Colleen Harris: 'Minorities need greater integration, not separate communities'

From a speech by the Commission for Racial Equality's director of strategy and communications, at the launch in London of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations' Diversity Policy

Some people think that the reason for racial equality is purely moral and social justice. Others think it is a business issue. These are good reasons, but they cannot be enough.

Ethnic minority Britons want - even need - something more fundamental and less dependent on others' goodwill. The claim for equality is founded on a simple truth - we are British in every respect. We share the burdens of being members of this society. We should share in the benefits too.

Equality is not a favour - it is a right. It was not so long ago that I was a lone black press officer surrounded by a sea of white colleagues. When I turned up for meetings people would ask if Mrs Harris was away today. I have spent a large part of my career working at the heart of the British establishment - government departments, Downing Street, the royal household - but I was always the only ethnic minority for a very long time, and have many stories to tell, some funny, some painful, of that experience. I am pleased to say that things have improved, and black and ethnic minorities are better represented in public life than ever before. Yet we still don't have a single Asian or black High Court judge, a serving Army officer above the rank of Lt Col, and just one permanent secretary in Whitehall.

We want a society where everyone's life chances are unaffected by what or where they were born. That is, your race should be a random factor in determining whether you are a convict or Lord Chancellor. We don't want separate communities, we want integration, because that's how we avoid conflict.

What is integration? Well, it's about people feeling they have a stake in society, that they belong. It's about accepting different cultures but finding the thread that binds us together. London has been a good example of this over the last few days. People have pulled together against this criminal act.