London was so shocked that Sir Paul Condon, chief of police, apologised to Stephen's parents in the full glare of the media, and for the first time presented the police as a force serving the people. The proposals call for a change to the UK race relations act, making it illegal for police, health and immigration officers to be racist in their words and deeds. As I said, fantastic stuff.

Dream on, says Doreen Lawrence, by far the more militant of Stephen's estranged parents. And black MP, Bernie Grant, reminded Parliament that all this has already been debated, after the Scarman riots of the early 1980s.

Mrs Lawrence does not believe the promises, and demands an independent regulator for the police. And she says the National Curriculum should be changed to show the positive role black people have had in the UK's development.

Sadly, Mrs Lawrence's proposals are not even on the agenda. But Mr Grant should be pleased to note that things have changed since the '80s. Of course they have. I shall try to find an example. Let's see - racism has been eradicated from TV, so that our children can grow up in a culture of tolerance. If you're broadcasting a racist scene these days, make sure the baddie gets caught or is shown the error of his/her ways. Simple.

Except political correctness hasn't made the teenagers tolerant, as the Stephen Lawrence case shows us. So all that's changed is that TV no longer reflects reality, and white media and its viewers now have nothing to stop them maintaining their ignorance about racism.

The police will undoubtedly carry on cocking up. Just last week, they accidentally released the names and addresses of all the informants who had given evidence against the five white suspects in the Lawrence case. Now these people are scared for their lives. That's not the kind of authority that brings about sweeping cultural change.

Police prejudice and incompetence throughout the Stephen Lawrence case was appalling.

That wasn't their only mistake. The files show that police assumed young Stephen had been in a fight rather than the victim of an unprovoked attack. Worse, he was not given first aid when police arrived on the scene. After his death, a local police surveillance squad concentrated on watching the house of a petty black thief, rather than the five white murder suspects. And when eventually their houses were searched, blood-stained evidence was ignored.

Doreen Lawrence is right. The cultural change that Britain needs must come from education. We can't rely on the police - even if they do become ethnically representative - and we certainly can't rely on an idealistic media, that cannot show bad people for fear they might become role models.

We need to change our education system to teach children about the effect second- and third-generation black communities have had on urban Britain. And through it all, they should be taught to question what - not who - is to blame.


FELICITY USSHER writes the LONDON CALLING! column at the G21. Her most recent article appears in this Edition of the World's Magazine.