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Cultural Diversity - Discrimination and Anti-discriminatory Practice (4)

The Parekh Report (The Runnymede Trust, 2000)

The Parekh Report (The Runnymede Trust, 2000) uses the plural term 'racisms' to illustrate the different types, focus and targets of racist behaviours and attitudes. Different history, stereotypes, and complexities also mark these. Points are made about anti-black racism and anti-Asian racism, and further examples such anti-Irish, anti-Gypsy and anti-Jewish racism. In recent times, Islamophobia or anti-Muslim racism has emerged as yet another racism.

The Parekh Report (The Runnymede Trust, 2000) describes how racism manifests itself in various forms such as street racism and institutional racism. The targets of racism are people who are seen as different and therefore 'threatening'. The Parekh Report (The Runnymede Trust, 2000, p. 74-75, Box 5.2) outlines the interacting components of institutional racism:

These components are described in detail in the report.

Discrimination exists in many sectors: health services, housing, education, employment (HEA, 1994).

Schott and Henley (1996) describe two types of discrimination: direct or intentional, and indirect or unintentional. Direct discrimination involves treating someone less favourably than someone else because of their ethnic group (or disability, or age, and others). Indirect discrimination occurs when service provision is the same for everyone but people from various ethnic groups cannot access or gain maximum benefit because of language, religious or cultural reasons. Such discrimination is more subtle, perhaps more widespread and less easy to detect. Schott and Henley (1996), and Henley and Schott (1999) give some examples of where this may be the case in the health care of people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds:

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