ABSTRACT
Black professionals are becoming increasingly evident in British institutions that deal with health and social services- in other words, these institutions are overtly multiracial. Many British institutions now have "Equal Opportunities Policies" (EOPs), which are supposed to prevent discrimination on grounds of race, as defined in the Race Relations Act. Individuals within an institution influence the policies and ways of working of the institution in various ways and to varying degrees, depending on the positions they occupy, the power they wield, and their own particular agendas. The ideologies about race prevalent in West European society can be explored by considering its historical context. British institutions dealing with health and social services are generally envisaged as "white institutions"- that is, as a part of what they perceive as an oppressive racist society in which we all live.
