Mal Fletcher comments on racism in the UK

They went into each new campaign with their eyes wide open - to the dangers they faced and to the possibility that their overall strategy may come to nothing.

Yet they stubbornly refused to lose their overriding hope, based in a belief that people of all races essentially want to live in peace.

They took the high road wherever they could, holding out a hand of friendship and calling forth the best in their fellow citizens, whatever their skin tone.

Addressing racism begins with an understanding of the factors that foster it, though these are often many and varied.

Sometimes racist mindsets carry a generational aspect. Negative attitudes are sometimes passed on from parents to children.

These attitudes can then become part of the core identity of a new generation, so that being racist can be seen as a badge of belonging.

The same can be true within clubs and associations, from which some young adults derive a core part of their identity.

In the smartphone, app-driven age, digital identity is supplanting family identity for some isolated young people. Negative stereotypes can spread quickly, being reinforced virally across vast networks.

Racism is also born of fear, especially the fear that one's own culture may be supplanted by another.

That fear can be especially real where other social factors are already undermining wealth and wellbeing - factors such as unemployment, poor standards of health, low quality housing and high mortality rates.

In those settings, other races sometimes become scapegoats as people look for both an explanation for their problems and an outlet for their angst.

Racism may partly result from human nature's capacity to fear what it does not understand. It may also be down to complex socio-cultural and economic factors.

We will not always agree on its causes, or the remedies for it. We should agree, however, that it should never be swept under the proverbial carpet.