The Lawrence case has at last made us confront the complex nature of racism-Must read

[malaise]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/08/matthew-ryder-stephen-lawrence-racism?intcmp=239
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When I first joined the legal team working with Neville and Doreen Lawrence, I was struck by a curious aspect of their case. Somehow, in the face of the most extreme racist attack on their son, they had been able to articulate more effectively than anyone before them the subtle, covert racism that so many of us faced. It is what made the case so unusual and why it has resonated so widely. While we continue the pursuit of Stephen's killers, it is equally important not to forget what we learned about the effect of that other form of racism on our everyday lives.

Initially, the horrific murder of Stephen in 1993 and his parents' struggle for justice brought to mind the crude, brutal racism of the US civil rights era such as the Ku Klux Klan Alabama church bombings or Rosa Parks's battle against segregation. The power of watching courageous individuals battling overt racial injustice can be transformative. Our history in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s had seen victims of racism take to the streets and explode with anger.

But in the 1990s, the Lawrences had a different approach. They took their fight through the system and challenged it to give them justice. In doing so – through two failed prosecutions and a highly charged inquest – they showed with tragic clarity how two different forms of racism existed side by side. First, the violent racism of Stephen's killers was always present. But second, Stephen's parents were as critical of the underlying, less direct racism that had caused a delay in the proper investigation of his death. It may even have allowed his killers to escape justice. It was that focus that gave a contemporary and more sophisticated framework to their complaint. It was brave and ground-breaking.

That subtler form of racism is well known to minorities, but had always been so difficult to express. We experience it at the hands of public officials, at school, at work. You have a sense that you are battling against stereotyped preconceptions but cannot shift them. Sometimes, such experiences are because of race; sometimes, they are not, which is what makes it so pernicious.
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[BlueToTheBone]

1. I am hoping that we will truly learn about

compassion. It seems to me that community and compassion are trending and if we allow them to build, they will be the dominate force rather than competition.

[malaise]

2. Unless and until institutional racism is punished very little

will change

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R