by Kurt Barling
91热爆 London's Special Correspondent
All the evidence from opinion polls, to the way in which London is clearly more at ease than it鈥檚 ever been with its ethnic diversity, suggests that there is less and less tension between the 鈥渞aces鈥.听听
There are strong arguments that there are greater cleavages now between faiths in the shape of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism; but these are more clearly linked to political differences arising out of the Middle East conflict.
In this way we have come a long way since Stephen Lawrence was so wickedly murdered by racist bigots in April 1993.
It鈥檚 astonishing to think he would be 34 now, no longer the fresh faced 18-year-old we remember from his photographs.听 It is no longer possible to argue that change hasn鈥檛 happened.
Fact File
How did Stephen die?
The 18-year-old A-level student was fatally stabbed at a bus stop near his home in Eltham, south-east London in April 1993.
A 1997 inquest ruled he had been "unlawfully killed in a completely unprovoked racist attack by five white youths".
What happened in the original investigation?
The original Metropolitan Police investigation - found by a later inquiry to be racist and incompetent - did not lead to any prosecutions.
But the family doggedly pursued the case and eventually five young men were identified as suspects.
What effect did the inquiry into his death have?
The inquiry into the failure of the original police investigation to find and convict Stephen's killers, headed by Sir William MacPherson and which reported in 1999, became one of the most important moments in the modern history of criminal justice in Britain.
Famously concluding that the force was "institutionally racist", it made 70 recommendations and had an enormous impact on the race relations debate - from criminal justice through to all public authorities.
I鈥檇 been a journalist for about three years and I recall struggling to get my editors at the time to take the story of a young black boy being murdered in Eltham all that seriously.
It was only when it became clear that the initial police investigation had been so dramatically botched and Doreen and Neville Lawrence objected to their and Stephen鈥檚 friend鈥檚 (Duwayne Brooks) insensitive treatment by the police that questions began to be asked.听听 It took years and a new Government to get to the bottom of how seriously flawed the whole policing process had been.
By the late 1990s the story had metamorphosed into a litmus test of structural deficiencies in the police.听 Suddenly news editors became more interested.听听 So did politicians and suddenly the story had become headline news.听听 Journalism has changed since then; few would miss such a story now because they would understand the questions that need to be asked.听听 In the same way as it would now be risible to doubt a black person鈥檚 Britishness.
When Jack Straw became 91热爆 Secretary he went against the prevailing official wisdom that a public inquiry was not needed and asked Sir William Macpherson to unravel the cause of the police failure.听听听 What Sir William and his fellow panellists concluded is worth paraphrasing, as it has set a benchmark, against which public institutions can judge how well they are addressing the needs of an ethnically diverse society.
The inquiry team took on board the phrase, institutional racism, which had been used in the United States for many years.听 There, the radical Stokey Carmichael used it to characterise the reasons why minorities failed to receive equal treatment, despite rights being enshrined in a host of equality laws.
Institutional racism was:听 鈥渢he collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of the colour, culture or ethnic origin which can be seen or detected in processes: attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people.鈥
Whilst the final report in February 1999 clearly upbraided the Metropolitan Police, all other public institutions were challenged to look at the internal workings of their organisation to see how they would fare against this benchmark.听听
Many were found wanting.听听
When I interviewed Sir Paul Condon, the outgoing Police Commissioner in 1999, I sensed at the time that he was demoralised by the Met being labelled institutionally racist.听听 He conceded it had set police community relations back years.听
The Government reacted quickly by setting before Parliament legislation which gave new duties and obligations to public officials.听 It was recognised there needed to be root a branch changes because there was no defence for fundamentally discriminatory practices.听听 In 2000 the 1976 Race Relations Act was amended to make it more difficult for poor decision-making to be disguised by policies and procedures.听听听
In particular, the new law placed a duty on public officials to ensure that their behaviour and decisions took into consideration possible prejudice against minorities.听听 That was not to say all police officers or public officials were closet racists just that they needed to be mindful of stereotyping in dealing with minorities.
Many public institutions immediately recognised that one of the key handicaps was a lack of officials from a minority ethnic background.听 This is why so much effort has been made since then to recruit police officers and public officials from ethnic minorities. Happily this coincided with many more minorities emerging from the new universities, so aptitude and education could no longer be held against them.
Nevertheless in certain areas like the criminal justice system there was still concern about the disproportionate number of young black men ending up in court and then being sent to prison.听听 This is an ongoing debate, but it seems at least the absence of minorities in administering justice was being recognised as a result of Macpherson.
Back in 1993, as a frequent visitor to courts on behalf of the 91热爆, I was struck by the number of black faces in the dock; and the absence of minority faces administering the law.听听 Merlene Carrington was one of a number of people who responded to the opportunity to shadow practicing Magistrates in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry organised by the fledgling group Operation Black Vote (OBV).
By 2005 Merlene had successfully been appointed to the Kent bench and has sat as a magistrate ever since.听听 The numbers of Justice鈥檚 of the Peace coming from an ethnic minority background is steadily increasing.听 Merlene believes that her very presence makes justice more likely to be seen to be done.听听
Her insight as an Afro-Caribbean woman is invaluable to help her fellow Magistrates gain a new perspective of minority communities.听听 It also means that those who are the recipients of justice also recognise that authority can come in many colours.
OBV wasn鈥檛 the only group to foster shadowing schemes which could allow capable and qualified people from a minority background to get access to key, political and legal institutions.听听听 In fact within the Civil Service mentoring schemes were established to help improve the prospects for minorities in reaching key decision-making positions.听听 That is a work in progress.
Sonika Nirwal was one of the first beneficiaries of the access scheme to the local political process.听 A recent Cambridge graduate in 1999, she shadowed an MP and a set of councillors who showed her the political ropes so to speak.
91热爆 London's Kurt Barling
Ms Nirwal was then elected to Ealing Council and made a rapid rise to become leader of the Labour Opposition.听听 For her the opportunity that the shadowing scheme provided was unparalleled.听听 It gave her experience and exposure that others might get through family connections and networks.听听
However it has not been an entirely rewarding experience as she discovered that prejudice has a way of clouding judgements not just against her as a minority but also as a woman from within her own minority Sikh community.听听 One of the big challenges she believes is the need for minorities here to embrace the message of President Obama.听听 Namely, once elected, a politician should not serve a particular ethnic group but all communities.
Sonika Nirwal has taken a break from politics whilst she raises a young family.听 She believes that the irony of the debate about equality and access, driven as it so often is by politicians, is that the politicians themselves are failing to recognise how little progress our party political structures have actually made in improving ethnic minority representation.听听听
There are of course many examples of individuals and institutions that have responded positively to the need to create greater access for all to our public institutions and government.听听 The term institutional racism has often become mangled by misunderstanding; but as a way of identifying the barriers that need to be removed to improve representation it is still hard to replace.听听
Whilst it is probably fair to say that in the past ten years those running British public institutions have become more aware of the need for those institutions to reflect the communities they serve; there is still a huge challenge to ensure those institutions are representative and not blighted by what the Equalities Commission has described as systemic bias.
