How far we have come and how far we have to go
Having only moved to the UK in 2010, I was relatively unaware of the Stephen Lawrence case and subsequent Macpherson inquiry until a couple of days ago. Since then, I have spent a disproportionate amount of time manically reading articles, commentaries, reports, watching documentaries and listening to radio programmes. What shocked me the most is that I had always believed (in the words of Trevor Philips) that "this country remains a beacon to every society struggling with the challenge of ethnic diversity," yet, as recently as 1993, things were decidedly not so.
Most of what I read vaguely agreed with the view that there was an "unwitting, unintentional and unconscious" yet very real racism permeating Britain and in particular, the Met. The Times, The Guardian and The Independent all broadly agreed that despite an initial knee-jerk reaction, there was a very conscious decision by the press, specifically the Daily Mail, to champion the case and to stand behind the Lawrence family. Overwhelmingly, the coverage was positive and hinted and the real changes that have been made, again, to paraphrase Trevor Philips, even the small changes in attitudes matter just as much as broad sweeping change.
There were a couple of views, however, that I found somewhat alarming and sat in stark contrast to the rest. In a commentary in The Daily Telegraph, Philip Johnston argued that changes in the Met impaired the way police tackled crime, which he believes is to the "detriment of the law-abiding majority," and even goes so far as to say that the events that triggered the London riots "can be traced to the criticism the police faced for failing to catch Stephen Lawrence." As well as essentially saying that the Met are now too scared of appearing racist to function as an effective police force, another article, this time appearing under 'Telegraph View', mocks many of the initiatives which were launched as a result of the findings of the Macpherson inquiry. It lambastes the "pernicious culture" that developed and reasons that practices whereby "allegedly racist remarks uttered innocently by children as young as five" were recorded are "totally out of proportion to the problem."
The problem with views such as these is that they treat racism and xenophobia as things that are finished, dealt with and completely dormant in British society. Yes, there is such a thing as 'political correctness gone mad' but allowing children to "innocently" utter racist remarks does not fall under this category. To accept that people should be able to make apparently "inappropriate" yet "harmless" remarks is not very far off teaching people that it is ok to be racially offensive, so long as you are careful with your words and mask it as humour. Although we have come a long way, we live a country where people like those seen in "My Tram Experience" still exist and innocent people like Anuj Bidve can still be gunned down in the street, and we clearly have a long way to go.
At the risk of sounding trite, one of the things that I love the most about Britain is that so many Brits are incredibly interested, engaging and forward-thinking. In my family alone, I am constantly surprised by how passionately committed people are and that they are forever questioning our ideas, values and institutions. I would hate to see the efforts of those people dismissed by a minority who insist on adhering to outdated and frankly dangerous views, especially when we have seen so clearly the devastating consequences that they can have.