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

Black people 23 are a lot more likely to be the victims of racially motivated incidents; 2.2 % for
African and Caribbean, 4.6 % for Bangladeshi and Pakistani, 3.6 % for Indian as opposed to
0.3 % for white people (National Statistics Online, 2004). It is interesting to note that 41 % of
African Caribbeans, 45 % of Indians, 82 % of Pakistani and 84 % of Bangladeshi origin have
incomes that are less than the national average in comparison to only 28 % of white people
(Cabinet Offi ce Strategy Unit Report, 2003).
In recent years the monitoring of racially-aggravated crime, and violent racial crime in parpar- ticular, has become more sophisticated, and government fi gures (although far from perfect)
suggest a growing problem of hate crime. Indeed, most broadly-conceived ‘hate crime’ (includ-
ing racially-motivated, religious and homophobic crime) is not reported, with the Metropolitan
Police estimating that up to 90 % of such crime goes unreported (ACPO, 2005). For the purpur- poses of this chapter it is important to note that overwhelmingly, it seems racially-aggravated
crime is committed by young men – we can conceive of hate crime as primarily a problem of
the young.
Within this context, recent years have seen a shift in the fortunes of the extreme right
across Europe, with racist political parties gaining footholds, and perhaps more signifi cantly,
infl uencing the political agenda. In the UK, the mainstream political parties have shifted their
policies and rhetoric in response to electoral and political gains made by the extreme right in
recent years. Although it is important to not exaggerate the electoral power of the BNP (British
National Party) in the UK, it has made gains since the mid-1990s. At the 2004 General Election,
it contested 119 seats 24 , compared with 33 in 2001. Although it was not successful in electing
any Members of Parliament (MPs), it did increase its share of the vote in some areas 25 .
To an extent, this has been a result of attempts by the party to legitimise itself since 1999,
borrowing from tactics that have proved successful elsewhere in Europe, and particularly in
France (see, for example, the BNP’s leader, Nick Griffi n, sharing a platform with Jean Marie
Le Pen during the 2004 election campaign). This process has had a palpable effect on the
mainstream political parties, with issues around asylum and immigration high on the political
agenda. So what what kind of nation are we?
The chapter is in two parts. First, it conceptualises the problem of racism in the UK, outlinoutlin- ing some of the distinguishing features of the changing approaches to the issue in the policy
arena, and identifying some of the factors that mark out dialogue around racism and young
people in the UK. Following this diagnosis, the chapter moves on to discuss the approaches
to dealing with racist attitudes amongst young people, focussing on the role of the schools
23 For the purposes of this chapter, we will use black in its political context (Robinson, 1998; Patel & Chouhan
1998; Chouhan et al., 1996), meaning all non-white people suffering from oppression. This is a contested
notion (Modood, 1988; 1990) but encapsulates a community of shared identity without trivialising the differences
which exist within society.
24 In the UK, electors vote in one of 651 electoral constituencies, with the party winning the majority of these
forming the government.
25 Notably in Barking where it gained 16.9 % of the vote, its highest ever in a General Election, despite failing
to unseat the former Minister, Margaret Hodge.
80 Racism and Young People in the United Kingdom