The Race Equality Centre Leicester

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The Race Equality Centre in Leicester & Leicestershire
 Address: 3rd Floor, Epic House, Lower Hill Street, Leicester, LE13SH
Tel: 0116 2999800 
Fax: 0116 2999801
Online Contact Form

 

THE VERDICT

The Old Bailey returned the only possible verdict on the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence. The sentences, however, do not reflect the fact that these two men have been free from this outcome for longer than the length of Stephen’s life; a life that was ended because of his colour. These sentences are especially insufficient in the light of the continuing freedom of the other members of the racist gang.

 

The response of the police was also based on Stephen’s colour. It is ironic that it took the intervention of another Black man Nelson Mandela, to enable Stephen’s murder to be treated differently from those other unsolved racist deaths which barely get recognised (except by family and friends), and never get mentioned.

 

Recognition is also required of the family now split in two; the mental ill health of the key witness; the three/four remaining killers yet to adequately pay for their part in taking Stephen’s life.

 

Mrs Lawrence rightfully recognises the potential of institutions to pat themselves on the back at this outcome when she stated:

"The fact is that racism and racist attacks are still happening in this country. The police should not use my son's name to say that we can move on."

It is painfully wrong to see this as an unfortunate exercise which occurred in our capital for, the institutional racism (as highlighted within the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report) is perverse and prevails throughout the country.

 

It is also ironic in its similarity to the conditions that led to the definition of institutional racism by Carmichael and Hamilton in the sixties. They condemned those who only focused on the actions of extremists and bigots when looking to find racism in society. For Carmichael and Hamilton institutional racism is located in the pernicious maintenance of racial inequality by all structured institutions. Racism is found in the disproportionate rates of exclusion from schools (where recorded, it is three times higher for African heritage boys than their white counterparts; with anecdotal information suggesting unrecorded figures are higher still).

 

Race discrimination is evidenced in the disproportionate prevalence of life threatening illnesses; in differential rates of employment; as well as in the relationships with the police (recent analysis shows that black people are now 30 times more likely to be stopped by the police than white people).

 

It is the continuing inequality, poverty and discrimination experienced by racial minority communities that create the conditions whereby thugs like Dobson and Norris and their friends can get away with murdering Black boys for so long.

 

In Leicester we have a population of around 300,000 of which racial minority communities make up approximately 36%. Within these figures we can track disproportionate levels of inequality (from the cradle to the grave), and the arguments developed to explain away such levels. We can also track the myths of total harmony of race relations in this city. For example we know that racial harassment still persists at levels which undermine the argument of this City being totally harmonious and more so that other parts of the country. We also know that we shouldn’t wait for harassment to reach the levels of hate crime as experienced by Stephen Lawrence before we decide to act.

 

There is no doubt that the guilty verdict is a positive result. However, The Race Equality Centre hopes that this outcome is not seen as an end but rather, another reminder to those who simply pay lip service to equality that, until we all begin to ‘truthfully’ address this pernicious phenomenon which stunts our growth, the 18 years of pain suffered by the very dignified Mr and Mrs Lawrence, would have been in vain.