Last month, charges against Zulf Shah for actual bodily harm were thrown out of court for lack of evidence. Zulf was charged following a racist attack by a man and a woman, in which he was punched and kicked unconscious, and then repeatedly kicked as he lay on the ground. Before the assault, the man
Dear IRR News subscriber, In a week in which we remember the deaths of both Stephen Lawrence (1993) and Blair Peach (1979), a review of the national press reveals that the issues of police racism and the danger of the far Right need still to be high on our agenda. We also draw your attention
Dear IRR News subscriber, This week, as the twentieth anniversary of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence approaches, on 22 April, the IRR examines racial violence since his death. Jenny Bourne also reviews a new book which is ‘getting unwarranted coverage in the media’, and in case you missed it last week, her assessment of
As the twentieth anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence approaches, the IRR examines racial violence since his death in 1993. In the twenty years since the death of Stephen Lawrence, we can report that 106 people have lost their lives in (known or suspected) racist attacks – five per year on average, that black
A recent tome by Prospect founder David Goodhart on The British Dream is getting unwarranted coverage in the media. Have you stopped to think who the present commentators are about British race matters? BME leaders? No. Academics who have proven research credentials? No again. Or, as in the olden days, ‘home affairs’ specialists on credited
A collection of essays on varieties of European racism contains valuable insights and useful lessons. A minister cuts a cake. The cake is in the shape of a black woman, and the cut exposes her pink genitals, as a performance artist screams. The event, an ill-conceived critique of female genital mutilation, backfires, as the white,
Cameron’s nativist policies begin with Thatcher. Thatcher’s attitude to foreigners can be summed up in two phrases: ‘people are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture’ (January 1978) and the war cry ‘Sink the Belgrano’ (May 1983) over the Malvinas. She was, without doubt, a xenophobe,
Over the last few months, police officers have been arrested in connection with the deaths of Sean Rigg and Kingsley Burrell, while someone died after being detained under the Mental Health Act. Sean Rigg On 27 March 2013, three police officers were arrested in connection with their evidence at the inquest into the death of
Dear IRR News subscriber, This week, Jenny Bourne analyses Thatcher’s legacy on ‘race’ in the UK, showing how she paved the way for today’s commonsense nativism. Harmit Athwal and Paul Grant provide an update on deaths in police custody. And Frances Webber reviews a collection of essays on varieties of European racism. ‘Racial violence and the
Dear IRR News subscriber, This week, the April issue of Race & Class is out and contains a special section: ‘Cuts, crime and racialisation’, which examines how neoliberalism in a time of austerity, is changing the nature of racism and criminal justice. And we publish the latest briefing paper from the European Research Programme, State intelligence
