The concept of institutional racism is under attack. There was a brief period after the publication of the Macpherson Report in 1999 and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act of 2000 in which it appeared to have gained wide acceptance as a useful term for a pressing problem. Since then, a number of public figures have suggested that the use of the term institutional racism is unhelpful, and it is possible that the whole idea of institutions looking at their working practices to ensure they are fair may fall out of favour. And the brief period in which complex definitions of racism were accepted in the mainstream media may now be at an end.