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Murder Of Stephen Lawrence

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Throughout the film The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, directed by Paul Greengrass, there are many events that occur that lead to the death of Stephen Lawrence and the failure to apprehend his killers. A prominent force that influences those outcomes is racism on both personal and institutional levels. The first and most obvious example of racism in the film is the attack and murder of Stephen Lawrence by a gang of white racists. The main focus of the film is the investigation into why the attack took place, the people involved in the attack, and their level of involvement. This is an example of personal racism on the part of the white gang members. The next racist act in the film is after the attack when Stephen in unconscious and the first responders arrive. The fact that the responders are police and not paramedics, when it was paramedics that were needed was institutional racism. It was not …show more content…

This would be an example of institutional racism because it was no one person’s decision to stop resuscitation, rather they all collectively agreed to call time of death. An example of personal racism is the constable’s detective’s questions towards the Lawrence family after the murder of their son. They were trying to find out if Stephen was in a gang purely because of his race. The time would have been better spent following leads on who killed Stephen. This would be a reflection of the constable’s and investigating detective’s racism. Two weeks after the murder, the first arrest was first made. The reason why no arrests were made up until this point is because of the racism of everyone involved in the investigation of the murder. Because of their reluctance to arrest lead suspects caused critical evidence to be lost so that the killers could be properly and swiftly prosecuted. Because it was racism of everyone involved, this event fall under the institutional

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