What is Racism? Reflections on Doreen Lawrence speech

Mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence helped to launch the new centre for research in Race and Education at Birmingham University. Her speech was widely anticipated by the media-on all sides of the political spectrum. What made the speech of particular interest to the media was the sentence 'whites also face racism in the UK'; this has led to headlines such as 'Whites the Forgotten Victims of Brit Racism' from the daily star. However, the main spirit of her speech was largely ignored and the focus on 'white racism' from the media misrepresents her speech.

The trouble with the notion of 'white racism' is it assumes that the term racism means the same thing as in case of discrimination against BME people. For a BME person racism can mean anything from discrimination in the work place to being violently attacked as well as verbally abused. Whereas, the type of discrimination Doreen was referring to in-the-case of white people, had more to do with class discrimination, in-which white working class people are not given equal access to educational and occupational attainment.

They are often pejoratively termed too, such as 'Chav's. In the vast majority of these cases the discrimination is based on class rather than race. Class discrimination can have a profound effect on its victims in many ways. Doreen Lawrence is right to talk about it as she clearly as done in regards to racial prejudice. It is a shame that the essence of her speech and the nuanced elements have been lost by certain section of the media.

Let's not forget that her speech above all highlighted the problems of racism BME communities are subject to in our society. And although she acknowledged progress has been made she also stated that much still needed to be done. She highlighted research conducted by the Department for Works and Pensions that showed that people with perceived 'ethnic non-white names', were less likely to be invited to interview than those with perceived white names with the same qualifications. Qualification do not protect you from racism, the research shows that even if you talk in with a 'good accent' you still face racism she argued.

She also said that black students are less likely to get top degrees that white students:

We know that there remains a persistent gap between the number of white and black students achieving a first class degree".

Her speech therefore mostly focused on the problems and challenges that BME communities face, arguing that, 'trying to talk about race is fraught with difficulty' as many people get angry whenever it is mentioned.

To ignore the main thrust of the speech is to misrepresent it. The way the certain sections in the media has misrepresented the speech is truly alarming, which in many ways concurs with Doreen Larwence's thesis, which down plays discrimination towards Black people and headlines 'white racism'.

By creating this misleading narrative, the media are cheapening the charge of racism against BME people. Detractors of race inequality could now argue, "Racism towards Blacks, so, what? White people face racism too". Whilst we do not deny that discrimination towards either white foreigner -xenophobia- and classism often towards the white working class we need to understand the acute difference to the form of racism which BME communities are confronted with.

Usman Butt