A common culture of institutional racism in Britain

Institutional racism is that which, covertly or overtly, resides in the policies, procedures, operations and culture of public or private institutions - reinforcing individual prejudices and being reinforced by them in turn. Whereas individual racism is the expression of personal prejudice, institutional racism is the expression of a whole organization’s racist practice and culture.

If racist consequences accrue to institutional laws, customs or practices, that institution is racist whether or not the individuals maintaining those practices have racial intentions.

The word institutional racism was first coined in the UK in the wake of the MacPherson’s report on policing in the UK when Stephen Lawrence’s case was investigating. In MacPherson’s report, institutional racism was defined as the follow: "The collective failure of an organization to provide an 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 amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people."

The review of the handling of the racist muder of Stephen Lawrence led to the conclusion that the British Police was structurally racist, and this is illegal and needs to be removed. The meaning of institutional racism is complex. What it means is that an entire organization, and its methods of operation, are designed in such a way as to discriminate against people of race, leading to poor treatment, lack of job opportunities, poor career development and progression, and barriers to justice, fairness and equality.

Sadly, there are many organizations such as British Universities in Britain where these factors apply. As a result, ethnic diversity is excluded from the core of the organization and its values, and especially removed from leadership and power. Institutional racism has also been applied against foreign students in British Universities. This has led to discrimination against people coming from abroad. In fact, there are many overseas students who are suffering from institutional racism in Britain.

As organizations are hierarchical, one way of evaluating this is to look at the kinds of people in positions of influence, and here research shows that seniority is by and large very mono-cultural in all kinds of organizations and institutions in the UK. The only places where ethnic minorities are in senior positions are when they are running their own businesses, professional firms or charitable or community organizations. Many ethnic professionals prefer to operate in this way as they are free to operate and set their own targets and progression. However, this is not easy or possible for everyone, nor is this segregation sustainable in society.