THIS was the week Britain was forced to face the ugly reality of widespread and unwitting racism and decide what to do about it. That was certainly the challenge laid down by the Macpherson report into the death of Stephen Lawrence and endorsed by the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, and the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, in the Commons on Wednesday.
Stephen Lawrence's parents, Neville and Doreen, sat in dignified silence as Mr Straw said he hoped the report into their son's death would "act as a catalyst for permanent and irrevocable change". He wanted the report to serve as a "watershed in our attitudes to racism" - declaring that the very process of the judicial inquiry and the Macpherson report "has opened all our eyes to what it is like to be black or Asian in Britain today".
There was only one reason for Stephen Lawrence's murder in London on April 22nd, 1993, he said: "Stephen was black".
The report denounced the London police force for its investigation of Stephen Lawrence's murder: "The conclusions to be drawn from all the evidence in connection with the investigation of Stephen Lawrence's racist murder are clear. There is no doubt there were fundamental errors.
"The investigation was marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers. A flawed metropolitan police review failed to expose these inadequacies. The second investigation could not salvage the results of the first."
How difficult it must have been for the Lawrences to hear again that their son was murdered because he was black.
It was only after they travelled the short distance from the Commons to the Home Office to hold a press conference that the honesty and depth of their inner feelings were revealed after what must have seemed a long time trying to hold them back. The strength of Mrs Lawrence's remarks about the reality of the young black experience, especially in London, overshadowed the "enormous sense of shame" expressed earlier by the metropolitan police chief, Sir Paul Condon.
She reminded us that after all the talk about the botched police investigation and the 70 recommendations that would "test the sincerity" of the nation, the irrefutable truth was that her son was murdered by white racists in a society where racism thrived. "Black people are still dying on the streets and in the back of police vans. My feelings about the future remain the same as they were when my son was murdered. Black youngsters will never be safe on the streets. The police on the ground are the same as they were when my son was killed . . . nothing has changed," she told us.
In the series of debates and discussions that followed the publication of the Macpherson report, the Lawrences' lawyer, Mr Mike Mansfield QC, pointed to the report's focus on education. He reminded the audience during Thursday evening's Question Time debate on BBC TV that the call to address racism in the classroom was in a sense one of the foundations of New Labour's "Education, Education, Education" election platform.
Indeed, when the recommendations of the Macpherson report are implemented by the police force, the targets set for the recruitment to its ranks and its retention of ethnic minorities are met, and the Race Relations Act is extended to the police and all public services, raising children free from the racist attitudes of their parents will still be a tall order.
Racism is not just institutionalised in the police. It is found not just at work or in the classroom. It can be found everywhere in our everyday lives. But, if a root and branch reform of attitudes towards the colour of someone's skin is Stephen Lawrence's "lasting testament" then some good has come out of the last six years.