The doublespeak discourse of the race disparity audit: an example of the White racial frame in institutional operation

Figures & data

Table 1. The RDA’s associated webpages.

Name of webpages	Webpage reference	Date	Rationale for analysis
‘Prime Minister launches world-leading project on impact of ethnicity on everyday life’	Press release https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-launches-world-leading-project-on-impact-of-ethnicity-on-everyday-life	10 October 2017	Lengthy text announcing publication of the audit
Theresa May’s speech launching the audit	Speech https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-words-at-race-disparity-audit-launch-10-october-2017	10 October 2017	Transcript of her speech the day of the audit publication
Building a country that works for everyone: the government’s plan – collection of links and documents	Collection https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/a-country-that-works-for-everyone-the-governments-plan	14 November 2017; updated 23 May 2018	Restates government objectives which includes schools, safety and injustices
New action to improve outcomes for children with additional needs – press release	Action https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-action-to-improve-outcomes-for-children-with-additional-needs	16 March 2018	Important action partially as a result of audit.
Race disparity unit (responsible for collection, analysis and publication of data about race disparities): about us webpage	About us https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/race-disparity-unit/about	No date	Provides further information on those undertaking statistical analyses for the audit and website ‘ethnicity, facts and figures’
Digitising the Government’s ethnicity data: the Race Disparity Audit: blogpost	Digitising blog https://quarterly.blog.gov.uk/2017/11/15/digitising-the-governments-ethnicity-data-the-race-disparity-audit/	15 November 2017	Lengthy text rationalising and describing the type of statistical evidence collected for the audit

Table 2. References to the root word ‘ethnic’.

Phrase	Meaning/interpretation (x number of times occurring)	Website source
Ethnic injustice (x2)	Injustices described in relation to ethnicity	Press release, speech
(Commission on Race and) Ethnic disparities (x4)	Disparities now described as relating to ethnicity– this appears to be a straight swap for race disparities	Blog, about us, press release
People/prisoners of different/all ethnicities/ethnic groups/ethnic backgrounds; (x7)	Descriptor applied to everyone or all prisoners: notice the generalisation to all ethnic groups in this descriptor.	Press release, speech, blog, about us
Data (sets) on/about/of ethnicity (x11)	Descriptor of the criteria on which data has been collected	Press release, speech, blog, about us
Multi-ethnic democracy (x1)	description of a state of democracy	speech

Note: where multipliers are used, this indicates consistent phrasing and meaning across texts.