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“Everyone’s a little bit racist.” So claims the song from the controversial Broadway musical Avenue Q. The song lyrics force the audience to confront the idea that none of us is free from our own racial bias; that each of us makes judgments based on race. It’s deliberately crafted to make everyone uncomfortable. It shines a light on the reality that perhaps each of us is part of the problem. This week, Prime Minister Theresa May has set out to confront the “uncomfortable truths” about how black and minority ethnic people are treated in Britain through the publication of an audit of public services including education, health and the criminal justice system. The review, which the prime minister hopes will “hold a mirror up to society”, reveals black Caribbean pupils are three times as likely to be excluded from school as white Britons. That unemployment for black, Asian and minority ethnic people is at nearly double the rate of white Britons. Theresa May insists that institutions will have to “explain or change” any variations in treatment. As an ethnic minority Brit myself, it’s easy here for me to point to others – the large institutions that surely are at fault for perpetuating racial prejudice – not me. But how do I treat my neighbour? What judgments do I make about people before I’ve met them? Perhaps it’s each of us that needs to change our behaviour. Maybe it’s each of us that needs to address the uncomfortable truths within our own lives. In a famous New Testament passage, Jesus is questioned about a woman caught in adultery. The religious leaders ask him whether she should be stoned because of her sin, according to their laws. “Let the one who has never sinned cast the first stone,” he says, instead of rebuking her. Many Christians wrestle with the uncomfortable truth foundational to our faith that none of us is without sin. And this belief that the only one who is blameless – God himself – takes up our sin as if it were his own. But the great paradox, Christians believe, is that despite this profound cosmic act, God remains a God of justice and equality. The Bible is full of stories calling out corrupt rulers and structures, systems of injustice that have been created by humans to keep some with all the power. Christians cling to the crux of the gospel message, which tells a story of humankind being made in God’s image and emancipated from the labels that hold people back from being all they are supposed to be. The idea that people should be treated better or worse dependent on their skin colour is one I hope each of us finds abhorrent. While it might make us uncomfortable, it’s crucial for these truths to be brought to light.