itself and powerful institutions of responsibility - arguably ‘gas-lighting’ 2 those whose
lived experience says differently. Institutional racism goes ‘hand in glove’ with
structural racism. Institutional racism refers to racism via discriminatory action or
inaction through ‘unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist
stereotyping’. It persists because of a failure of leadership to ‘address its existence’
within institutions such as: government, systems of justice or policing, or the NHS.
The term ‘institutional racism’ came into the public sphere in 1999 as a result of the Macpherson Inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence. 3 Structural racism
refers to wider political and social and economic disadvantages, underpinned by
norms and cultural practices established and rooted in colonialist and slave-trading history, which benefit white people and disadvantage people of colour. 4
Critics have called the Sewell Report ‘deeply cynical’ and ‘a truly historic denial of the scale of race equality in Britain’. 5 UN experts criticised the report’s denial of
institutional and structural racism and its claim that other factors impact more on life
chances, such as geography, family influence and socioeconomic background. They
said the report discounted data around the lived experience of racism whilst accepting police data as ‘objective’. 6 Furthermore, it did not take seriously findings of other
reports and reviews such as: the Angiolini Review (of deaths in police custody), the
Lammy Review (of racial discrimination in the Justice system), or analysis by international human rights experts. 7 Moreover, the report wrongly denied systemic
racism including inequities in: health, education, housing, criminal justice and policing
such as ‘stop and search’ practices. The experts contended that, in fact, institutional
2 Frank Langfitt, ‘U.K. Government Report Draws Criticism over “Historic Denial” of Race Issues’, NPR (2021), <https://www.npr.org/2021/04/01/983499592/u-k-government-report-draws-criticism-over-historic-denial-of-race- issues>.
3 Vini Lander, ‘Structural Racism: What It Is and How It Works’, The Conversation (2021), <https://theconversation.com/structural-racism-what-it-is-and-how-it-works-158822>. 4 Lander. 5 Langfitt. 6 ‘UN Experts Condemn UK Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report’ p. 2. 7 ‘UN Experts Condemn UK Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report’ p. 3.
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