The furore about Diane Abbott’s tweet reveals a wilful inability to distinguish between state racism and personal prejudice. It is quite clear to anyone with an ounce of politics, that MP Diane Abbotts’s ‘whites divide and rule’ tweet would not have made newspaper headlines had it not been for the critical verdict in the Lawrence
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Germany’s Stephen Lawrence
How can lessons from the Lawrence case be applied to that of Oury Jalloh, who was burned to death in a German police cell seven years ago? Last Tuesday, here in the UK, two men were found guilty of the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence. This verdict, eighteen years in the making, gave the nation
‘Veto nationalism’: populism, nationalism and the Tories
An examination of the Euroscepticism, nationalism and patriotism being established by politicians and the media in the UK. ‘It takes a rare party leader to reach beyond the arid debates of the political elite and touch the passions of the people. David Cameron has proved himself that kind of leader with his use of Britain’s
96 murders since Stephen Lawrence’s
The convictions of Gary Dobson and David Norris will be bitter-sweet vindication for the family of Stephen Lawrence who have fought an 18-year campaign for justice. NO family has campaigned as this one – taking their own evidence to the police, bringing a private prosecution against the alleged killers, demanding and getting a public inquiry which
96 murders since Stephen Lawrence’s
The convictions of Gary Dobson and David Norris will be bitter-sweet vindication for the family of Stephen Lawrence who have fought an 18-year campaign for justice. No family has campaigned as this one – taking their own evidence to the police, bringing a private prosecution against the alleged killers, demanding and getting a public inquiry
Professor John Rex 1925-2011
A tribute from A. Sivanandan, director Institute of Race Relations. John Rex was one of the first sociologists in Britain to bring class to the study of ‘race’ – as his pioneering study (with Robert Moore) of housing in Sparkbrook (Race, community and conflict, IRR, 1969) showed so starkly. And that insight he brought into
Young Lives in Limbo
New research highlights the huge inconsistencies in assessing the age of separated young people seeking asylum and the damaging implications of getting it wrong. Each year separated young people arrive without identity documents or birth certificates to verify their age. To quote one young person, ‘I come to this country and I want to tell
Second immigration detention ruled ‘inhuman or degrading’
For the second time in three months, a High Court judge has condemned the immigration detention of a mentally ill offender as inhuman or degrading. Campaigners are calling for a thorough review of the detention of vulnerable people after the judgment in October 2011 that the detention of a mentally ill man for deportation violated
Cardiff cabbies to strike over violence
A mass strike is being threatened by Cardiff taxi drivers next week, in protest against the routine racism, abuse and violence that cabbies face and indifference by the police and local council. According to the chairman of the Cardiff Hackney Association (CHA), Mathab Khan, 731 CHA members could walk out next Friday, amid claims police
A tale of two cities
Recent outrages in Liège and Florence have received very different media interest. On the same day and just hundreds of miles apart ‘a lone gunman’ struck – at Liège’s Christmas market in Belgium and in Florence’s central squares on 13 December. In both cases they appear to have been completely unprovoked random attacks on innocent