Two years after Macpherson reported into the handling of the Stephen Lawrence case, the Institute of Race Relations reports that racial violence is becoming more serious and prevalent. Nineteen people have lost their lives in the UK in racially motivated attacks since February 1999. Increasingly, serious racial violence is being perpetrated against members of newly-arrived and asylum- seeker communities. Despite the fact that half of Macpherson's recommendations were about racial violence, es...read more
Two years after Macpherson reported into the handling of the Stephen Lawrence case, the Institute of Race Relations reports that racial violence is becoming more serious and prevalent. Nineteen people have lost their lives in the UK in racially motivated attacks since February 1999. Increasingly, serious racial violence is being perpetrated against members of newly-arrived and asylum- seeker communities. Despite the fact that half of Macpherson's recommendations were about racial violence, especially how the police and Crown Prosecution Service should act over such cases, families of victims remain dissatisfied with the lack of will to take such racism seriously. Commissioned for London Boroughs Grants - a funder for London's voluntary sector - this report, Counting the cost, suggests that, although most voluntary groups are beginning to tackle the ways their personnel and structures contribute to an inadvertent racism, in line with Macpherson's definition of 'institutional racism', they have yet to meet the challenge of racial violence. Advocacy and support from community groups, concludes the report can, "transform a case into an issue. And the issue, in turn, can influence the policy agenda."
