Black young people need a plan to defy stats

 In response to one of her friends asking whether she was going back to school, she retorted: "What's the point - I ain't going to get a job, am I?" The young person in question was a young woman of Caribbean origin; I guess she might call herself black British. I found the remark both sad and horribly defeatist. Before she had even started out in the world, she had absorbed the possibility of a life thwarted.

It turned out that this young woman (let's call her Lisa) actually wanted to work in banking because she thought she could do something about the unfairness in that industry and help people manage their money better (and, yes, she thought it probably paid pretty well too). Lisa had a sense that a university education might be a requirement, but already had a sense that she was unlikely to get there. In the space of 10 minutes of speaking to her, I understood that Lisa was intelligent, interesting and interested.

Her view of her world was not just from the point of view of her youth; her view was also through the lens of race. "Don't you get it, the cards are stacked," she said - and I know what she meant.

If you belong to a minority ethnic group, you are much likelier to be unemployed or not in education or training than your white counterparts. On top of this, if you are black, you are now 30 times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than a white young person, the latest analysis from the London School of Economics out this month has found. What's more, on average, five times more black people than white people are imprisoned in England and Wales, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission's landmark report How Fair is Britain?.

Returning to Lisa, if she wants to go to a leading university - such as a member of the self-styled Russell Group of 20 top learning and research institutions - her chances are low. Only eight per cent of black students are at Russell Group universities compared to a quarter of white students and 29 per cent of Asian students.

I could go on to list statistics that mitigate against Lisa reversing her view that there is no point in going to school. The statistics tell the same story across politics and the media. The stats simply add to the recent sense created by the conviction of Gary Dobson and David Norris into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, and the allegations of racism in football, that this country is not an equal society if you're black.

If you're young as well as black, the cards are stacked even higher against you because you lack the experience and the sense that someone might actually be on your side with an argument for not giving up, but for getting up. You could argue it is up to the individual to shape his or her destiny and defy the statistics. But the sheer scale and constant visibility of racial inequality in our society has a huge demotivating effect on many of our black young people.

The problem is not just about the lack of role models; it's about the lack of a strategy for youth that engages with the reality of being black and young in Britain today, and that responds specifically to the fact that black young people are discriminated against. The government's Positive for Youth policy statement, which is for all teenagers in England, does not fill this need.

Lisa is not alone. She is part of a demographic that is growing.

In the meantime, the subject of race and young people continues to be something that we as a society do not seem able to comfortably talk about. It could be the case that people have a fear of offending or saying the "wrong thing". It's not just about racism as a general experience of black people, it's about the Lisas of this world who experience the fatalism behind the stats.

To get Lisa back to school, and to give her some hope that she can fulfil her potential, we need to do more than just talk to her. We need a strategy that acknowledges the truth and gives Lisa tools to get her back to school - to race ahead.

Lord Victor Adebowale is visiting professor and chancellor at the University of Lincoln