Nicola Rollock Interviewed by Matthew Stadlen

Expert on racial justice and government adviser Professor Nicola Rollock uncovers the hidden rules of race and racism that govern our lives and asks how we can truly achieve racial justice.

Rollock says racism is not about the overt acts of people on the fringes of society, it is about the everyday racism that dictates our lives. She says it is in the successful lawyer mistaken for a waiter at a networking event, the employee on the verge of a breakdown after being consistently overlooked for promotion, or the employee whose emails expressing concerns about his employer’s forthcoming slavery exhibition are ignored. It’s in loaded silences, throwaway remarks and causal comments.

Rollock is professor of social policy and race at King’s College London. She is a member of the Wellcome Trust’s diversity and inclusion steering group and specialist adviser to the Home Affairs’ Select Committee’s ‘Macpherson 22 Years On’ inquiry. Here she talks to former LBC radio host and BBC presenter Matthew Stadlen.