ASSORTED VIEWS ON RACISM

British racism is 400 years old. Queen Elizabeth I (around 1600) thought there were too many blacks in London (dumped there by slave ships) and wanted them deported. Successive governments routinely declare their abhorrence of racism but do not have the heart to eradicate it, so it persists to this day.

·       “Racism is an integral part of our culture - of the sense of Britishness… It is a pervasive atmosphere, endemic within the body (politic), so that to threaten racism is to threaten the stability of the unjust order of which it is a central part. 
      _____ Kenneth Leech, “Struggle in Babylon” (Sheldon Press 1988)                                   
       

·        “Racism is an integral part of western culture, especially in the English speaking countries… It should not be seen as a deviancy from the norms of the culture but central to it.”
     _____ S. Fernando, “Mental Health, Race & Culture” (Macmillan 1991)

·        “Britain must a) take action to stop racial violence, b) introduce laws banning racist organisations, c) improve police training & equipment to deal with race attacks, d) address discrimination against non-whites in employment and housing…”     
       _____ UN Committee on Race Discrimination, 1993                    
        

·       “A large number of manifestations of racism and racially motivated incidents directed against ethnic minorities continue to occur. Police brutality appears to affect members of minority groups disproportionately…allegations of police brutality are reportedly not vigorously investigated and the perpetrators not appropriately punished.”     

             _____ UN Report on Race Discrimination, 1996
       

·          “Racism in this country is institutionalised, widespread and routine. The UN comments on the government’s failure to address racist attacks, police brutality, discrimination in employment, education, housing and criminal justice are right on target”.

          _____ John Wadham, Director of Civil Liberties group,1996

·       “Every day, new incidents of racial harassment or violence are reported to the police. So many people’s lives are ruined by the constant threats and abuse they receive because of the colour of their skin.”                  
       _____ Jack Straw (Home Secretary), CRE Quarterly, Summer 97

·        “Racism exists within all organisations and institutions… it infiltrates the community and starts among the very young.”                              _____ William Macpherson Report (1999)

•  “Racism is deeply embedded in our culture – from the pub joke to the fire bomb that goes through the British Asian’s family door on a council estate. There’s still far too much racism and there’s no point denying it.”
           _____ Peter Hain (Foreign Office Minister), Independent (Oct 2000)

 ·          Institutional racism is still systemic in Britain’s police forces, politics and the media…deaths in custody are disproportionately high for ethnic minorities… (there are) consistent inflammatory attacks on migrants and asylum seekers to the UK…         
     _____  Report from the 43-nation Council of Europe  (April 2001)              
        
+++ State racism +++

Courts

·          The criminal courts are institutionally racist …that far more black young men than white are jailed cannot possibly be because they commit more crimes.       _____ Lord Justice Brooke (Senior Judge) [Daily Mail 4 Apr 00]

·          Black people are 6 times more likely than whites to be jailed, even for the first offence, according to a new survey. Almost a ¼ of Britain’s 72,400 jail pop come from ethnic minorities – though they are less than 10% of the pop. [S Worker, 4 Jan 03]

CPS

·          Institutional racism has been and continues to be at work in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)

                _____ Sylvia Denman, 18-month inquiry into CPS  (July 2001)

·          “I unreservedly accept the findings of the report; as an organization, the CPS has been institutionally racist.”

               _____ David Calvert-Smith, Director of Public Prosecutions (July 2001)

 Home Office

·          Earlier in 2000, both the Home Secretary (Jack Straw) and Home Minister (Mike O’Brien) admitted that the Home Office itself is institutionally racist. [Neither resigned of course]

·          ‘Discrimination in the civil service is a national shame’        Keith Vaz, Eastern Eye, 17 Oct 1997

·          Civil servants are fiddling stats on the number of blacks & Asians working for the govt to meet Blair’s targets. Documents shows % of ethnics employed as improved although the numbers have actually fallen.  [Mirror, 6 Nov 02]

Police

·         Criminologist Ben Bowling of Kings’ College published new research into the use of police powers under the Criminal Justice Act (1994) under which police can stop people even without any reasonable grounds for suspicion. It was aimed at tackling hooligans or illegal ravers but these powers are being used against ethnics – the research found that Asians are 18 times and Afro-Caribbeans 27 times more likely to be stopped than whites. [Socialist Worker 26 Apr 03]

Said Prof Bowling: ‘Wherever officers have the broadest discretion, you find the greatest discrimination. That’s where the police culture affects the decisions taken.’

·          3 years after the Stephen Lawrence inquiry (1999), statistics show that black people are 4 times more likely to be arrested – while whites are more likely to be cautioned. These figures appeared in a Home Office report. [D Mirror, 8 Nov 02]

·         Police chief admits: ‘We are still racist’ (Independent, 22 Apr 03)

In an interview to mark the 10^th anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the commander of the Met Police’s diversity directorate (anti-racist unit), Cressida Dick, conceded that Britain’s Met Police remains institutionally racist and unlikely ever to be free of institutional racism.

She added that few public and private institutions had done anything to change their institutional racism. Racist attitudes that would be unacceptable in London were often tolerated in cities outside London. “Not an institution out there can say: ‘We are not racist’ “

Prisons

·          Prison let racist inmate kill Asian teenager [S Worker, 4 Nov 00]

On 20 March 2000, Zahid Mubarek, 19, was beaten to death with a table leg by his cellmate, a violent racist at Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution, West London. He was due to be released the next day after a 90 days sentence for stealing razor blades from Sainsburys. Prison Director, Martin Narey, sent an apology to Zahid’s family, that he had ‘failed in his duty’  to protect their son.

In late 2000, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Race Discrimination (CERD) condemned Britain for the third time for continuing racism: number of racist attacks, stop & search police practices, immigration and asylum policies, poor representation of minorities in public life. More than 30 British human rights & ethnic minority groups had complained in a report to the UN Committee responsible for monitoring racism. Among other things, the report criticizes Ministers for failing to deal with police hostility to the findings of the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

The UN Committee meets every 3 years. There are 6 major areas of concern:

- no of race attacks have increased,  ethnic minorities are more likely to be stopped & searched

- immigration & asylum has become a threat to good race relations

- little improvement if ethnic rep in public life,  certain ethnic groups more likely to be unemployed.

Some Quotes

Guardian, 3 July 02

‘Of course all people are racist’ by Joseph Harker (a black man). Joseph.harker@guardian.co.uk

When the head of the CPS thought all British people were racist (quoted below), he was roundly condemned. I go further and say that all white people are racist.

I don’t mean they are all willful bigots but racism is a combination of prejudice & power. Globally, whites are the dominant group, and in politics, economics, media and all aspects of society, this power is used everyday.

At the highest level, when Bush tells the Palestinians they must choose a different leader, he is treating them as second class beings. The same is the case when western leaders deny fair trading terms to African countries. Every day, the white power structure makes decisions that impinge on black people. Last the Met police decided to allow people in Brixton unpunished if caught smoking dope. But why choose blacks as guinea pigs? The actions of those in power create a constant drip of negative images which seep into the national consciousness. Whenever a TV news report brings up unemployment, crimestats or school exclusion, a black face is bound to come up. Hasn’t this negative imagery been normalised (or banalised) in your own mind?

Last week, a train crash in Tanzania killing 200 people received the tiniest of mentions. What does this say of the value of black life? Is the media to blame? Editors know that their readers care for non-white lives - they see the evidence in their sales. Take the World Cup: the Egyptian & Ecuador referees were treated as second rate but no the Scottish official who missed a blatant goal-line handball.

Purporting not to notice colour differences ie to be colour blind is as nonsensical as not noticing gender.

From birth we receive a stream of subliminal messages about race. White people need to accept that . no matter how many anti-racist demos they have marched on, their views & opinions are influenced by a racist society. Institutional racism is now an accepted term. But it is not the institutions but the people in it who perpetuate inequalities by their actions.

As a black man, I am bound to suffer from prejudices of my own but I cannot be racist. Because I do not belong to the dominant group. If I were to mistreat a white man, the weight of the white power structure would come down on me. This same force does not come to the aid of black people.

Dr Wilfred Wood, (black) Bishop of Croydon (January/March 2000):

“Blacks may be in the society but they are not part of the society… Britain has not seen the like (abuse of asylum seekers by politicians) since Enoch Powell deliberately whipped up race hatred…”

Dr A Sivanandan, Director of London’s Institute of Race Relations (Jan 2000):

“It is the state that sets the tone of race relations in society. By refusing to outlaw racism within its own structures, the state gives a fillip to popular racism and contaminates civil society… It is the racism of the state that needs to be addressed first…”

Lee Jasper, Secretary of National Assembly Against Racism:

“One year from the Lawrence Report, the record is dismal. We see racism in front of our faces everyday…”

Claude Moraes, Member of European Parliament (Feb 2000):

“The EU member states cannot take the moral high ground… the thin veneer of civilization strips away to reveal the ugly face of race hatred…”