From: "Dave Coull" <d.y.coull-AT-dundee.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 13:51:59 GMT
Subject: Re: Stephen Lawrence 


I said

>> The first Race Relations Act in the UK
>> was allegedly brought in to deal with 
>> white racism, but the very first prosecution 
>> brought under it was of a "black power" 
>> speaker who was reacting against 
>> white racism.

and Andy commented

>This cropped up in a discussion the other day, 
>but I couldn't remember who it was. It was in 
>'74/5 wasn't it?

Round about then. It was the guy who called
himself  Michael X , maintaining that his "original"
surname was his slave name (how did the black 
BBC newsreader Moira Stuart get her name?).
Obviously that guy had followed the pattern started
by Malcolm X. This is not to excuse everything
that he said or did, but, nevertheless, it's significant 
that an Act which was supposed to deal with 
white racism was first used against a black man.


Dave