Simon Jones: No place for prejudice

The Black Lives Matter movement around the world has rightly prompted periods of self-reflection for all of us and a long, hard rethink on our culture and history.

In a decade of working for Optician, I have always thought of the industry as nothing but diverse. Recent data from the Office for National Statistics backs this up, with 27% of optometrists in the UK of black, Asian minority ethnic (BAME) origin. For dispensing opticians, the figure was slightly lower at 15% of the 9,000-strong workforce. Looking at other similar professions like dentists (28% BAME) and pharmacists (32% BAME), optics compares pretty favourably.