BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY The United Kingdom, like most countries, has experienced and inflicted racism against various groups at various times in its history. The British Empire exploited black Africans for theTransatlantic slave trade before becoming the first nation to abolish it and pressuring other countries to do the same. Since the end of the empire, the relations between non-white immigrant groups and indigenous Britons have resulted in cases of race riots and racist murder perpetrated by extremists of all races.
Historical racism
Racism in the days of empire
The British and other European colonial empires exercised racism in the 18th and 19th centuries with the Transatlantic slave trade and the colonisation of foreign lands. The clearing of lands and the exploitation of labour in foreign countries for the profit of British investors had deep effects on the British perceptions of subjected peoples. Stigmatisation, the attribution of some internal fault or pollution, was necessary to protect the self-image of the colonisers. It gave them a rationale: "If there is not something wrong with those people, why would we treat them so badly?" However, Britain abolished slave trade and eventually slavery in its Empire before other nations such as Spain and the United States, and put pressure on those nations to do so, as well as seeking to end slavery perpetrated by blacks and Arabs in Africa.
The stereotypes created by slavery and colonisation are still used by extremist minorities of whites, including Britions.
Modern Britain
Race riots
There were fierce race riots targeting ethnic minority populations across the United Kingdom in 1919: South Shields, Glasgow, London's East End, Liverpool, Cardiff, Barry, and Newport. There were further riots targeting immigrant and minority populations in East London and Notting Hill in the 1950s.
In the early 1980s, societal racism, discrimination and poverty — alongside further perceptions of powerlessness and oppressive policing — sparked a series of riots in areas with substantial African-Caribbean populations. These riots took place in St Pauls in 1980, Brixton, Toxteth and Moss Side in 1981, St Pauls again in 1982, Notting Hill Gate in 1982, Toxteth in 1982, and Handsworth, Brixton and Tottenham in 1985.
The report identified both "racial discrimination" and a " extreme racial disadvantage" in Britain, concluding that urgent action was needed to prevent these issues becoming an "endemic, ineradicable disease threatening the very survival of our society". The era saw an increase in attacks on Black people by White people. The Joint Campaign Against Racism committee reported that there had been more than 20,000 attacks on non- Indigenous Britons including Britons of Asian origin during 1985.
In 2001, there have been both the Bradford riots and the Oldham Riots. These riots have followed cases of racism - either the public displays of racist sentiment or, as in the Brixton Riots, racial profiling and alleged harassment by the police force. In 2005, there have been Birmingham riots between Asian community and the black community, as a black teenager had been allegedly raped by South Asian men, although no teenager came forward claiming she had been raped.
Racially motivated hate crime
The British Crime Survey reveals that in 2004, 87,000 people from black or minority ethnic communities said they had been a victim of a racially motivated crime. They had suffered 49,000 violent attacks, with 4,000 being wounded. At the same time 92,000 white people said they had also fallen victim of a racially motivated crime. The number of violent attacks against whites reached 77,000, while the number of white people who reported being wounded was five times the number of black and minority ethnic victims at 20,000. Most of the offenders (57%) in the racially motivated crimes identified in the British Crime Survey are not white. White victims said 82% of offenders were not white. These statistics show that ethnic minorities are overrepresnted as perpetrators of racially motivated crime. Police and media face difficulties in being perceived to offer support to the far-right by reporting racist crimes towards white people, an ideal which has ben criticised by Members of Parliament.[13] The issue of Muslim men sexually abusing and exploiting white children has been criticised by some Members of Parliament, who believe that political correctness prevented police and social workers from taking action.[14] Although Muslim community leaders have stated that the crimes were racially motivated, some politicians have denied the issue.
Racism in one form or another was widespread in Britain before the twentieth century, and during the 1900s particularly towards Jewish groups and immigrants from Eastern Europe.
In politics
Since World War I, public expressions of racism have been limited to far-right political parties such as the British National Front in the 1970s, whilst most mainstream politicians have publicly condemned all forms of racism. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that racism remains widespread, and many politicians and public figures have been accused of excusing or pandering to racist attitudes in the media, particularly with regard to immigration. There have been growing concerns in recent years about institutional racism in public and private bodies, and the tacit support this gives to crimes resulting from racism.
The Race Relations Act 1965 outlawed public discrimination, and established the Race Relations Board. Further Acts in 1968 and 1976 outlawed discrimination in employment, housing and social services, and replaced the Race Relations Board with Commission for Racial Equality. The Human Rights Act 1998 made organisations in Britain, including public authorities, subject to theEuropean Convention on Human Rights. The Race Relations Act 2000 extends existing legislation for the public sector to the police force, and requires public authorities to promote equality.
Although various anti-discrimination legislation do exist, according to some sources most employers in the UK remain institutionally racist including public bodies such as the police and particularly the legal profession. It is also nearly impossible for persons subject to such institutional racism (who are normally economically disadvantaged) to seek legal redress, as in the UK public funding (legal aid) is not available at employment tribunals. The situation with the implementation of Human Rights law is similar. The Terrorism Acts, which came into law in 2000 and 2006, have caused a marked increase in racial profiling and have also been the basis to justify existent trends in discrimination against persons of Muslim origin (or resembling such) by the British police.
There have been tensions over immigration since at least the early 1900s. These were originally engendered by hostility towards Jews and immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe. Britain first began restricting immigration in 1905 under the Aliens Restriction Act. This was the first time that the United Kingdom implemented a policy that was designed to prevent the influx of immigrants. In particular it was aimed at those Jews who had fled persecution in Russia. Before the Act Britain had had a favourable immigration policy, most notably throughout the Victorian Period. However,for the first time policy was enacted to prevent the wholesale entry of foreign migrants. Although the Act was extreme Britain maintained its asylum policy. This meant that any persons who had fled their country due to religious or political persecution could be granted asylum in the United Kingdom. However, such policy was removed in the period before the Second World War to prevent the wholesale entry of Jewish refugees leaving from the Third Reich. Although Britain's policy was restrictive it was one of the leading nations that helped solve the refugee crisis preceding World War Two.
Britain has also had very strong limits on immigration since the early 1960s. Legislation was particularly targeted at members of the Commonwealth of Nations, who had previously been able to migrate to the UK under the British Nationality Act 1948. Conservative MP Enoch Powell made a controversial 1968 Rivers of Blood speech in opposition to Commonwealth immigration to Britain; this resulted in him being swiftly removed from the Shadow Cabinet.
Virtually all legal immigration, except for those claiming refugee status, ended with the Immigration Act 1971; however, free movement for citizens of the European Union was later established by the Immigration Act 1988. Legislation in 1993, 1996 and 1999 gradually decreased the rights and benefits given to those claiming refugee status ("asylum seekers"). 582,000 people came to live in the UK from elsewhere in the world in 2004 according to the Office for National Statistics.
Some commentators believe that an amount of racism, from within all communities, has been undocumented within the UK, adducing the many British cities whose populations have a clear racial divide. While these commentators believe that race relations have improved immensely over the last thirty years, they still believe that racial segregation remains an important but largely unaddressed problem, although research has shown that ethnic segregation has reduced within England and Wales between the 1991 Census and 2001 Census.
The United Kingdom has been accused of "sleepwalking toward apartheid" by Trevor Phillips, chair of that country's Commission for Racial Equality. Philips has said that Britain is fragmenting into isolated racial communities: "literal black holes into which no one goes without fear and trepidation and nobody escapes undamaged". Philips believes that racial segregation in Britain is approaching that of the United States. "You can get to the point as they have in the U.S. where things are so divided that there is no turning back."
The BBC has reported that the latest crime statistics appear to support Phillips' concerns. They show that race-hate crimes increased by almost 600 per cent in London in the month after the July 7 bomb attacks, with 269 more offences allegedly "motivated by religious hatred" reported to the Metropolitan Police, compared to the same period last year.
Public sector employers in the UK are somewhat less likely to discriminate on grounds of race, as they are required by law to promote equality and make efforts to reduce racial and other discrimination. The private sector, however are subject to little or no functional anti-discrimination regulation and short of self paid litigation, no remedies are available for members of ethnic minorities. UK employers can also effectively alleviate themselves from any legal duty not to discriminate on the basis of race, by 'outsourcing' recruitment and thus any liability for the employers' racial screeening and discriminatory policies to third party recruitment companies.
In 2013 the U.K. Home Office, which is responsible for immigration policy, in a pilot program to test public reception deployed a series of vans with the message, “In the U.K. illegally? GO HOME OR FACE ARREST,” emblazoned on the side. While many U.K. politicians denounced the “racist vans,” the Home Office defended the program. “This pilot is about targeting people who are here illegally and giving [them] the opportunity to leave the country voluntarily rather than be arrested, detained and removed,” said a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron. “And we know that voluntary returns are the most cost-effective way of removing illegal immigrants.
Racism within UK Police
Police forces in the United Kingdom have been accused of institutionalised racism since the late 20th century. A stand which many believe is the catalyst for the 2011 summer riot. During the riot, a Metropolitan Police officer, PC Alex MacFar lane, arrested and attempted strangling an African origin male and used racial words like 'nigger' and 'black cunt' on him. The case was referred to UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) who declined bringing charges against the officers involved. The CPS reconsidered their decision after being threatened by the victim's lawyer to escalate the case to a high court. On March 31, 2012, it was announced the victim has presented a taped recording of the recorded abuses from the police.
The National Black Police Association which allows only African, African-Caribbean and Asian officers as full members has been critized as a racist organization because of its selective membership criteria based on ethnic origin.
Modern England
In July 2008, the London-based National Children's Bureau released a 366-page guide counseling adults on recognizing racist behavior in young children. The guide, titled Young Children and Racial Justice, warns adults that babies must also be included in the effort to eliminate racism. Nursery staff must be alert for racist remarks among toddlers, a government-sponsored agency report has said.
Modern Scotland
It has been reported that racial minorities are underrepresented in the police force. In urban areas, tensions between ethnic Scots and Scottish Pakistanis occasionally flare up. Several items of racism in Scotland are reported here.
In 2005-6, 1,543 victims of racist crime in Scotland were of Pakistani origin, while more than 1,000 victims were classed as being "white British" although the Scottish Parliament still has no official policy on "white on white" racism in Scotland.
Kriss Donald was a Scottish fifteen-year-old who was kidnapped and murdered in Glasgow in 2004. Five British Pakistani men were later found guilty of racially-motivated violence; those convicted of murder were all sentenced to life imprisonment.
However, there are indications that the Scottish authorities and people are well aware of the problem and are trying to tackle it. Among the Scottish under 15 years old there is the sign that, "younger white pupils rarely drew on racist discourses.".
In 2009 the murder of an Indian sailor named Kunal Mohanty by a lone Scotsman named Christopher Miller resulted in Miller's conviction as a criminal motivated by racial hatred. Miller's brother gave evidence during the trial and said Miller told him he had "done a Paki".
AS of 11 February 2011 attacks on Muslims in Scotland have contributing to a 20% increase in racist incidents over the past 12 months.
Reports say every day in Scotland, 17 people are abused, threatened or violently attacked because of the colour of their skin, ethnicity or nationality.
Statistics showed that just under 5,000 incidents of racism were recorded in 2009/10, a slight decrease from racist incidents recorded in 2008/9.
From 2004 to 2012 the rate of racist incidents has been around 5,000 incidents per year.[36 In 2011-12, there were 5,389 racist incidents recorded by the police, which is a 10% increase on the 4,911 racist incidents recorded in 2010-11.[37]
Politicians have also expressed concern at the rise in the figures.
Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker said: "Clearly we haven't managed to deal with these problems and people will be rightly asking why these increases are happening."
Bill Aitken, Conservative justice spokesman, added: "The number of these offences is clearly concerning and is unacceptable in Scotland in any circumstances."
A Scottish government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government is totally committed to ridding Scotland of all forms of hate crime, whoever the victims are, and those found guilty in the courts can expect to be dealt with by the full force of the law.
"As well as strengthening the laws in relation to hate crime, we have committed £10.5m between 2008 and 2011 to support projects run by 53 organisations delivering race and faith equality and improving the lives of minority ethnic and faith communities."
According to figures released in 2010, race hate victims were most likely to be of Pakistani origin, with 48% of all those targeted classed as Asian, followed by white British.
The majority of victims - 76% - were men and the vast majority of race hate perpetrators – 96% - were classed as white. Of these, most were males aged 16–20, followed by males under the age of 16.
Strathclyde Police reported the highest number of incidents with 2826, while Lothian and Borders Police dealt with 1494 incidents. The lowest recorded total was in Dumfries and Galloway, where police dealt with 70 racist incidents
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