| EDGES MAGAZINE Issue 18 | Jul-Aug 1999 |
| INSTITUTIONAL RACISM | |
| Bishop Ambrose Griffiths is the Bishop of Hexham & Newcastle |
We
all naturally assume that we are not personally guilty of racism. But we
should not be so confident. It is all too easy to cause hurt to others
and even discriminate against them without realising that we are doing
so. Through thoughtlessness, ignorance or unwitting prejudice we can
slip into ways of speaking, or behaving, which show disrespect to people
whose culture, colour or ethnic origin differs from our own. It may be
no more than the way we express ourselves, or the jokes we tell, but
these can be surprisingly hurtful, especially if they become habitual.
We need to be more sensitive to the feelings of those who are, in truth,
our brothers and sisters. We should not think that while institutional racism has been found in some police forces, the rest of us are innocent. The Police are recruited from society and are affected by its attitudes. We all need to reflect on our behaviour rather than to spend our time condemning others. The death of an innocent teenager, Stephen Lawrence, on the streets of London, is a terrible thing but even that would have gone largely unnoticed if it had not been for heroic courage and dogged perseverance of his parents, Doreen and Neville Lawrence. We owe them a deep debt of gratitude, though we are aware that nothing can undo their terrible loss, or their appalling experience over the past six years. Their fight for justice has led to the Macpherson Report, with its valuable descriptive definition of institutional racism as " the collective failure of an organisation to provide appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour, which amounts to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantge minority ethnic people". The Report made many valuable and practical recommendations, including its comment that racism "in its most subtle form is as damaging as in its overt form.
" Racism is an example of "structural sin" which Pope John Paul II reminds us is "the result of the accumulation and concentration of many personal sins of those who cause or support evil or who exploit it; of those who are in a position to avoid, eliminate or at least limit certain social evils but who fail to do so... of those who take refuge in the effort and sacrifice required." Racism is against the Gospel of Jesus Christ which teaches us all to value and cherish every single member of the human race. We now have a great opportunity to take a significant step forward in eliminating this evil from our society. We must make full use of it and work together with all people of goodwill for a change of heart and to learn to value cultural diversity in our country, recognising that there is only one human race in which different cultures enhance the quality of life for all people.
