Jack Straw has made it known that racism is one issue that he feels strongly about. In an interview earlier this year, he said that: ‘If the only thing that could be said for me was that I made a difference on race, then I’d die a happy man.’ Perhaps racism is an issue where
Theme: Health
The Politics of Numbers: Police Racism and Crime Figures
The police forces of Britain are currently waging a public relations battle to regain credibility after the Macpherson Inquiry. Crime figures, produced by the police and released to the media along with the police’s interpretation of the figures, are playing a major role in it. The picture they give is one in which whites are
The Press, the Police and Macpherson
IN CARF 48 we analysed the limits of the new agenda of middle England on race, as exemplified by the Daily Mail in its championing of the Lawrence case. The Daily Mail made the murder of Stephen Lawrence a cause célèbre while also campaigning viciously against asylum-seekers. In this way middle England was proving that
Will the Police Be Made Fully Accountable?
No-one doubts that the case of Stephen Lawrence has resulted in unprecedented public awareness of racism in institutions and in the police in particular. Even hostile commentators are no longer able simply to shrug their shoulders and talk about a few bad apples. Nevertheless the debate so far has been considerably less penetrating as to
Stop and Search: Strong words but limited action
THE report of the Lawrence inquiry singles out countrywide racial disparities in the use of stop-and-search as one of the key areas of ‘institutional racism’ in the police. In doing so, the report does no more than to confirm what has long been widely known in the black community. The Macpherson report goes on to
Exclusion: New Labour Style
Central to the welfare provisions of the Asylum and Immigration Bill is the removal of everyone who is subject to immigration control (including taxpayers) from all mainstream benefits. This won’t affect those long settled in Britain but it will affect those who have been ‘sponsored’ by a family member. In future, a sponsor’s failure to
Evidence submitted for Part 2 of the Lawrence Inquiry
Institute of Race Relations Evidence submitted for Part 2 of the Inquiry into Matters Arising from the Death of Stephen Lawrence The Context IRR believes that it is essential to place the events surrounding the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent police investigation in the context of organised racial violence and relations between the
Public accountability not public relations
For more than two decades, anti-racists have struggled to put the issue of institutional racism on the agenda. In the period from the Scarman inquiry of the early 1980s through to the last few months, the accepted wisdom was that police racism existed but it was a case of ‘a few rotten apples’. To root
What is institutional racism?
Institutional racism is that which, covertly or overtly, resides in the policies, procedures, operations and culture of public or private institutions – reinforcing individual prejudices and being reinforced by them in turn. Why do we need to distinguish institutional racism from individual racism? The problem is that individual racial attitudes and stereotyping have often been
Terror Act: A Charter For Repression
In November 1997, Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorism unit staged simultaneous raids on the Kurdistan Workers Association in Haringey and the Halkevi Turkish and Kurdish Community Centre in Stoke Newington. Police spent seven hours at the KWA photographing and searching each room seizing the centre’s financial records, bank statements, chequebooks, grant application information, training records, National Lottery