Alan Nunn and DA Coles (Letters, October 16) both claim the MacPherson Report into the death of Stephen Lawrence is flawed.

The report found that Stephen Lawrence was murdered for one reason only - racism.

MacPherson investigated why the Metropolitan Police had failed to lead a proper investigation or bring the murderers to justice.

He found the key factor in the failures to be racism.

MacPherson found that some individual officers held racist ideas and opinions.

However, the report also exposed a widespread racist culture and institutionalised procedures and assumptions that meant black people received a very different service from the police than white people.

This "institutional" racism is not unique to the police force, it has a big impact on black workers and consumers in all public and private enterprises, from the NHS to local newspapers.

For anyone who thinks racism is wrong, the MacPherson Report exposed a terrible state of affairs.

Since the report, many police forces and other public and private institutions have considered MacPherson's recommendations and started to make changes.

There is a very long way to go but improvements have been made.

The MacPherson Report has always been attacked by those who don't want to confront racism and discrimination in our society - hence the mantra that the MacPherson Report is "flawed".

Attacking MacPherson allows them to claim black people get a better deal than whites, that asylum-seekers have preference over white people for council homes, NHS services, jobs and civil rights.

Such claims turn reality on its head. All of us who aren't rich enough to "go private" suffer from poor provision in health, education and housing.

It's hard for most of us to earn enough to bring up our families securely. This is true whether we are black or white.

However, what MacPherson and other investigations have shown is that racism - both individual and institutional - makes life significantly harder if you're black.

-Andy Player, Brighton