1 Stephen Lawrence, a young black man, was stabbed to death in 1993 in a south London street by a racist gang. His family and supporters campaigned for six years to expose the way that the police’s investigation into the murder had failed to bring the killers to justice and how police inquiries into the investigation had failed to expose police incompetence and racism. After the family’s bid to bring a private prosecution against Stephen’s killers failed, they persuaded the home secretary to set up a public inquiry into the case. (For further details see ‘Evidence from the Institute of Race Relations to the Lawrence inquiry’, Race & Class (Vol. 40, no. 4, 1999) and Brian Cathcart, The Case of Stephen Lawrence (London, Viking, 1999).
2.
2 The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report … chairman, Sir William Macpherson (London, Home Office, 1999) CM4262.
3.
3 See Brian Cathcart, The Case of Stephen Lawrence, op. cit.
4.
4 Jenny Bourne, ‘Cheerleaders and Ombudsmen: the sociology of race relations in Britain’, Race & Class, (Vol. 21, no. 4, 1980).
5.
5 One of the early books on race relations, by Sheila Patterson, which studied Brixton, was entitled Dark Strangers (London, Tavistock, 1963).
6.
6 See A. Sivanandan, ‘From resistance to rebellion: Asian and Afro-Caribbean struggles in Britain’, Race & Class (Vol. 23, nos 2/3, 1981/2).
7.
7 A protest march against the way the police repeatedly raided a black restaurant in Notting Hill led to the arrest of nine black militants, who then faced serious charges of riot and affray. The two-month trial at the Old Bailey was conducted by the state as a key ‘show trial’; for the black community, it became a symbol for black resistance and unity. In the event, only one of the nine was found guilty – on a minor charge. The Mangrove restaurant continued to be a meeting place for black activists – against the wishes of the local police.
8.
8 The history of this struggle has been written up in A. Sivanandan, Race and Resistance: the IRR story (London, IRR, 1974).
9.
9 A. Sivanandan, ‘Race, class and the state: the black experience in Britain’, Race & Class (Vol. 17, no. 4, 1976).
10.
10 See A. Sivanandan, ‘From resistance to rebellion’, op. cit.
11.
11 Secretary of State for the Home Office, Racial Discrimination (London, HMSO, 1975), Cmnd. 6234.
12.
12 The Brixton Disorders, 10–12 April 1981: report of an inquiry by … Lord Scarman (London, HMSO, 1981), Cmnd. 8427.
13.
13 Racial Discrimination, op. cit.
14.
14 The Brixton Disorders, op. cit.
15.
15 A. Sivanandan, ‘RAT and the degradation of black struggle’, Race & Class (Vol. 26, no. 4, 1985).
16.
16 The Brixton Disorders, op. cit.
17.
17 A. Sivanandan, ‘RAT and the degradation of black struggle’, op. cit.
18.
18 The definition which says that an incident is racial if it is perceived to be so by its victim or by any other witness, is not without its own problems. Although it was intended to prevent the police from ignoring black people who reported attacks, evidence is emerging that some police are logging any interracial crime as a racial incident and thereby skewing statistics about the nature of racial violence, even to the point of arguing that white people are its main victims. See ‘Police racism and crime figures’, CARF (No. 50, 1999) and J. Bourne, Counting the Cost: racial violence since Macpherson (London, IRR, 2001).
19.
19 The passing of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act, in November 2000, took place after some struggle by anti-racists. At first, the government tried to introduce for public bodies only half of the Act’s powers, i.e., those relating to direct discrimination and not indirect racism. However, after lobbying, the government has conceded that, as Macpherson had recommended, ‘the full force’ of the legislation be applied to all public bodies – although significantly it did leave leeway for the immigration service to discriminate under certain conditions.
20.
20 Stephen Lawrence Inquiry: home secretary’s action plan, March 1999, First Annual Report on Progress (London, Home Office, February 2000), Second Annual Report on Progress (London, Home Office, February 2001).
21.
21 Race and the Courts: a short practical guide for judges (London, Judicial Studies Board, 1999).
22.
22 See J. Bourne, Counting the Cost, op. cit. and ‘Racial motivation: now you see it, now you don’t’, CARF (No. 61, April 2001).
23.
23 In addition to the many reports brought out by individual organisations, the following reports, which assess whole sectors, reveal how resorting to old formulae has become the pattern that is followed: One Year On … and Counting: the challenge for voluntary action in London, one year after the inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence (London Boroughs Grants, 2000); Paved with Good Intentions? Local authority responses to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry: a survey of local authorities (April 2000) and A Survey of Local Authority Responses to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, Research Briefing Six (March 2001) on behalf of the Local Government Association, the Employers’ Organisation and the Improvement and Development Agency; and a report by IRS Research commissioned by the Commission for Racial Equality into key public sector bodies, reported in Connections (Spring 2001).
24.
24 See ibid.
25.
25 One Year On, op. cit.
26.
26 Ian A. Macdonald, Race Relations Act 1976 (London, Butterworths, 1977), para. 39.
27.
27 See, for example, Frank Palmer (ed.), Anti-racism – an Assault on Education and Value (London, Sherwood Press, 1986).
28.
28 This has been analysed by Arun Kundnani, ‘lsquo;lsquo;Stumbling on’’: race, class and England’, Race & Class (Vol. 41, no. 4, 2000).
29.
29 Robert Skidelsky, ‘The age of inequality’, in Institutional Racism and the Police: fact or fiction? (London, Institute for the Study of Civil Society, 2000).
30.
30 David Green, ‘Racial preferences are not the best way to create racial harmony’, in ibid.
31.
31 Norman Dennis, George Erdos and Ahmed Al-Shahi, Racist Murder and Pressure Group Politics (London, Institute for the Study of Civil Society, 2000).
32.
32 Melanie Phillips, ‘Now we know the truth: the police are not racist’, Sunday Times (24 September 2000).
33.
33 Speech delivered by William Hague to the Centre for Policy Studies, reported in the Daily Telegraph (15 December 2000).
34.
34 Sunday Telegraph (17 December 2000).
35.
35 Quoted in the Guardian (18 December 2000).
36.
36 ‘Wasting the Macpherson opportunity’, CARF (No. 53, January 2000).
37.
37 See A. Sivanandan, ‘The rise and fall of “institutional racism”’, CARF (No. 53, January 2000).
