Prevention of Right-Wing Extremism, Xenophobia and Racism in ...

ROD DACOMBE & MOMODOU SALLAH
Racism and Young People in the United Kingdom
Introduction
To glance at the headlines, or to listen to the soundbites of the political classes, it might be
easy to imagine the United Kingdom (UK) as a hotbed of racial tension, with disquiet centred
on the nation’s youth. Take the comments of Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Commission for
Racial Equality (CRE), who recently suggested that Britain may be ‘sleepwalking to segregasegrega- tion’ (Phillips, T., 2005), warning of the dangers of perceived increases in racial polarisation. 21
In recent years, race riots in Bradford, Oldham, Burnley and in 2005 in Birmingham, show
a physical manifestation of the racial tensions felt by young people in Britain. It could be said
that the events of the 7th July 2005 seemed to compound these debates. Soon after work on
this chapter began, four young Black and Asian men, all practising an extreme form of what
they claimed to be Islam, brought the nation to a standstill by detonating bombs on the Lon-
don transport system. Many died, including the bombers themselves.
Needless to say, these events were seized upon by the extreme right. During the local councoun- cil by-election in Barking, soon after the bombings, the British National Party’s (BNP) 22 cam
paign literature carried aerial photographs of the bus destroyed by one of the bombers. The
electoral (and political) gains made by the BNP in this environment might seem to indicate an
increased dissatisfaction amongst the electorate with the approach taken by the mainstream
political parties to issues of race.
But does this image fi t with the reality of life in the UK? Recent evidence has suggested that
Trevor Phillips, at least, may be wrong. The issue of racial segregation seems far more com- com-
plex when given a second look, with socio-economic factors apparently far more divisive than
race (Simpson, 2004). Equally, recent statistics show that perceptions of racism in Britain are
complicated, with a decline in perceived levels of racism amongst some ethnic minority groups
(Zimmeck, 2005). We need to consider this evidence critically; there is ample evidence to sugsug- gest that racial discrimination has, in fact, grown more subtle and more structurally engrained.
The use of stop and search powers by the Police has increased over the past couple of years
by 300 % for Asians and 250 % for Africans and Caribbeans (Black Manifesto, 2005).
21 Although this is an extreme scenario, it should be noted that there is a risk of cultivating parallel multiculturalism
in the UK as detailed in the Cantle (2001) Report where there is physical, social, economic and
political separation of opportunities and interaction.
22 In recent years the BNP has become the dominant electoral force amongst extreme right parties in the UK,
replacing the National Front (NF), which enjoyed some success in local politics during the 1970s before
declining in popularity after the 1979 General Election.
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