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

landscape in contrast to the previous policies, which sought to recruit, restrict and repatriate
with the premise that black people are the problem.
It should be noted that discourse around race and racism is no longer based on clear
boundaries of black and white; it is beyond that as even the consensus around the political
defi nition of black is beginning to show signs of fragmentation. Faith is also another dimen-
sion of racism, especially the alarming growth of islamophobia and religious extremism. A
similarly signifi cant aspect is the expansion of the EU and its resultant injection of people of
East European origin into the British system; although mostly white, the shift in racism is no
longer limited to colour but to culture including language – hence the popularisation of the
term “new minorities”. Therefore the multidimensional nature of racial discourse must be
deciphered in its entirety, including ethnic, faith and cultural perspectives. Racism towards the
travelling community must also be be understood from this angle.
So far, this chapter has provided an introduction to the conception and development of
discussion of racism in the UK. The rest of the chapter is devoted to discussing, within this
context, two areas of intervention focussed on young people; education policy and informal
education and youth work.
Education policy and anti-racism in the UK
One of the the most signifi cant areas of debate around the issue of racism and young people in
the UK centres on the role of schools and the education system. The importance placed by
policy-makers on government government interventions has ensured that debates around the problems of
racism and young people in the UK have maintained a steady focus on the schools system as
the primary point of action. This section will begin by reviewing the problem of racism within
schools, before outlining the attempts on the part of successive governments to resolve them.
Throughout the post-war era in particular, issues of ‘race’ and education have been strongly
debated, and have been treated in different ways by successive governments. At the heart of
these issues are the shifting conceptualisations of race, racism and multiculturalism that have
driven government policy policy around the shape of schooling in the UK. Discussion of the (hotly
contested) issues of ‘anti-racism’ and ‘multiculturalism’ within education policy has become
increasingly complex, with public discourse shifting from a focus on individual pupil attain-
ment towards broader notions around the role education can play in tackling racism in local
communities. More recently, the fi ndings of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and the subsequent
undertakings by the government have ensured that issues of educational equality remain high
on the the agenda.
This section examines the role of schooling and education in dealing with racism in the UK.
It uses relevant empirical data to demonstrate the development of the main areas of debate,
before discussing the main forms of intervention taken on the part of recent governments.
86 Racism and Young People in the United Kingdom