Marginalisation

Racism has a long history that defines relations between different races, where there is a white hegemony over black people, but it was not always so. Black Africans had the ascendancy from ancient times up until the fifteenth century when Western exploration of Africa took off. Black Africans were powerful and respected; the Egyptians influenced the Greeks and Romans of antiquity. During these black civilised ascendancies, the colour black was equated with good representations and white with evil spirits. ‘Black meant “life”, and white “death”.’³ The situation reversed when Europeans joined in the Arab slave trade of black people in Africa and began to construct representations of themselves as ‘superior’ to the ‘rest’ of the world, separating ‘us’ from ‘them’.

Demonology

In the eighteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church identified the colour black with evil. Black was made an emotional partisan colour, alluding to danger, repulsion and other negative connotations.⁴ Travel stories from the ‘dark continent’ informed conceptions of Europeans in the Enlightenment by contrast with ‘others’ from the Orient.⁵ They equated their ‘whiteness’ with being beautiful, enlightened, cultured, knowledgeable, progressive and modern. The demonology of Black people emerged as a result. Black people were portrayed as lazy, servile, untrustworthy, ‘mad, bad and dangerous’.⁶ The transatlantic slave trade in the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries displaced Africans. Racist views were exacerbated by plantocracy in the British colonies in the Caribbean. The nineteenth-century pseudoscientific racist ‘ranking of races’ chose skin colour, rather than hairiness, to demarcate separation.⁷

Racism is embedded in many economic, political and power relations between the ‘white’ ‘West and the rest’ of the diverse ethnicities of the world.⁸ Western powers colonised many parts of the world, and immigrants from the Caribbean in the 1950s to 1980s; the Kenyan and Ugandan Asians in the 1980s; Ghanaians and Nigerians; those fleeing wars in Sudan, Somalia, the dissolved Czechoslovakia in the 1990s and Afghanistan and Syria today all mean that the world has come to Britain and it has become multiracial, multicultural, multi-ethnic, multifaith: cosmopolitan. White Britons at certain historical moments have been intolerant and tensions have overspilled. Right-wing racism and discrimination are very visible even today but are dressed up as neoliberal policies and practices designed to obscure the ways in which inequalities are generated and power relations sustained.

Criminalised

Immigration policy has been the mechanism by which Britishness and foreignness were defined. Creating a hostile environment to deter immigration was a response to public protests of scarce resources, perceived threats to British culture and perceived relatively liberal immigration policies. This hostile response was started in 2007 by Labour’s home secretary John Reid and continued by the Conservative home secretary Theresa May from 2010 to 2016. This hostile response included criminal justice system actions to criminalise, legally identify and remove those coming to the UK; importantly, many who were unable to produce proof of the right to remain were also denied citizenship. When the UK was seeking workers from Commonwealth countries, the variety of visa options under which people could come and work often denied them and their children the right to remain and to full citizenship, resulting decades later in disputes about citizenship rights.

The Windrush generation arrived in the ‘Mother Country’ as invited members of the Commonwealth but were met with culture shock – there were no gold streets but hostility – ‘no Blacks, no dogs, no Irish’.⁹ Blatant racism and oppressive discrimination meant life was a challenge; and employment was often only available in low-level, low-skilled positions in factories, in the newly formed NHS, in the transport system or in construction to rebuild the infrastructure of post–Second World War Britain.

They ‘sent’ for their children from the Caribbean, while some children were born in Britain. Those who had been educated in the British colonial West Indies education system (to a high standard) now found that they were subjected to racism in British schools. Although some attended grammar schools and achieved O levels and A levels, others found themselves relegated, unjustly, to so-called educationally subnormal (ESN) schools.¹⁰ Efforts were made to correct ‘The Miseducation of the Black Child’ through supplementary Saturday schools.¹¹ Hazel V. Carby’s chapter ‘Schooling in Babylon’ in the edited volume The Empire Strikes Back and Gus John’s book Taking a Stand show how the Black community were ‘taking a stand’ to address this travesty.¹²

The trajectory, however, was already set. Many were demoralised and disaffected. Ignored or undereducated by teachers, left to their own devices – listening to ‘ghetto blaster radios’ at the back of the classroom – some would stray into more deviant behaviour. The Black community and Black teachers tried to ameliorate antagonistic race relations by introducing ‘multiculturalism’ in schools but that too suffered a backlash.¹³

These developments occurred against a backdrop of rebellion and revolution in the 1960s and 1990s, with colonies gaining independence, the civil rights movement, the rise of Black Consciousness, Black Power and the reformed self-image of ‘Black Is Beautiful’. As young people, we began to learn about Black History from courageous white and black historians.¹⁴ Simultaneously, many youth were turning to Rastafarianism,¹⁵ alienated from Christianity, which they associated with oppression and slavery. Hopes were raised for recognition of Black Power and values when apartheid (1948–94) was overthrown in South Africa and Nelson Mandela was released after twenty-seven years’ imprisonment (1990) to later become the president of South Africa (1994–9). However, some felt that Mandela might have been brainwashed because he was no longer militant but followed Christian values of forgiveness, paving the way for reconciliation.

Social control was being exerted by government policies, causing division between races and social classes. This process of racist segregation starts very early on in the education system.¹⁶ Indeed, in 1979 Coard stated that black (and mixed-race) children (and poor, white working-class children) would be minimally educated to maintain the ‘social hierarchy’ and ‘an abundant’ supply ‘of unskilled labour’.¹⁷ A white ‘career’ offender claimed that, instead of places of reform, ‘prisons were colleges for criminals’, where young offenders are taught more criminality from seasoned inmates.¹⁸

Education according to state strategies was (and still is) ‘more for social control of black youth’ and of black people in general.¹⁹ In recent decades (2000–19), black children have been placed in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), decried by some because schools and local councils received up to four times as much funding for each pupil as they would in mainstream schools, yet there are few teaching resources and the children are left to their own devices. Is history repeating itself? Epidemic proportions of black children are being excluded from schools, especially in inner cities. Parents are desperate, as they have little disposable income and must work so they can’t supervise or teach their children. More determined parents resort to homeschooling, which is a challenge because the schools and councils refuse to release the funds that are rightfully for each pupil, so parents are forced to pay for costly private tuition.

Returning to black–white race relations, with rising unemployment, unions striking and far-right factions taking root, racism resurfaced, culminating in clashes, riots, racial attacks and injustice from the 1960s to the latest riot in 2011. I remember the battles between white and BAME youths as extreme racists went ‘Niggah hunting’ or ‘Paki bashing’. During that time, Asians allied themselves to Black people as having a common enemy and seeking racial equality and justice. The police, however, were often ‘too’ ready to arrest Black youth whom they suspected of vagrancy and, in later years, of possession of illegal substances or weapons. The ‘sus’ law, which began under the ‘suspected persons’ stop-and-search section of the Vagrancy Act 1824, was used increasingly on Black youth during the 1970s and 1980s and was acutely felt in the post-Powell (racist) climate. Modern-day stop-and-search disproportionately targets black people today. Some things just do not change but are dressed up and justified in contemporary discourse and rationales that are clearly discriminatory but politically pushed through. After the riots in 1981 the Criminal Attempts Act repealed the sus law; but this was reversed in 1984 by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), in effect reinstating sus. In 2000, section 44 of the Terrorism Act legitimated the racially profiled sus; but, in 2010, it was ruled illegal under the human rights agenda, though it continues under section 60.

Because of riots, Black youth were portrayed in the media as ‘savages, rapists and rampagers’.²⁰ Van Djik avers that sources were only quoted because they fit into the dominant discourse and confirm general attitudes about Black people.²¹ Soon, many Black youths found themselves in youth offender centres or prisons.

Victimised

In addition to sus on the streets, police often raided ‘house’ parties, nightclubs, ‘shebeens’ and homes where they suspected cannabis (or ‘weed’, ‘ganja’) was being used. The emergent Rastafarian community were often targeted, even though their young people were more well behaved than deviant. The ‘crimes’ diversified as more ‘Black on Black’ violence became prominent, and knife and gun crimes have become more prevalent today, with increasing numbers of young people killed year on year – 132 in London in 2019, the bloodiest in a decade. Rather than examine the history and social conditions and legacies of violence and oppression, modern commentators still resort to cultural and racial pathology, proposing that black people need to take care of their addictions, mental illnesses and propensities to join gangs rather than that these are manifestations of clustered disadvantage and geopolitical drivers of multiple problems.²²

Nevertheless, some of the killings were racial, as notably the thirteen Black teenagers who died in a fire at a house party in Newcross, south London, in 1981, which sparked protests.²³ As was the fatal stabbing of eleven-year-old Damilola Taylor in 2000 and of eighteen-year-old Stephen Lawrence in 1993. In the latter case, it took eighteen years for his mother to get justice and hold the police and judiciary up to scrutiny and obtain a new ruling. A change in legislation to partially revoke the rule of not being able to prosecute for the same offence twice (double jeopardy) eventually enabled two of the defendants to be convicted and imprisoned. In the MacPherson Report in 1999 of the inquiry on the Stephen Lawrence case, there are 382 mentions of the word ‘racist’. In his inquiry report, MacPherson said that ‘institutional racism’ had hampered the investigations. Since then, this term has then been applied as a lens through which to consider inequalities in other public services. More recently, ‘unconscious racism or bias’ has been proffered to explain (excuse) racial harassment cases.²⁴ It is regrettable that racism in health care remains a concern and some still dispute its relevance.²⁵

Such processes are unacceptable to Black communities when members are attacked, maimed or killed by police – police who are supposed to protect citizens. In 1985, three Black women, Cynthia Jarrett, Cherry Groce and Joy Gardner, were maimed or shot by police during raids on their homes who were allegedly searching for suspected criminals. Riots broke out in Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm Estate and in Brixton, south London.²⁶

The world was shocked in August 2011, when riots erupted in London and other UK cities, as well as arson attacks in Croydon, south London, after minicab passenger Mark Duggan was shot dead, ‘execution-style’, by police marksman. The police said it was drug-related; but whether it was or not surely arrest and then a fair trial is the usual route, not ‘shoot first and ask questions later’?²⁷

Invisibilised

‘Disappear or become invisible’ seems to be the underlying desire of racists towards Black people. Queen Elizabeth I expressed this sentiment. Called the greatest English monarch, her wealth and success came from slavery and sea battles in the West Indies. Yet, in 1596 and 1601, she issued proclamations to expel ‘those kind of people’, namely ‘blackamoors’ and ‘nears’ from ‘her realm’.²⁸ Her attempts at immigration control failed and this has been a contentious issue, since I contend that Black people are considered too ‘visible’ in British society. Gary Craig also argues that the lack of focus on race has led to the ‘invisibilising’ of race within current policy.²⁹

This I realised in 1998 when a Brazilian told me that Brazil had paintings where Black people were painted without defining features. They would have faces but no eyes, nose or mouth – dehumanising or ‘invisibilising’ them. The Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages behaved ‘schizophrenically’ in their apparent ‘memory loss of the very real and influential presence of Moors (Moslem Africans), who invaded, conquered and ruled the Iberian peninsula, especially Spain, for 700 years from AD 711. The church gleaned the superior knowledge and science from the Moors who had established or influenced universities in Europe and in Oxford, England, but hid this from the masses because they feared the loss of church power and influence. Shakespeare’s play Othello also evidences Black influence.³⁰

The Windrush generation were not the first Black people in Britain, but decades of race relations have not brought them or their descendants closer to a sense of being welcome or ‘belonging’ here. However, their British-born children and grandchildren expect to be treated the same as other British people, to have an equal share in the society’s resources and equal life chances.

State initiatives to forcibly assimilate immigrants have had little success and are resisted. Naturalisation tests (2005) and citizenship tests (2007) were introduced, and immigrants were put under extreme duress and financial burden to ‘prove’ their ‘worthiness’ to be accepted as British citizens. These policies would require that BAME people ‘forsake all that makes them out as culturally distinct, before real Britishness can be guaranteed’.³¹ Furthermore, fear aroused from 9/11 in the United States and 7/7 in London exacerbated hostilities along religious, cultural and racial lines.

Pathologised

Another concern for Black youth is that they are pathologised, with some sent to mental institutions. Diagnosed by psychiatrists (with ‘unconscious biases’ or susceptible to ‘institutional racism’) or ‘misdiagnosed’,³² they are sectioned, (over)medicated or incarcerated, disproportionately, in forensic and medium-secure mental institutions for lengthy periods. There is no natural explanation grounded in genetics or race, as such notions are scientific nonsense. The histories, legacies and conditions of life are responsible and yet ignored. Even following the experience of mental illness, black people receive coercive care, more medication and biological treatments rather than psychotherapy or sufficient social intervention.

Notable cases of Black men who have died in custody include David ‘Rocky’ Bennett, Sean Rigg and many more. Rigg’s family published a list of 3,180 people who had died in police custody, prison, mental hospitals or immigration detention camps in the UK between 1969 and 2011.³³ Bennett’s sister’s campaign inspired the Delivering Race Equality (DRE) initiative and the Race Equality Cultural Capability (RECC) training (2005–10) to raise race and cultural awareness and minimise racist practices.

Black children’s homes are regarded as ‘dysfunctional’ and ‘not good enough’ by social services, who remove children and put them into foster care or up for adoption, usually to white parents. The stereotypical Black family is perceived to be matrifocal or matriarchal, denoting the ‘absence’ of fathers because of the preponderance of ‘baby mothers’. However, this does not acknowledge the part slave owners played in separating families and siring illegitimate mixed-race children themselves, which have left single parenting as its legacy into modern times.³⁴ Traditional African families say that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. However, slavery destabilised this family structure; and other deliberate ways to degrade and disable Black people, and keep them ignorant of their history, their moral and scientific principles, through sexually charged and violent music, are orchestrated by controlling factions (hip-hop’s Professor Griff, 2010).³⁵

Identity, Aspirations and Resolve

Given all these factors, it is not surprising that Black youth may be confused on issues of belonging, identity, self-image, self-esteem and worth. With a barrage of negativity through media, society and community, they may have internalised this,³⁶ which may explain how ‘self-hatred’ and ‘Black on Black’ violence have taken hold. Whether they want protection, ‘respect’ from ‘olders’, or father figures, to be feared or want to make ‘quick money’, more Black youth have joined gangs.

They also identify with ‘celebrity’ music artists (hip-hop rappers, grime or drill) who talk about experiences they can relate to. Rastafarian ‘Black conscious’ reggae songs promoted Black pride and positive self-image. Black youth can reject the negative impositions on their identity and reach out for a universal humanity that fosters justice, equality and equity.³⁷