I am a full time legal professional with twenty years experience in the legal profession. I am an experienced academic researcher and I have worked on various research projects that require expertise in UK law and other jurisdictions. I presently work as a self employed legal consultant. I was previously a partner in a solicitor’s firm in London. As a legal consultant, I have worked on numerous research projects for a number of top-flight international law firms. I have an LLM in International law and I am will soon start a PhD programme with one of the UK ivory league institutions.

Discuss whether the concept of 'institutionalised racism' has relevance, and give topical examples to support your argument.

Introduction
The then Home Secretary, Mr. Jack Straw in July 1997, constituted an inquiry led by Sir William Macpherson to chair an inquiry in to matters arising from the death of a black teenage , Stephen Lawrence, who was stabbed to death in an unprovoked racist attack in London, on 22 April 1993, by five white youths. The commission of inquiry defined institutional racism as, "the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be attitudes, and behaviours seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage ethnic minority people". (Macpherson Report, 1999, Para. 6.34).

Institutional racism may manifest its self in various forms. It encourages the design and support of systems that exclude or limit services, jobs and opportunity to black and minority ethnic people. (Barking- Dagenham Council, Corporate Equalities Framework and Strategy, May 2007). This essay will discuss whether the concept of institutional racism has relevance, and gives topical example to support the argument. I will start by defining the concept of institutional racism.

What is institutional racism?
The term institutional racism denotes societal patterns that have the net effect of imposing oppressive or otherwise negative conditions against identifiable groups on the basis of their race or ethnicity. (Tom Head, 2008).

There are many forms of inequality which deny fairness to people. They disadvantage one group as against another in a way which ignores merit. The concept of institutional racism has been used for sometime to describe unjustifiable ethnic minority disadvantage within organizations. It recognises that an organisation may not have the intention to act in a racist way; however its culture and structures indicate that patterns of recruitment, advancement in the organisation and service delivery may result in people from racial minorities being disadvantaged. (Green, D et al, 2000, p.27-28).

Institutional racism is about, “stereotyping; it is about being unwitting; it is about ignorance; it is about failing to recognise a racist/hate crime; it is about not listening or understanding and not being interested in listening or understanding; it is about white presence and black people seen as a problem”. (Green, D et al, 2000, p.14).

In one sad case that illustrates the concept of institutional racism, the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield accepted in July 1999, kidneys for transplantation from a donor who insisted that the recipient of the kidney should be white. In order words, the donor made the recipient’s colour a condition and sadly the General Hospital accepted Howitt and Owusu- Bempah (1990) sums up the concept of institutional racism. They refer to it as a new racism characterised as being a far more complex and subtle form of racism which, lacks the traditional emotive denigration of black people.

Example of an institution that has been branded racist

(1) Metropolitan Police Service.
Stephen Lawrence was a black teenager who was stabbed to death in April 1993. An inquiry led by Sir William Macpherson was set up to examine the original Metropolitan Police investigation. The Commission concluded that the Metropolitan Police was institutionally racist.

The inquiry was highly critical of the Metropolitan Police and how they carried out its investigation in to the murder of the black teenager. They found so many flaws with the investigation and also with the attitude of the police officers that carried out the investigation. The inquiry also saw a significant under-reporting countrywide of racial incidents, occasioned largely by a lack of confidence in the police and their perceived unwillingness to take such incidents seriously. Finally, there was a failure on the part of the Metropolitan Police Service to provide training in racism awareness and race relations to its staff. (Macpherson Report, 1999, Para. 6.45)

The Metropolitan Police Service has introduced a lot of changes in order to meet the diverse needs of the community that it serves and in order to address some of the allegations that the Macpherson inquiry raised. The Metropolitan Police Service in November 1999 launched its Diversity Strategy, Protect and Respect, in order to develop an anti-racist police service, to improve the recruitment and advancement of minority officers, to improve the investigation and prevention of racist crime. (Green, D et al, 2000, p.15).

Despite the laudable measures put in place by the Metropolitan Police Service, the issue of institutional racism reared its ugly head again in the screening of a BBC documentary. A film featuring footage of new police recruits at a training centre in Cheshire, showed an officer making racist remarks and others using such terms as "nigger" and "paki" on a regular basis.

(Can be assessed http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3203587.stmassessed on 2/08/2008)

Conclusion
The Macpherson inquiry brought the issue of institutional racism to the surface. There have been many changes since the Macpherson report in order to stamp out institutional racism. A lot of work has been done, but more needs to be done, in order to ensure that people are treated fairly because they are human beings and not because of their colour.

I do not subscribe to the notion that Britain is an institutionally racist society. Britain is not a society that knowingly, as a matter of policy, discriminates against black people, however, public bodies as well as private individuals sometimes unwittingly discriminates against black people.

Finally, the concept of institutionalised racism has relevance. Our society is a multicultural and multiracial society and many people are from ethnic minority groups. However, the government has put a lot of legislation in place to ensure that this concept of institutional racism is eliminated from our system. It will take time, but slowly and surely, I believe it will happen.

Bibliography
Green, D.G (2000) Institutional Racism and the police: Fact or Fiction?, Cromwell press, Wiltshire.

Howitt, D and Owusu- Bempah, J (1990) The pragmatics of institutional racism: beyond words, Human relations, Vol.43 No.9  

Kovel, J (1970) White Racism A Psychohistory, Pantheon Books, New-York

Neyroud, P & Beckley, A (2001) Policing, Ethics and Human Rights, Willian Publishing, Devon

Saggar, S (1992) Race and Politics in Britain, Campus 400, Hertfordshire

Smith, J. D (1977) Racial Disadvantage in Britain, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth

Solomos, J (2003) Race and Racism in Britain, Third Edition, Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke