Muhammed Rafique Khan was knifed through the heart on 6 January outside his menswear shop in Plumstead High Street, south-east London. It was 10 minutes till closing when a 30-year-old white man ran into the shop. What happened inside is not exactly known. But witnesses at a nearby bus stop heard an altercation and saw
Theme: Health
Interactive anti-racism
The first anti-racist interactive CD-ROM has just been created by the Institute of Race Relations. HomeBeats: struggles for racial justice is aimed at young people for use at home, school or youth centres. Focusing on the black presence in Britain and British struggles against racism, the CD connects slavery and colonialism to contemporary racism and,
Getting through? New approaches to tackling youth racism
At the front line of new initiatives are youth workers. The voluntary relationship between youth worker and ‘client’ (as opposed to the official relationship between teacher and pupil) provides a unique environment for tackling racism. An informal and more personal relationship can develop, giving the youth worker room for manoeuvre denied to the teacher. On
Prisoner left hanging
The vexed question of the privatisation of the British prison service has again come to the fore following the death of Peter Austin at Brentford magistrates’ court on 29 January. Disturbing evidence emerged at the inquest held in July, where the verdict was accidental death aggravated by lack of care by the guards. Securicor staff
Two Cultures of English Cricket
While football and rugby league authorities have at least paid lip service to the cause of anti-racism, the cricket authorities have up till now adopted a ‘hear no evil see no evil’ approach to the touchy subject. However, a new study from the Centre for Sport Development Research at Roehampton Institute has confirmed that cricket
Law, order and the politics of convergence
On the street Police stop and search powers have been described by a senior policeman as ‘a contact sport for officers’. They have featured centrally in complaints of police racism. It was a vast stop and search operation, Operation Swamp ’81, which sparked the Brixton uprising of that year. Even the City of London ‘ring
The fight against racist science
An interview with Steven Rose Why are we seeing a resurgence of racist scientific ideas now with books like The Bell Curve and The g Factor? Scientific racism has been around for a very long time. The last big wave began in 1969 and was tied up with people like Eysenck in this country and
Deportations of Roma to former Yugoslavia
About seventy Sinti and Roma occupied the office of the EU-Commission in Bonn to draw attention to the fact that Germany is continuing to deport Roma to the former Yugoslavia despite the fact that the European parliament is considering an appeal by the Roma National Congress (RNC) against the deportations. On 24 October, the family
Deadly silence: black deaths in custody (introduction)
One death is a death too many. Too many of us* have died without cause, since first we came to work for this country in the post-war years, in the custody of the police, the prison system and the special hospitals. Or if cause there be, common to all three, it is the racist bias