Following the McPherson report and subsequent Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 there is no need for further legislative initiatives to address issues of race equality. Discuss

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Following the McPherson report and subsequent Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 there is no need for further legislative initiatives to address issues of race equality.” Discuss.

Racism in general terms consists of conduct or words or practices which disadvantage or advantage people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. In its more subtle form it is as damaging as in its overt form. 

The issue of race relations has received little serious attention since recently by social science scholars in Britain. It could be suggested this spark of initiative was a result of the Stephen Lawrence murder, from which the Macpherson report resulted.

Prior to the Macpherson report and the Race Relations Amendment Act (RRAA) 2000, there have been many pieces of legislation. Through the years there has been a development of anti-discrimination legislation which was aimed at promoting greater equality of opportunity for black people. Critically engaging with the time line of successive governments and the substantive law passed under them, I wish to illustrate whether or not the legislation has worked in the interests of ethnic minorities. This will then show whether the steps taken since Macpherson and the RRAA 2000 in order to address race equality, have worked comparatively against previous measures from the 1960s onwards.

Equality is defined as being in the state or quality of being equal. This essay endeavours to assess whether there is need for further statutory support to achieve racial equality after the Macpherson Report and the RRAA 2000.

The politics of immigrations since 1945 shows that successive governments have attempted to regulate the arrival of black migrants through immigration legislation. The arrival of these migrants was seen as a legitimisation of the legislative measures taken and ultimately institutionalised controls on immigrants, leading to exclusion based on skin colour.

The history of the legislation started with the British Nationality Act 1948, which was a result of the independence of India. This made a formal distinction between British subjects who were citizens of the UK and colonies and commonwealth citizens. Both of these categories were allowed to enter, settle and work in Britain. This could be seen as a strategy of using immigrants as a cheap labour force. However, most of the immigrants at this point were from the Caribbean and of Black decent, which was perceived as a problem as the British felt uncomfortable with their presence. The reaction of the government was finding ways to reduce immigration. The first riots occurring in 1958 in Notting Hill and Nottingham sparked the revision of the British Nationality Act 1948. This led to the abandonment of the free entry principle. There was a link between immigration and the social aspects of the colour problem. This theme was established and transmitted and ultimately proved influential in the creation of immigration control legislation and RRAs.

As much as Britain desired to put a stop on immigration in the 1960s, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 while still in Bill form was being reluctantly put forward by Parliament. This is because the legislation blatantly excluded black people which would have been an embarrassment to Britain as head of the Commonwealth and colonies. It could potentially create a divide of public opinion and insinuate a cast of doubt about the legality of controls based on colour in British and international law. The Conservative party were in favour of these immigration controls and used coded language against the ethnic migrants.  This then led to the enactment of the Bill. However, to mask the true intention of the Bill, William Deedes stated that the restrictions were to also apply to white migrants as well as black ones. This was evident later on though that this Act in no way stopped immigration from Australia, Canada and New Zealand. An argument for imposing restrictions on black migrants from the Conservatives was that there was only limited ability of the host society to assimilate black migrants. This sparked the media and Labour to attack the Bill as they saw crude racist pressures.

The 1962 Act had the provision that allowed UK citizens living in independent commonwealth countries with UK passports to be exempt from controls. These included many east African Asian from Kenya and Uganda. This, however, led to the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968, in which the mass immigration was restricted. The conditions on which the immigrants could enter the country were less lenient with rules and regulations on those who had British passports.

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The Macpherson report was an inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence, a teenager of Jamaican origin who was killed by an unprovoked racially motivated attack. After police negligence and other careless mistakes during the investigation, five suspects were arrested but never convicted of the crime. The Lawrence family filed a formal complaint with the Police Complaints Authority. The Home secretary ordered a public investigation to be carried out and the results of this inquiry were compiled into what is now a ground-breaking document in the Macpherson report.

The Macpherson report found that the initial Metropolitan Police ...

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