The second article agrees with the first on the idea that the report does little to define what racism is and also little to help improve it. It does however disagree that white people cannot suffer racism. It states in the article that the reason for racist attacks against white people is due to fear on behalf of ethnic minorities. Chahal’s argument is that you have to be in the minority to experience racism and though demographically in the whole of Great Britain this is the case, in some areas, in some cities it is in fact true that white people are in the minority. In these areas white people are attacked but this could be due to factors such as resentment for past experiences and in some cases down to retaliation. In these areas such as Oldham where reports of racist violence are attacks on whites by Asians, this could be explained by the fact that Asians find reporting racist incidents against them useless. Though the articles differ on whether of not white people can suffer racism, the underlying theme in both of them is the same- ethnic minorities are at a disadvantage in the legal system.
The article also states that in order to begin to deal with racism it has to be acknowledged more widely. People have to accept that institutional racism exists and is a problem. The Macpherson report does not just imply institutional racism only takes place in the police. As a further example it is present in other parts of the criminal justice system. “…black defendants were, for example, more likely than whites to receive prison sentences in magistrates’ courts, and both they and Asian defendants were more likely to be committed to the Crown Court for trial.” (Ray, Smith and Wastell ’99). The third article also agrees that institutional racism needs to be looked at further. A clear definition of what it is needs to be made so that the term can stop being used so loosely.
The article by Ray, Smith and Wastell mentions how the police involved in the Stephen Lawrence case responded poorly to the situation. This is a factor also mentioned in the final article and Solomos states that the reason for this was “ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping.”
According to Solomos, the report says that racism exists but it does not attempt to see where it comes from. This is a major hindrance as Solomos feels that in order to deal with racism now and in the future, you must first establish where it began, its roots, before anything else. This is a theme that runs throughout the article. There is a line in the Macpherson report, which says that the incident that led to the murder of Stephen Lawrence was only a few seconds (The Macpherson Report cited in Solomos 1999). Solomos believes that what led to Stephen Lawrence’s murder was a much longer period than this, a number of years, all the years that racism has occurred in the past.
All three articles agree that the Macpherson Report makes some major points though some have been made in other reports before and it also makes “recommendations…about general policies on race relations, racism, education, social policy…” (Solomos 1999). The problem is that “policies…look good on paper” Ray, Smith Wastell 1999) but are hard to implement. The report admits racism is out there but does little to say how it should be dealt with.
Bibliography
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Chahal, K (1999) ‘The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report, Racist Harassment and Racist Incidents: Changing Definitions, Clarifying Meaning?’
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Ray, L, Smith, D and Wastell, L (1999) ‘The Macpherson Report:: A View from Greater Manchester’
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Solomos, J (1999) ‘Social Research and the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry’
