The race report critics are guilty of gaslighting

The Sewell Report on race and ethnic disparities is courageous, thoughtful and measured. Its relative optimism has triggered a torrent of bile from those personally or professionally wedded to the idea that Britain is a systemically racist society. They accuse the report of disregarding what is fashionably called ‘lived experience’ — in other words, anecdotal evidence and subjective impression. Its use of carefully considered objective data, the critics allege, devalues the lived experience of ethnic minorities.

Lived experience has validity, but — by definition — only for those who have lived it. It proves nothing beyond itself, and certainly nothing systemic. If we wish to be rational creatures, we check our own lived experience against the experiences of others. Otherwise, we regress to a solipsistic universe where only our own impressions exist: the condition of babyhood.

If the ‘lived experience’ of many people can be assembled and analysed, it ceases to be merely anecdotal and becomes evidence.