Britain has 'new attitude to race'
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Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, (EHRC), said there was still work to do but he believed Britain was now in a "different place" since the 1999 inquiry into the teenager's death labelled the Metropolitan Police "institutionally racist".
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Attitudes towards different races have changed "dramatically" since the findings of the landmark inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence and it is now time to move on to new challenges, a leading equality campaigner said.
Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, (EHRC), said there was still work to do but he believed Britain was now in a "different place" since the 1999 inquiry into the teenager's death labelled the Metropolitan Police "institutionally racist".
"The Macpherson inquiry, the Stephen Lawrence inquiry 10 years ago, was a great shock to the system, it shook people out of their complacency," he told BBC Breakfast.
"It meant that we had new laws and I think we have had a new attitude. That means, for example, that the police have changed in their behaviour quite dramatically. Nothing is perfect, there is still a lot of work to do, but we are in a different place to where we were before."
Mr Phillips's comments were made in advance of a keynote speech he will give in central London marking the 10th anniversary into the inquiry into the 1993 racist murder of the black teenager at a bus stop in Eltham, south east London.
His views have been expressed after the EHRC commissioned research showing that one in 10 children in the UK is now part of a mixed-race family. The study predicted that, if current trends continued, some ethnic minorities may disappear as people from mixed-race backgrounds become increasingly common.
Mr Phillips said Britain is in a "new situation" and is a more diverse country.He said attitudes between individuals were "much better" than any other country in Europe.
Mr Phillips was asked to comment about the controversy surrounding Prince Harry over his use of the term "Paki" three years ago to describe a Pakistani platoon member.
"On the issues of language, you know we can get a little bit out of shape here on the particular issue of the young Household Cavalry officer that everybody is concerned about," he told BBC Breakfast. "I think the Army has got pretty good disciplinary methods, they will deal with this.
"What it does tell us is that in some places there is a kind of old-fashioned attitude which essentially through what Samuel Johnson once called a 'thousand acts of unkindness' can create an atmosphere or a culture that puts people at a disadvantage. We have to move on from that too."
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Comments
Increasing numbers of immigrants, not just from former colonies, but from Eastern Europe, are causing more people to feel the need to voice a "Britain for the British". We do not welcome multiculturism, any more than Tony Blairs 24 hour drinking was ever going to bring in a European "cafe style" drinking culture.
Why cannot the politicians accept that British people are proud to be what they are and do not wish to have this country diluted by outsiders and laws and practices from the EU and others.
I think that race is no longer as polarising as it once was. People don't go around calling me golliwog or nigger any more but that doesn't mean that the attitudes that existed in 1993 don't still exist.
I grow tired of Trevor Phillips, constantly coming out with these inept and illogical speeches. The Poster boy for how far we have come and how understanding we now are.
I still have a far, far greater chance of being stopped and searched as a black ethnic minority then a white individual. upon leaving education at any level I will receive a lower wage and income then a white applicant with the same qualifications (statistically). I will always have to go through life defined by my race 1st regardless of what merit or qualification I receive. And I will always be seen as an advocate or representative of my race.
While some attitudes may have changed. Some very racist views still purvey society to this day. All that has happened is those who express these views do it under the guise of political correctness or this upsurge in "British values". Suddenly I am just the child of immigrants and not a member of this country and so shouldn't voice dissatisfaction with a system I find slightly troubling and should just be grateful and consider myself lucky. Being more fortunate then the other white children who just happened to be born here.
I think just after the McPherson report, race relations seemed at its most optimistic and multicultralism seemed to be the way forward. Our grievances had not only been recognised at a high level but proposals had been put into place to deal with the situation. Now it seems like terrorism has washed away the effects.
Scots are still bashing English people in Scotland and the Welsh are throwing stones at English holidaymakers.
Still Anglophobia and kuffarphobia are accepted prejudices.
I don't suppose it's much fun being a Jew in Britain at the moment either.
How ever as a Londoner it is pretty clear:
Those from Ethnic minorities still fail in education disproportionately
The Met which the EHCR references via the Macpherson Report has gone through an event which has seen the Black Police Association cut ties from the force.
I am not blind to notice that a worrying number of those who die from knife crime are young black men.
Not all of these will be based on purely race alone. They are however a good indicator that, yes while may be Mr Phillips is right in the sense we have moved away from the days when a young black man can be killed in cold blood and no justice served upon him, we still have some serious challenges facing Britain and its race relations.
I suggest you go and speak to people from ethnic minorities and asked them whether they feel attitude and race has so fundamentally changed in the last 10yrs? And then put there opinion on paper.
I can quote cases from friends/family where the Plod will not get off their arses to investigate theft if it is by an ethnic - they are terrified of being accused of "institutional racism" (which idea is a logical nonsense).
What Britain needs is an Indigineous British Equality Commission to protect White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Men. It will never happen. Because of all this nonsense, I fear that A BNP-type-Government will be coming to a Parliament near you in the not-so-distant future.
End of racism? That sounds familiar. Didn't Francis Fukuyama say something like that once?