Its hard to say as I'm white. I will be as gentle as I can whilst also stating my views though I am by no means saying my views are correct. They are, after all, views.
My first position is always "where is the evidence?" On any subject, what do we KNOW, rather than what we assume or interpret. In relation to Child Q, would they have done that with a white girl? Perhaps. If they would have then this isn't racism. How do you prove they wouldn't? I guess that would take a review of cases where children have been subjected to the exact intervention and looking at whether white girls have had this happen. There is a huge difference between "because" someone is black and their "happening to be" black. It is a leap to go from bad practice (it certainly was) to racism.
I am also always curious re: cognitive biases of people of colour (I don't like the term BAME). If you have been told for your entire life that the UK is fundamentally racist, it would follow that you would be much more hypervigilant about racism than if you hadn't.
I'll give an LGBT related example. I have a friend who is gay and he has a boyfriend. The couple booked a double room online, but when they arrived the man saw it was two men and said "we have over-booked, sorry we haven't got any rooms for you". My friend saw this as homophobic, his boyfriend did not. Why? Because my friend believed it was BECAUSE they were gay, not that they HAPPENED TO be gay and had bad luck w the booking. His boyfriend had very little bullying etc at school whilst my friend had a lot. One could argue that my friend's own assumptions about someone else's motivations/beliefs were causing him to believe something without sufficient evidence. I'm bisexual and I personally have dated guys in the past, and I wouldn't have assumed homophobia.
In terms of things like jobs, grades etc I believe that there are many other reasons (other than racism) that mean black people tend to have a tougher deal than white counterparts (Asians tend to actually do far better than white boys for example, but this is widely ignored). For me it is a class issue and yes there are more black people in the working class. The report into racism in the UK had a massive backlash when it was published because it looked at the broader context of race based inequalities. For example, black and Asian families are more likely to look after mentally ill family members at home rather than seek help. Part of that may be culturally they see mental illness as something different entirely. So when they DO have contact with services, they are often detained because they get significantly more unwell before seeking help. This is why more black men get detained over white counterparts. But campaigners would have you believe it is because the whole MH system is racist. Which is not based on empirical evidence.
In terms of representation, I think it is reasonable to assume that a 90+% white nation has a much higher representation in media than black/Asian individuals. I wouldn't go to China, Japan or Congo and expect to see a huge number of white faces on TV or in the media. Why? Because they don't have 50%+ people being white. That is simply logical.
With all that said, yes there are pockets of racism in the UK just like everywhere. I know people in the older generation (50+years old) who will say the most outrageous things about POC. That said, to say things haven't improved over the past 20 years is simply ludicrous.
We do need to stamp out the racism in sport - particularly football - as this is a huge problem.
We also need to change the way in which we mark and assess university courses in the UK because we know that written assignments (2000-6000+ words) is not always representative of POC's abilities. Universities are taking active steps to address these issues by doing more oral exams, poster assignments and simulation exams. They are also looking at changing the case studies to a more culturally diverse mix than the traditionally white case studies previously provided in areas like Social Work and other social sciences.
I think the race issue is much more a class issue - and one that desperately needs addressing BECAUSE more POC are in the working class bracket. If we address the class divide we should - in theory - see POC getting into much more successful positions.
In short, there are problems with racism and at the same time I think the nuance and evidence is often lost because its much easier to tackle (or ignore?) POC than it is to ignore a whole class (thousands aggrieved versus millions).