The Government announced that a national day of commemoration for murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence will take place on 22 April every year. The act is nice but it is nothing more than a PR stunt by the government to take the pressure off them for the Windrush scandal. It is also a clear attempt to steer people away from the conversation the public are finally beginning to have about the inherent racist nature of British Culture.
Stephen Lawrence was 18-years-old when he was stabbed to death in a racially motivated attack in Eltham, south London, in 1993.
Three of his attackers walked free and have never paid for their abhorrent crime.
Culture of racism
What we do know is that modern British culture is built on the oppression and murder of people around the world, the British Empire peaked in the early 20th century and its naval power was always kept at 10% greater than its nearest two rivals. This allowed Britain to dominate the global markets by using force, the epitome of the British Empire. This allowed the idea of ‘Great’ Britain to thrive throughout the population whilst careful media manipulation help sow the seeds of superiority within the minds of the public. But the violence and oppression of peoples across the globe show that Britain has an inherent racial problem that still persists today.
Whilst the day is good to remember why Stephen Lawrence was killed and it will help keep the idea of inherent racism fresh in the public’s psyche, the timing makes it seem more like a PR stunt because the government have been reeling from the mass realisation over how their policies since 2010 have been racially targeting minority groups.
In 2013, the Home Office authorised AdVans to drive around 6 London boroughs, which read “Go Home or Face Arrest” on the side. The vans stirred up a lot of resentment within minority communities, creating a hostile environment.
Former advisor, Nick Timothy wrote in the Telegraph that Theresa May, who was Home Secretary at the time, had blocked the scheme initially and she was on holiday when it was revived.
However, n 2016, the immigration minister, Robert Goodwill, said the pilot scheme, which ran between July and August 2013, had been approved by the prime minister when she was at the Home Office. Just a few months after the pilot scheme had finished, Theresa May said in speech about immigration policy, “we can deport first and hear appeals later,” this was if the individual would not be in serious harm but that judgement would come from the Home Office.
Windrush has been one of the highlights in the last week or so but it has emerged that the Home Office did know about the problems legal immigrants were facing due to a “hostile environment” created by the government’s immigration policies. In a report published in 2014 by Legal Action Group, warning that thousands of migrants had been falling victim to these policies even after living in Britain legally for decades.
