I increasingly feel that we should acknowledge that humans are programmed to look for difference. Difference is exciting and interesting, but it can also be frightening and destabilising, both of which cause humans to act badly. I think social policy needs to accept that and work to mitigate its worst effects.
For me, 'worst effects' means racism, whether hidden or overt. I believe in equity vs equality, representation and access policies, etc. But i think 'worst effects' are also ghettoisation and resistance to integration, and especially the particular resistance to integration that is rooted in misogyny.
I think there is a real tension between the goals of anti-racism (we're all the same) and multiculturalism (we're very distinct groups and that's ok). The former cannot tolerate any oppression or disadvantage based on characteristics of birth - race obviously, but then logically extending to sex, sexual orientation etc. Multiculturalism, on the other hand, has been far too willing to accept misogyny or homophobia as 'cultural difference'.
Relativism is destabilising in any society - I think humans lean towards a hierarchy of values flowing from one overarching value. In our case, it should be 'we are all of equal value' . We should have the balls to assert that hierarchy - there is nothing intrinsically wrong with an order of importance, but somehow it became the bathwater to inequality's baby for the social justice movement.
I think that if we'd pursued antiracism and equality for women with equal vigour, there would have been an instinctive feeling of balance and coherence that would smooth over other bumps in the road. But as with so much in life, it hasn't happened because no men - 'British' or not - really want it.
I hope that my last point shows I don't believe that Western/British culture is inherently less misogynistic in real terms than others. But I do think that in terms of the state it is less so, and that the cultural aspects of its misogyny are less flagrant. I'm not sure that makes it any better overall - hidden misogyny is harder to tackle, by definition - but that doesn't mean we shouldn't tackle the flagrant misogynies we do see.
Relatedly, because it intersects heavily with the precepts of multiculturalism - I think most religions are rooted in oppressions of one kind or another and should not be allowed to intersect with the state in any way. Church of England schools - no. Hijab in school - no. I don't think that any weight should be given to religion in the curriculum other than in history, where it invariably demonstrates its propensity towards division and violence. The solution to racism is not to give children the idea that religion is so significant that they must learn about every single one in depth at the age of seven - it is to counter the indoctrination of children at family level by exposing them to the idea that religion is a personal matter. The state should not interfere, but neither should it celebrate.
Finally - thanks if you've got this far - I think that it was insane to think that a society made up of separate groups could ever be at ease with itself. We should always have insisted on a base level of integration and enforced our nominal values of equality, democracy, reason etc in both old and new communities. But crucially, we should not have allowed that to be hijacked by a conservative insistence that nothing in the old culture must change. We should have highlighted and celebrated the re-energising, invigorating impact of incomers on cultures and societies which might otherwise stagnate, but are now able to move forward, a little changed, together.