarves.

It comes as schools have been urged to raise awareness of Islamophobia.

The Children's Commissioner for Wales Sally Holland is focusing on the harm caused by religious hate crime.

Muslim pupils have shared their experiences to help shape resources for the classroom.

The most recent UK Government statistics showed a 29% rise in hate crimes in England and Wales.

Religious hate crime increased by 35% between 2016-17, during a time when a charity in Wales said teachers from 13 of the 22 local authorities reported incidents of racism in the last year.

Ms Holland said: "I've spoken to young Muslims from across Wales who've told me that they're often scared in their communities, that they've directly experienced abuse at school, and that they're tired of the way Islam is often portrayed by the media, and the effect this has on the views of their non-Muslim peers."

Young Muslims' views have helped shape the new resources for teachers to use in the classroom.

Videos include contributions of pupils from Cathays High School in Cardiff where around three quarters are from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Shutha, 15, said has had "a few racial comments" directed at her.

"Stuff like 'go back to your country', stuff about what's on my head without knowing necessarily what it's for," she said.

"I used to think it was people being horrible but as I grew older I realised that people aren't really educated on the topic of Islam, the topic of what we do in our religion, why we do it and why we dress a certain way, why our beliefs are a certain way."

She added: "And I feel like if people get more educated on that, there'll be less Islamophobia, there'll be just less hate in general."

Though Azeem, 16, has not had direct experience of Islamophobia, some of his friends have.

"On the bus people wouldn't want to sit next to them because they're wearing headscarves," he said.

Ibby, 17, considers himself lucky to attend a multi-cultural school which he describes as "a cohesive community".

But outside the school gates friends have been "verbally assaulted" by people on the street, he said.

"Early intervention is what's needed before the problem becomes a serious problem", he said.

"Teaching young people about religion, about culture is hugely important".

Lesson plans produced for the project have been trialled in schools in Swansea, Cardiff and Neath.

Jo Bamsey, a religious education teacher at Pentrehafod Comprehensive, Swansea, said they had received positive feedback from pupils.

"The three lessons were well thought-out and allowed for honest discussion in an open and reflective environment," she said.

Fiona Thomas, a teacher at Dwr-y-Felin Comprehensive in Neath, added: "The resources conveyed the message clearly to our students that as humans we are all the same, enjoying playing football, listening to music and playing on the Xbox."

Anti-racism charity Show Racism the Red Card said that teachers in 16 of Wales' 22 local authorities had contacted them for support for help dealing with incidents of racism, or for help in delivering workshops.

Sunil Patel, campaign manager, said: "The number of inquiries our charity has received has trebled compared to the same period last year."

Ms Holland said she recognised the challenge faced by teachers in tackling sensitive issues.

"We know teachers can sometimes feel unsure and nervous about delivering lessons on topics like this, and I hope this resource gives teachers the necessary guidance and support." she said.

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Young Muslims in Wales say they have been frequently stared at in public, called "terrorists" at school and been told by strangers to take off headscarves. It comes as schools have been urged to raise awareness of Islamophobia. The Children's Commissioner for Wales Sally Holland is focusing on the harm caused by religious hate crime.

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miss, don't delete this, these are memories

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miss, don't delete this, these are memories

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our form is weird

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The attack on a teenage asylum seeker in Croydon last Friday comes as reports of abuse directed at refugee children are becoming more frequent, charities and experts have warned.

As Reker Ahmed, the 17-year-old Kurdish Iranian who was attacked, recovered in hospital on Monday, those involved in supporting asylum-seeking children expressed dismay at the attack.

Andy Elvin, chief executive of the fostering organisation Tact, which has looked after hundreds of asylum-seeking children across the country, said he was aware of a number of children in his organisation's care who had been verbally abused in the streets, and he believed this was a growing problem.

"It is verbal abuse - about their status, what they are doing in this country, why they don't go back," he said. The organisation runs support groups, advising newly arrived asylum seeking children on how to respond to negative experiences. It was particularly an issue which young people encountered on public transport, he said.

"We have made several reports to the police of hate crimes. We think it is rising. It is entirely linked to the environment that has been created by the public discourse about people coming to this country from overseas ... Asylum seekers are all seen as bogus - not as children, not traumatised, not in need, just freeloaders coming here to take advantage of the system."

Usually the abuse came as a complete surprise to the young people, Elvin added. "They didn't expect to be targeted in this way. The perception of the UK abroad is still that it is a fair equitable country, where people are treated decently."

Croydon currently has just over 400 unaccompanied child asylum seekers, a higher number than most local authorities, because it is the location of Lunar House, the government office where people must go to claim asylum.But a council spokesperson said: "This type of incident is extremely rare and our experience has been that the vast majority of young asylum seekers have been welcomed into the community."

Most of the younger child refugees in Croydon and elsewhere are accommodated by the council in foster families, and will go to school in the borough. The older ones, aged 16 or 17, are more likely to be found beds in supported accommodation, and may attend English classes, but will not be in school. Some councils provide acclimatisation sessions for newly arrived refugee children, educating them about British laws, the risks posed by drugs and their personal safety, but often the older arrivals are left largely unsupported to fend for themselves.

Liz Clegg, who worked with child asylum seekers in Calais and is now helping child refugees to settle in the UK, said most were entirely unprepared for hostility. "They think: 'Oh, now we're in the UK, we're completely safe.' They have fled conflict zones and think they have arrived in the promised land; they have a very positive outlook. We have to educate them that there are still serious dangers, that they need to be careful for their personal safety."

Gulwali Passarlay, author of The Lightless Sky, an account of coming to the UK as a lone child asylum seeker from Afghanistan, said that attitudes towards refugees had hardened in recent months.

He highlighted the negative effect of the reporting of the arrival of child refugees from Calais last October (where the ages of the asylum seekers were questioned in some parts of the media), stoking cynicism about child refugees' asylum claims, and dramatically souring a popular mood of support for child refugees that had followed the drowning of the three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi in 2015.

"The environment has changed. People with rightwing views think it is OK to insult asylum seekers. There are a lot of good people in the UK but the mood is changing. Asylum seekers need to be cautious; it's not always safe to walk around UK cities," he said.

Josie Naughton, co-founder of Help Refugees, said the attack demonstrated "the level of fear and prejudice which is taking hold of parts of British society".

Rabbi Janet Darley, who works with Citizens UK's Safe Passage project, which supports unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, said: "This is a sobering reminder of the importance of the need to create a welcoming society, where refugees feel welcomed and accepted."

Donations to a crowd-funding site for the victim had reached over £10,000 by Monday afternoon. Bridie Watson, who launched the fundraising drive, had no personal contact with the victim, but was liaising with the police and social services to make sure the victim received the money. "It was so horrific. We wanted to help people put their shock and love into something positive. We want to show that this is not what the UK is about," she said.
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Croydon attack comes as charities report growing number of hate crimes

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The attack on a teenage asylum seeker in Croydon last Friday comes as reports of abuse directed at refugee children are becoming more frequent, charities and experts have warned. As Reker Ahmed, the 17-year-old Kurdish Iranian who was attacked, recovered in hospital on Monday, those involved in supporting asylum-seeking children expressed dismay at the attack.

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The latest breaking news, comment and features from The Independent.

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Prejudice is an affective feeling towards a person or group member based solely on that person's group membership.

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Prejudice is an affective feeling towards a person or group member based solely on that person's group membership. The word is often used to refer to preconceived, usually unfavorable, feelings towards people or a person because of their sex, gender, beliefs, values, social class, age, disability, religion, sexuality, race/ ethnicity, language, nationality, beauty, occupation, education, criminality, sport team affiliation or other personal characteristics.

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Crisis: the national charity for homeless people.

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Crisis: the national charity for homeless people.

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Homelessness: Causes, Types and Facts | Crisis UK

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Find out the causes, effects, and types of homelessness - and what we’re doing to end it for good.

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The majority of LGBTQ Americans say they have experienced some form of harassment or discrimination due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, according to a report by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and National Public Radio.

The survey, a nationally representative sample of 489 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer adults, found that more than half of them experienced slurs (57 percent) or offensive comments (53 percent). Most of those surveyed also reported that they or an LGBTQ friend or family member has been threatened or harassed (57 percent), sexually harassed (51 percent) or has experienced violence (51 percent) on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity.

Harvard researcher Logan S. Casey, who was part of the report's research team, said what sets this survey apart from previous ones is its focus on the day-to-day experience of discrimination for LGBTQ people.

"Lots of work has been done about what people think about discrimination in America. This [survey] goes into great detail about people's personal experiences of discrimination across many areas of life," Casey explained.

For Casey, one of the most important findings is "how pervasive people's experiences of violence and harassment are." For example, a third of LGBTQ Americans report that they or an LGBTQ friend or family member has experienced verbal harassment while using a bathroom.

"LGBTQ people's day-to-day experiences are still structured by discrimination, harassment and prejudice," Casey said.

Institutional Discrimination

In addition to individual slights and aggressions, the report noted large portions of LGBTQ people confront institutional discrimination. At least one in five of those surveyed said they have been discriminated against in the process of applying for a job (20 percent), being paid equally or considered for a promotion (22 percent) or buying or renting a home (22 percent), the survey found.

In terms of education, among those in the LGBTQ community who applied for or attended college, 20 percent said they had experienced discrimination because of their gender identity or sexual orientation while applying or while at college.

The discrimination extends to the political sphere as well. One in 10 LGBTQ people said "they have been personally discriminated against because they are LGBTQ when trying to vote or participate in politics."

Those surveyed also reported avoiding situations in which they may encounter discrimination.

"Roughly one in six LGBTQ people say they have avoided medical care (18 percent) and calling the police (15 percent), even when in need, due to concern that they would be discriminated against because of their LGBTQ identity," the report states.

The Intersection of Race and LGBTQ Identity

The report also found LGBTQ people do not experience discrimination in a uniform manner. "There are really pronounced racial differences," Casey explained. While the survey sample was not large enough to tease out specific differences in the experiences of African-American, Latinx and Asian-American respondents, the survey did allow researchers to compare the experiences of LGBTQ people of color and white LGBTQ people.

"LGBTQ people of color are at least twice as likely as white LGBTQ people say they have been personally discriminated against because they are LGBTQ when applying for jobs and when interacting with police, and six times more likely to say they have avoided calling the police (30 percent) due to concern for anti-LGBTQ discrimination, compared to white LGBTQ people (5 percent)," the report states.

Casey said he was not surprised by these findings.

"Knowing what we know about the way multiple marginalized identities intersect ... seeing this racial disparity in the LGBTQ community was not surprising." But, he added, "seeing them quantified in this way is very powerful."

Generational Differences

While Casey said the survey did not uncover large age gaps in experiences of discrimination, he did note an important difference in the way younger and older generations think about the sources of discrimination.

Younger LGBTQ people (18-49 years of age) are more likely to say institutions (laws and government policies) are the source of discrimination, whereas older generations (50 and over) are more likely to identify individual prejudice as the problem, Casey explained.

Overall, Casey said the study helps "put some concrete data" to the experiences that LGBTQ people have been reporting for a long time.

"Even as we see advances like gay marriage or polling that says people are supportive of LGBTQ issues or know a gay person, average community members are saying that it doesn't mean discrimination has gone away."

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Most LGBTQ Americans experience harassment and discrimination, Harvard study finds

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The majority of LGBTQ Americans say they have experienced some form of harassment or discrimination due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, according to a report by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and National Public Radio.

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The Refuge from the Ravens project places new works alongside the original 'redefining it to help people grasp the concept' of homelessness