News & Views

A digest of news, information, ideas and opinions to keep you up-to-date on the Black Experience in Britain, and world wide.

Lawrence report topped the British Press Headlines

The report of an inquiry into the death of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence was the top story of the week of its release February 21-27 1999, in Britain's main papers: the Guardian, the Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Independent, the Sunday Times, the Observer and the Daily Mail, in column inches

Story	Column inches
Lawrence report	4629
P.M. Blair and the euro	957
Genetically Modified Food	869
Kosovo talks	722
Austrian avalanche	392
Nigerian elections	246

The National Newspapers' Views
"Professional incompetence, institutional racism, and a failure of leadership by senior officers," was the damning conclusion of Sir William MacPherson's long-awaited report of the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry.

According to the Guardian: This "volume of shame" has "forced us all to take a long, uncomfortable look in the mirror".

The Independent said: "an ugly truth is implied: in Britain today there is one law for white people and another for black"

The Daily Mail, the Daily Express and The Daily Telegraph were unimpressed with the reports' charge of police institutional racism. They saw little evidence of the police force being "consciously and deliberately biased in its training, management, promotion, prosecution and arrest policies". If anything, said the Express "most British forces bend rather too hard the other way." As reported in The Guardian Editor supplement, Feb. 27, 1999.

"Misguided and unfair" says The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph February 25th called the report "misguided and unfair"and went on to say: "By saying that all white-dominated public institutions are likely to be racist, Mr. Straw (the Home Secretary who called for the inquiry) has played into the hands of those who wish to undermine our respect for our own society. This is very bad for race relations, because it encourages ethnic minorities to cultivate an even greater sense of grievance and because it breeds in the white majority a corresponding resentment that it is considered guilty unless proved innocent."

Enoch Powell

Echoes of Enoch Powell
Fears that calls for action against racism will tax the tolerance of whites have a striking resemblance to Enoch Powell's attack on the 1960's Race Relations Bill. Powell criticised the Commonwealth black immigrants and their supporters "who vociferously demand legislation as they call it 'against discrimination'" while the existing population "found themselves made strangers in their own country."

Powell, it should be recalled, went on to play his now discredited trans-Atlantic race card in a speech in Birmingham, 20th April 1968. "As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see 'the River Tiber foaming with much blood'. That tragic and intractable phenomenon which we watch with horror on the other side of the Atlantic but which there is interwoven with the history and existence of the States itself, is coming upon us here by our own volition and our own neglect. Indeed. it has all but come. In numerical terms, it will be of American proportions long before the end of the century. Only resolute and urgent action will avert it even now. Whether there will be the public will to demand and obtain that action, I do not know. All I know is that to see, and not to speak, would be the great betrayal." (Freedom and Reality by Enoch Powell, London: B.T.Batsford paperfront edition, Ch.13. Immigration.1969).

Prominent Blacks comment on inquiry report and proposed Stephen Lawrence Day. Interviews compiled by staff of The Independent 28 February 1999

"Anything that acts as a marker for British society is a good thing."

"Something positive can come of this if people are willing to take action."

"The inquiry report is actually very bland and there is very little that is concrete in it."

"I'm all for it. If the memory of Stephen Lawrence means anything then we must see action quickly."

"Why not have a day like Windrush day that would celebrate what West Indians have brought to this country."

Many schools are institutionally racist, despite the best intentions of their teachers, inspectors said yesterday, after criticising underachievement among ethnic-minority pupils...Equal opportunities policies had had limited impact".

In the wake of the MacPherson report on the inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder, attention is turning from race relations within the police force towards other British institutions, including universities. Are they too guilty of institutional racism? The answer this week would seem to be yes.

"In Britain, racism is absolutely endemic in a lot of different forms," says Lola Young, black professor of English at Middlesex University. "It goes from the violence of racially motivated murder all the way to white women who move their handbags when I stand close to them," says Prof. Young.

"British society, according to an official report, is "infected" with racism, and although America is much the same, things are gradually getting better, for nowadays most institutional racism amounts to legal violation."

Many top firms are institutionally racist, according to Independent survey
When asked, Britain's top employers admitted to "some degree of institutional racism" as that identified in the police force by the Stephen Lawrence inquiry report. Most admit that their ethnic workers are in the low to middle-ranking jobs. Few however were going to review their policies as a result of the report. Surveyed by the Independent were Unilever, the Bar Council, the Law Society. McDonald's. Virgin. Dixons, the Armed Services. Boots chemists, the Church of England, BT, Marks and Spencer, the BBC, the London Fire Brigade, Lloyds/TSB banking, and British Airways.

Furthermore, in the wake of the Lawrence inquirey, politicians have courted the black vote. In interviews with the black press Government and Opposition leaders, Tony Blair and William Hague, told The Voice, a leading black newspaper with a circulation of 45,000, they want more black people to join political parties. "I accept that black people have been disappointed and disillusioned with the political process," said Mr. Blair

William Hague admitted: "The Conservative Party has not done enough to win the support and commitment of many of Britain's ethnic minority groups. I do not expect people to turn to my party overnight, but we are adopting a more vigorous approach to recruitment from the ethnic minorities." (See The Independent 26 February 1999).

Black leadership challenge in Basketball

Patricia Fairclough is that rarity in British sport - a black administrator. She is now director for women of the English Basketball Association. Fairclough, after 15 years in the sport, has fought her way through the hedgerows of prejudice and jealousy to become one of only a handful of sports leaders from an ethnic minority. And she is still fighting.

"Being from a minority means you have to push that much harder," said Ms Fairclough in the Independent on Sunday. It was also noted that in basketball, where some 30 per cent of participants are black, the governing bodies, officials and owners and managers remain older, white men. A similar situation prevails in the national Central Council of Physical Recreation, whose 24-member executive does not include a single black person.

Football clubs fail to protect players and fans from racism.

Most football clubs are failing to implement adequate anti-racist policies while racism within amateur levels of the game is worsening, according to the annual report published yesterday by the Let's Kick Racism Out of Football Campaign, says the Guardian March 4, 1999.

Singer seeks London political office

Patti Boulaye

The 44-year-old singer and actress Patti Boulaye was supported by William Hague, Tory leader, as a potential Conservative party candidate for the new London authority to rule the capital city. Miss Boulaye, who now must be officially selected to run in May 2000, said she "wants particularly to win over the black and minority vote", according to The Times, 5 March 1999. In a subsequent interview Miss Boulaye embarrased the Conservatives and angered the Labour party with her remarks that the Lawrence killers "were either Labour voters or National Front supporters".

Moira Stuart axed

Moira Stuart, the BBC's only black national newsreaders, is to be dropped from the Six O'Clock News, writes Richard Brooks in The Observer, 28 February 1999. The veteran newscaster, with more than 20 years in the business, has fronted main BBC television news bulletins since 1981 and was voted newscaster of the year in 1988. Stuart is said to be particularly angry the BBC has made no announcement that she will be removed in May, when the programme is revamped.

Racism at United Nations

The United Nations Secretariat, already accused of favoring men over women in senior decision-making jobs, now faces new charges of racial discrimination against staff members. Two African nations - Uganda and Cote d'Ivoire - say the Secretariat discriminates against staff members on grounds of race and color - charges the Secretariat has denied.

"Some of us are greatly disturbed by reports that staff members of color, especially those of African descent, have a perception they are discriminated against," says Nester Odaga-Jalomayo of Uganda. "This is a very sensitive issue for us."

U.N. staffers are divided into two broad categories: General Service, comprising staffers who are mostly secretaries, messengers and clerks, and Professionals who are mostly political officers, economists, analysts and information officers. Those in the senior decision-making posts are directors and related officials.

Complaints of discrimination are mostly about the low representation of African nationals in professional and senior positions.

Thanks, but no thanks, say Cayman islanders

"Welcome to Britain. But Cayman islanders say its better at home," reports The Independent 18 March 1999. "Move to England?" laughed Marcia Chittenden, almost scornfully. "Why would anyone want to leave the Cayman islands? It's beautiful here." Her remarks followed the announcement by Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, that residents of Britain's Overseas Territories - some 150,000 people in the last remnants of the empire - are to be granted citizenship, with the right to move to Britain and travel freely in the European Community.

In response to this promise, Britain's 13 Overseas Territories (formerly the Dependent Territories) would have to modernise their human rights legislation. This will mean reviewing the death penalty for homosexual acts (considered an "ungodly crime in five Caribbean territories), corporal punishment to deter hooliganism and juvenile crime, the death penalty for piracy and treason, and introducing new laws targeting money launderers and drug traffickers. Poverty-stricken residents of St Helena have long been campaigning for rights of citizenship, and residents of Montserrat, devastated by volcanoes in 1996 and twice in 1997, may also be ready to leave.

The Americas

Black reunion in the Americas

In an unprecedented Black World initiative, The Organisation of Africans in the Americas (OAA) will hold a Reunion Of The Black Family In Latin America at a conference in Barlovento, Venezuela, July 6-13, 1999.

Representatives will discuss the Status of Black Communities in Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico.

This first major event of its kind in the Black World will:

• Highlight Afro-Latino perspectives on the African Diaspora;
• Enact a Declaration of Rights of Peoples of African Descent in the Americas; and
• Showcase Afro-Latino style cultures, dances and foods.

Participants from all realms of the African Diaspora are invited to "come and learn; build bridges of friendship; and enjoy a whole new cultural experience".

Europe

New laws on German citizenship - But how will Blacks fare?

In a landmark reform of its citizenship laws, the German Parliament has passed a long-awaited bill making it easier for foreign immigrants and their children to become German citizens. Older established communities of immigrants and gasterbeiters (guest-workers) from Italy, Spain and Portugal are expected to welcome the new laws. Some sections of Germany's two million-strong Turkish immigrant communities feel the bill will counter racism. African immigrant and resident communities, particularly thousands of Ghanaians, have maintained a cautious silence.

The new citizenship law, passed in early May in the Lower House by 365 votes to 184 against, cuts a century long link between German ethnic-blood ties and nationality by granting automatic citizenship to foreigners born in Germany.

Next year when the new law comes into force, children born to foreign immigrants will automatically receive German citizenship at birth. They will have the right to keep their parents' nationality too, until the age of 23 when they will have to choose which passport to keep. Foreign residents will also have easier access to citizenship, with the period for naturalisation cut from 15 years to just eight.

Supporters see the new law as a big step forward in accepting that Germany has become a multi-cultural society. However, this may be no more than a pious hope.

Opposition conservative parties gathered five million signatures for their petition against dual nationality which they said would lead to split loyalties and hinder integration. Neo-nazi groups remain adamantly opposed to immigrants and especially Africans, as demonstrated again in April when the Ghanaian writer-poet Ms. Amma Darko was attacked by youth mobs during her speaking tour in east Germany.

Is Walcott Britain's Poet Laureate in Waiting?

Born in 1930 in St Lucia, British West Indies, poet and playwright Derek Walcott has over four decades hewn an artistic vision from the realities and enigmas of the Caribbean. Although widely tipped as a favourite for the vacant Poet Laureateship in Britain, Walcott sees himself primarily as a Caribbean writer wrestling with the ongoing issues of territory and tradition, empire and history, city and rural life.