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Cultural Diversity - Discrimination and Anti-discriminatory Practice (3)

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 came into effect in April 2001. This Act removes any exceptions to indirect discrimination by authorities. The Act also  lists different categories of public authorities, including the  NHS authorities and trusts, Higher Education Institutes, Armed Forces and the Police that are no longer exceptions. In the Amendments to the Act, (2000), Section 71 (1) requires these authorities to make arrangements to ensure that they 'eliminate unlawful racial discrimination, and promote equality of opportunity and good relations between persons of different racial groups'. The Act gives powers to impose specific duties on public authorities to ensure that equal opportunity policies are implemented and monitored. All public institutions  now have to demonstrate that they employ and manage diversity in their workforce which in turn represents the ethnic and cultural diversity of the population that they serve. Targets for the recruitment of staff from ethnic communities are already being implemented in some authorities, for example the police.

The Commission for Racial Equality were empowered by the Home Office to produce a  Code of Practice that will assist NHS Trusts understand how they can comply with the duties imposed on them through the Race Relations Amendment Act. The Code is a statutory instrument that will be admissible in evidence in discrimination cases.

Useful resources about this and other legislation such as the Human Rights Act are contained on the websites of the Home Office (www.homeoffice.gov.uk) and the Commission for Racial Equality (www.cre.gov.uk) - this site contains an executive summary of research they commissioned into how  public authorities were implementing the Act.  Entitled 'Survey - Towards Racial Equality'  it was conducted in November 2002 and published in July 2003 .

Religious discrimination is also prevalent in authorities in England and Wales (Weller et al., 2001). This study undertaken for the Home Office revealed religious discrimination in the health services as well as many other public services.

The experiences of people suggest that discrimination is still practised. Discrimination is perceived as the outcome of structural disadvantages, in other words, they were due to the factors such as education, socio-economic status, level of skills, and housing.

Racism refers to ‘beliefs based on racial prejudice, and to acts of racial discrimination, whether deliberate or unintentional’ (Mares, Henley & Baxter, 1985, p.5). Racism is based on the belief in ‘race’, and one's own 'race' being superior. It is often based on prejudice and power. The pattern of racism in Britain is an institutional expression of white racism which has its roots in Western Europe (Hugman, 1991).

Furthermore, the belief that one culture is better than another has raised the issue of cultural racism. It is assumed that the white British culture is better than any other, for example, that of South Asian Muslims (Modood, Beishon & Virdee, 1994).

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