The life and times of The life and times of institutional racism institutional racism When, in February 1999, Sir William Macpherson reported on his inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence, 1 the most important ®nding by far was the widespread incidence of institutional racism. Institutional racism played a part in the¯awed investigation by the police', said Macpherson. And institutional racism was likely to be found in every organisation.`It is incumbent on every institution to examine their policies and the outcomes of their policies and practices to guard against disadvantaging any section of our communities . . . There must be an unequivocal acceptance of institutional racism and its nature before it can be addressed.' 2 The initial impact of the Macpherson report on the nation was electric. A government inquiry into a social issue might make headlines in a liberal broadsheet or two. But this report made banner headlines across the political spectrum:`Watershed for a fairer Britain' (Evening Standard),`An historic race relations revolution' (Daily Mail ),`Dossier of shame that will change the face of Britain's race relations' (Daily Mirror),`Racists won't win' (Sun),`Never ever again' (Express),`Findings should open all our eyes' (Daily Telegraph),`Damning verdict on Met' (Yorkshire Post).

There is a dangerous sociology abroad -a sociology of race relations, that is -and dangerous to the black cause that it seeks to espouse. It emanates from the new set-up of the SSRC (Social Science Research Council) ethnic unit at Aston (University) under John Rex. It purports to ameliorate the condition of the black minorities, and the black young in particular, by appeals to enlightened capitalism. And, in that, it could be allowed to pass the blacks by, except that at a time of concerted and massive attack on black people by the state, to hold the centre ground against academics who abstract and distort black experience (however unwittingly) becomes vitally important.To understand the new sociology, one must understand the old and locate them both in the dialectical struggles between increasing state racism and growing black resistance.In the beginning, in the colonial period, blacks were people you studied in their native habitat -so as to inform colonial rule and authenticate an ideology of racial superiority. But as the colonies achieved 'independence' and the colonial administrators came home, the focus of interest in the former colonial subjects shifted to the dock areas of Great Britain, where the first black settlements had become established.

S U M M A R YBioassays were carried out to examine the influence of temperature and duration of leaf wetness on the infectivity of an isolate of Erynia neoaphidis for its aphid host Acyrthosiphon kondoi. Preliminary experiments demonstrated that primary spores produced in vitro were as infectious as those formed in vivo. No consistent effect of temperature on infectivity of primary spores could be detected. The time taken to kill an aphid increased as temperature decreased, from 3-5 days at 20 OC to 12-15 days at 8 "C, suggesting a threshold for disease development of 4 OC. Increasing duration of the period of leaf wetness up to 24 h after inoculation increased the final level of infection. At 20 OC, a minimum moisture period of 3 h was required for infection with maximum infection occurring after about 7 h. These times increased slightly at 15 OC but extending to 7 and 16 h respectively at 10 OC. The epizootiological implications of these results are discussed with reference to previously published data on in vivo production of primary spores of E. neoaphidis.

The authors examine recent research from the Institute of Race Relations, which documents the deaths of over 200 asylum seekers and undocumented migrants who have lost their lives trying to reach the UK or in work-related accidents, as a result of racial attacks and, most often, as a result of self-harm, especially in detention centres.

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