Race Relations Act 1976 Essay

When analyse Race and Racism in Britain the pivotal turning point of hurry dealing is the passing of the Race dealing dress on the twenty-second of November 1976. The Race dealings Act made unlikeness un righteousnessful on the grounds of execute, colour, nationality and heathenity. For me this point in history, compare of race is formally dealt with, as it is the eldest law introduced to ensure that racial and social contrariety is proscribe in Britain. The Race transaction Act made it unlawful to tell apart against a person on racial grounds in employment, procreation and in the provision of goods and services.This act was completely the start of eliminating racial discrimination save it was the foundation of it all and is the reason behind such advance in equality directly. The 1976 Act was amended, non replaced, by the Race traffic Amendment Act introduced in 2000. After the 1976 Act was presented, racial discrimination did non automatically vanish, howev er it made it clear to the vast majority of batch within Britain that discrimination has no place in beau monde and that changes had to be made.Making discrimination unlawful within employment coincides with the Sex discrimination Act of 1975, where by it was illegal to discriminate women in the study, such as, alternative for a job, training, promotion, work practices or dismissal, with the only difference organism ground on racial terms rather than gender. This brought equality in the workplace and introduced more rights to ethnic nonage groups. The Act all overly makes it unlawful for habitual bodies to discriminate while carrying out any of their duties.Public bodies are have to make sure their employment procedures and service delivery do non have a disproportionate relate on particular ethnic or national groups. The Act, based upon education, forbids the discrimination of ethnic minority pupils, in terms of non-admission to the school, college or university, inequa lity once within the school and besides abuse from new(prenominal) pupils and teachers due to their race or nationality.In addition, discrimination in the provision of goods, services and facilities was made unlawful. It is forbidden for anyone within the persistence of providing goods or services to discriminate someone on the grounds of ethnicity or nationality. Within all these fields race relations is attempted to be improved, and by doing so equality is acknowledged and ethnicity is somewhat striving to make up a incidentor that is non-existent in society and the workplace.Race relations scarce means the relationships mingled with individuals from different ethnic groups. Obviously the Race Relations Act was intended to put transport a new elbow room of thinking towards various ethnic minority groups and to look at them as equals. As I tell early, that the Act introduced in 1976 was the turning point, as it were, of racial discrimination, as it was the first law oppos ing racial discrimination. However, the routine of riots protesting against racial inequality had risen after the fair play was presented.The 1980s sparked a series of riots in master(prenominal)ly afro-Caribbean areas, protesting against discrimination and poverty. With the spur of the riots by means ofout the 1980s, it could be state that this proved that the Race Relations Act did non carry out its task, which was to eliminate racial discrimination. As we know, this act was amended in 2000 to produce the Act by ensuring there were no exceptions, such as the patrol, and other public bodies, who were sign exempt from the Law.On the contrary, what can be said roughly the riots is that the police, due to their exemption from the Act, discriminated against black people, through the sus law and thus performing random searches on people who they intend to be suspicious. The police would stop and search people they believed to be suspicious, however the shape of black indivi duals against white individuals was extremely disproportionate, In the 1960s and 1970s, the way in which the sus laws were used by police officers created widespread resentment amongst ethnic minorities, who felt they were organism unfairly targeted by the police.This led to a series of civil disturbances, including the infamous Brixton riots in 19811 This shows that the police took advantage of their exemption from the 1976 Relations Act Race, by looking at ethnic minorities in a much more suspicious way than white individuals, and thus secernate them. There is further evidence to back-up this statement, with the Notting Hill riot in rarefied 1976. With young black tempers flaring due to the sus law by which anyone could be stopped and searched if thought to be suspicious, inevitably riots broke out, with over 100 people, police and others, being injured.In the 1970s and the 1980s the police were pivotal figures of racial discrimination, which is the reason for the amendment of t he act in 2000. The Race Relations Act was not automatically going to create a area free of racism. It is impossible to transform a countries view on racial discrimination through one law being passed, due to the fact that racial discrimination against ethnic minorities has been apparent for centuries, with the slave trade only being abolished in August 1834, through the Slavery Abolition Act. out front the Acts were produced racism was something that occurred all the time. Nothing was thought of it, as minorities were not seen as equals, rather as second class citizens or sometimes seen not even as citizens. With the majority of the black population being enslaved for thousands of days, no one ever thought it was wrong to discriminate an individual for their ethnicity. A lot did not change, after the introduction of the Race Relations Act as discrimination was unruffled apparent.However, what can be said about how the Act impacted on race relations is that the minority groups ha d a foundation to voice their views. Prior to the Act, riots were much less than in the 1980s, which I believe is due to the Act. Riots arent healthy for a sphere however it shows that the minorities believed that their opinions mattered, to an extent. The creation of the law proved that the political relation believed the minority groups should be toughened as equals, therefore, having the support of the Government.The impact of the Act was that it formally gave ethnic minorities a place in society and as equals. The minorities had the support and sympathy of the Government, which is the main body needed to live in a country. I believe that the introduction of the Race Relations Act gave ethnic minorities the belief that these initial changes made through the act, could be pushed even further, and as we know, this eventually proceeded through the Race Relations Amendment Act of 2000 and further amendments up until now.You cannot judge the impact of the Law immediately after it was produced, you have look at what has been achieved today. compare is apparent, there is no visible discrimination in the workplace, such as lower pay to ethnic minorities, or lack of promotion opportunities and racism, merely still occurring, is extremely scarce compared to twenty or thirty years ago. Huge improvements have been made in the workplace and education, as head as the reduction in racial riots in Britain.With all this in mind, evidently the Race Relations Act was successful, as the task of the Law was to ensure equality in society, and to reduce racism throughout Britain. Riots were still taking place throughout the 1990s and the start of the twenty first century, but nothing in comparison to the amount that occurred in the 1980s. Nevertheless, the Oldham riots in May 2001 were said to be the worst racially motivated riots in Britain for fifteen years prior to the event.Particular groups involved were white and federation Asian-Muslim communities following a susta ined period of racial tensions and outbreaks in Oldham. The Bradford Riots were also seen as a major intense period of rioting which began on 7 July 2001. It occurred as a result of intensified tensions between the bear-sized and expanding ethnic minority communities and the citys white majority, fuelled by clash between the Anti-Nazi League and the British field of study Party and the British National Front.Despite the improvements in racial equality and the acceptance of different ethnicities from society and the Government, there is still an organisation within Parliament, known as the British National Party, who were involved in spurring on the Bradford riots in 2001 and openly discriminate and discredit ethnic minorities. Before February 2010 only white British citizens could join the party, as they do not consider ethnic minority groups to be British and part of the country.This shows that racial discrimination is still active, not only through individual abuse, but within Parliament and from an organise political movement. With this in mind, how successful is the Race Relations Act when this country still has an openly racist party, whose policies do not include ethnic minority communities, but also aims to separate them from society? However, the party still, from being founded as a splinter group from the National Front in 1982, does not hold any seats in Parliament, proving that their support is especial(a) and weak, thus not having much influence on politics, at this blink of an eye in time.The Race Relations Act enhanced race relations in Britain immensely, in the long term, however the 1976 act didnt amply ensure that every aspect of racial discrimination was abolished, which was the reason the Government amended the Act in 2000, therefore it can be said that the real influence on race relations was the Race Relations Amendment Act formed in 2000, as this was the law that dealt with every cipher to eliminate racial discrimination in every field of society. finally the Race Relations was pivotal in improving relations between different ethnic groups, as it was the first formal law introduced by Parliament to reform the issue of racial discrimination. This gave the ethnic minorities the belief that things could be altered and improved further to ensure an equal country, free of racism, which is, to an extent, what todays world is becoming.Relations between ethnic groups have been non-existent throughout the centuries, with racism being something that ethnic minorities had to deal with personally, without the support and sympathy of the Government. Improvements in the workplace, education and, through the Race Relations Amendment Act, the police prove that race relations have developed, along with the reduction of riots within Britain.Without the Law being introduced this country would still believe that race equality should not happen and that ethnic minorities are second class citizens. With the Government pushing for ward the law to eliminate racism and build equality, the people will closely of the time support their aspirations and beliefs. Obviously the Race Relations Act of 1976 was not the only factor in building race relations and equality however it is, in my opinion, the most important, as it built a straight foundation for Britain to develop race relations on legal grounds.