英国黑人大律师斯蒂芬·阿金桑亚约四周前在伦敦东部法院停车场遭保安以"这不是被告停车位"为由拒绝停车[1]。这一事件再度暴露了英国刑事司法系统中根深蒂固的种族歧视问题。阿金桑亚因防止青年刀具犯罪工作于2024年6月获颁OBE勋章[1]，却仍遭遇如此待遇。
这并非阿金桑亚首次经历此类歧视。早在1993年获得资格认证时，他就曾被保安误认为被告[1]。33年间几无进展的现状凸显了问题的严重性。司法系统内部的人口结构失衡加剧了这一困境——黑人法官仅占1.6%，远低于英格兰和威尔士4%的人口比例[1]。在5,337名法官中，黑人法官共79人（其中43名在法院，其余在仲裁庭），仅1名高级黑人法官玛格丽特·奥比[1]。2020年，法院服务部门曾就两名黑人律师被误认为被告的事件进行道歉[1]。司法界人士指出，系统性种族歧视贯穿法官任用全程，有专家建议建立监督委员会以审查相关任用中的差异[1]。
A Black barrister in London was refused access to a court car park approximately four weeks ago when a security guard told him the space was "not for defendants," an encounter that echoes a discriminatory experience he faced three decades earlier [1]. Stephen Akinsanya, who received an OBE in June 2024 for his work preventing youth knife crime, was mistakenly treated as a defendant despite his established status as a legal professional [1].
The incident mirrors a troubling pattern within the English judiciary. When Akinsanya qualified as a barrister in 1993, he was similarly misidentified as a defendant by security staff—a reminder that little progress has been made in addressing racial bias within the criminal justice system over the past 33 years [1]. The Courts and Tribunals Service apologized in 2020 for separate incidents in which two Black lawyers were mistaken for defendants, yet such occurrences persist [1].
Systemic disparities in judicial representation underscore the broader challenge. Black judges comprise only 1.6 percent of the judiciary today, up marginally from 1.4 percent a decade ago, despite representing 4 percent of the population in England and Wales [1]. Among the 5,337 judges in the system, 79 are Black—43 serving in courts and the remainder in tribunals—with only one senior Black judge, Margaret Obi, holding a higher judicial position [1]. Legal professionals have highlighted institutional racial discrimination within the system; Keaton Montes KC identified such patterns in a 2022 report, while Laurie Anne-Powell KC has recommended establishing an oversight committee to review disparities in judicial appointments [1].