Mr Straw was addressing a seminar on racism with young people at the House of Commons organised by the Institute for Public Policy Research

Much of the progress on race relations followed from anti-racism work by inner-city education authorities 20 years ago, said the home secretary.

At the time it was perceived as political correctness but now it is regarded as "received wisdom", he said.

Jack Straw: Addressing teenagers on racism

The home secretary said: "What we have got to do is make sure that it is rolled out in other areas, particularly white-only areas where we can get some serious racial stereotyping."

It was now time to begin celebrating the UK's multi-cultural society, Mr Straw said.

"Many black and Asian people I speak to say what really cheeses them off is being regarded as a problem."

He was asked whether he should have sacked Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon after the Lawrence Inquiry.

Mr Straw said the inquiry had not called for his sacking and Sir Paul had accepted institutional racism existed in his force.

Earlier, Mr Straw dismissed the suggestion to create a new Cabinet post to tackle racism put to him by a teenager in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The home secretary was speaking to teenagers Yuvraj Nirwal and Christopher Masih, pupils at Villiers High School in Southall, London.

Yuvraj described how he was hassled by police more than his white friends: "They will pull over Asian youths in cars for no reason."

Tackling racism in the police

Mr Straw said the inquiry into the death of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence had supported stop and search.

However, the problem existed that black and Asian people were more likely to be stopped by the police than white people, said Mr Straw.

Yuvraj pressed Mr Straw on how he was tackling racism in the force.

He said: "We're going to get everyone in the police force to accept that the police force, does suffer from what the Lawrence Inquiry called institutionalised racism.

Racism should be kicked out of sport

"Getting people to understand that police services and other public services can act in a racist way even if people themselves in the services aren't explicitly racist is really important. It is, as it were, the first stage.

"Once you've got people to accept things have got to change. How are they going to change? One of the major planks is to increase the number of black and Asian police officers."

Asked if he would consider joining the police, Yuvraj said "definitely not" as he was not confident he would not be subjected to racist abuse.

Christopher said he would consider a career in the police, "I think I would try to make a contribution to change the way racism is dealt with in the police force."

He challenged the home secretary on racism in sport.

Mr Straw said: "Chris is absolutely right to say we have to kick racism out of everywhere.