Chelmuș Alexandra - Racism in Great Britain

The topic I intend to develop in this paper is regarding the racism in Great Britain,
how it increased or disminished and why.

Targets of racist period were varied in time and it was linked to the relationships with
some former colonies settled in Great Britain after the World War II .The Segregation was
prohibited in 1960 and various laws appeared. The ward ‘racism’ was more used after 1936 and
also appeared the term ’race hatred’.

Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, it was
believed that a person's social or moral traits were predetermined by their inborn biological
characteristics. Racism has become more than just hatred for a certain ethnicity or skin colour in
recent years. Racism has become not just prejudice, but prejudice plus power and only white people can be
racist. This is not only untrue but is the kind of lie that stirs up racial hatred.

During the eighteenth century, Britain was seen as a Black Britain with a society full
of slave owners, the largest black population, assumed as 10,000.They were forced to work in low
category jobs such as beggary and slavery and the majority of them were runaways.

In general Great Britain always was fair, tolerant and open-minded with its ethnic
minorities, but that doesn´t mean that racial prejudice, stereotyping and even hate are not present in
the social life.

One good of extreme racism is the example of the murder of one young black male,
Stephen Lawrence in April 1993. He was living in Eltham, a southeast suburb of London, and he
was murdered by a gang of white youths. This hate crime has brought attention to the
incompetence, indifference and mishandling of the police officers that worked on this case. Ethnic
minorities complained that they suffered because of the prejudice and discrimination brought on
them by the police and demanded solutions or even just a sign of justice for them.

During this period of injustice and discrimination the state introduced various acts or
lows such as The Race Relations Act 1995 for public discrimination, The Race Relations Board,
Commission for Racial Equality and the Equality and Human Rights Commision in 2004. Racism
existed also in the police where various police forces (Manchester Police, London Metropolitan
Police the Sussex Police or the West Yorkshire Police). They were accused of institutionalised
racism and was created even a BBC Secret Policemen documentary. The national Black Police
Association allowed only African, African-Caribbean and Asian officers and were criticized for
being racist. Even in prison the staff was also racist.

Racism was also preent in the criminal justice system where black teenagers were
more likely to be prisoned for homicide. It was revealed that there are many black people in prison,
more than the numbers of the white ones.

Many consider that reports of racist and bigoted behaviour seem to increase
dramatically after major news events. A lecturer in hate studies at the University of Leicester, Dr.
Stevie-Jade Hardy stated that "Hate crimes don't occur in a vacuum". Such examples include: the
murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in May 2013 resulting in 109 anti-Muslim hate crimes on the streets
of London.

In the 21st century, after the United Kingdom government austerity program and the
Conservative Party election or the Home Office Hostile environment policy has risen the racist and
the xenophobic.

There have been 52,528 registered reports of hate crime in 2014-2015, but the Crime
Survey for England and Wales, which questions people about their experiences, had suggested an
estimated number of 222,000 hate crimes on average per year between 2012-2013 and 2014-2015,
an indication that only around one in four hate crimes were actually reported.

In Northern Ireland in 2004 appeared a huge number of racist incidents. Police

informed that those actions accured especially in the loyalist Protestant zones. The various attacks
included bombs with pipe and petrol or guns attacks.

Solutions have always been searched to resolve the problem in some way and the
authorities have always been determined to do so. There have been inspections on the police forces
and how they handle hate crimes, the government had announced a plan to tackle hate crime in
England and Wales and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary was asked to study how forces
deal with it. There is a feeling of both optimism and pessimism for the future. But it is only a matter
of time to see if this minority of Britons will calm down and will stop committing such acts or not.
 In addition potential prejudice can come from anyone, black or white, who feels that a
person is not like themselves.Prejudice usually stays hidden, but it can surface violently when a
particular group feels its identity has become fragile or is threatened, essentially it acts out of fear.
If this situation is not recognized it usually creates chaos and hatred. The fact that hate crimes are
being tackled with seriousness by politicians and police, is very important, but it is also essential,
that these incidents to not only be punished and resolved in isolation but to be understood in their
wider context in order to identify the root of the problem, the places where they happen and the
causes for which such crimes appear.

Bibliography

1. Oakland, John – ‘’Contemporary Britain. A Survey with Texts’’, pg. 237-246

2. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-26465916
3. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36964916
 ‘In numbers: Has Britain really become more racist?’

By Jon Kelly, BBC News Magazine, 10 August 2016

Hate crime rose sharply after the EU referendum, according to police figures. But is
heightened racial tension here to stay?

"Why are you still here?" a customer asked Lithuanian-born Alma Milaseviciute, 31,
as she stood at the counter of the cheese shop where she works in Ludlow, Shropshire. "Good luck
on your way back," another sneered.

"Get out of my country," yelled a man at Esmat Jeraj, 26, after swearing at her. He'd
spotted her wearing a hijab as she walked to work in Whitechapel, east London. Jeraj was born and
raised in the UK.

"You speak English, don't you?", a woman in her 60s asked Brazilian-born Danilo
Venticinque, 30, at a Southampton bus stop when she overheard him talking to his Mexican wife in
Spanish. "Can you understand what I'm saying? This is our country. We are leaving the EU. We
will stop having so many people like you over here."

Those incidents took place after the referendum on European Union membership. All
three victims are at pains to acknowledge the perpetrators represent a minority of Britons and that
most people in the UK would be horrified by this behaviour. Prominent Leave campaigners have
also strongly condemned abusive and bigoted behaviour of this kind. But there's clear evidence that
there's been a spike in hate crime since the 23 June ballot. There were more than 6,000 reports of
hate crime to police between mid-June and mid-July, according to the National Police Chiefs'
Council (NPCC). Cards containing the words "No more Polish Vermin" were distributed in
Huntingdon. In Plymouth, a Polish family were the victims of what police believe was a racially-
motivated arson attack. Racist graffiti was scrawled on a Polish center in west London..

"I think it will calm down," says Milaseviciute. "It was this big thing and everybody
was shocked about Brexit." Still, she's decided to stay indoors in the evenings for a while. Just after
the result, a man who overheard her accent screamed at her in the street: "You are illegal.
Everything you do is illegal." It's likely he was emboldened by the result. Some 3,219 hate crimes
and incidents alleged to have taken place between 16-30 June were reported to police forces across
England, Wales and Northern Ireland, according to the NPCC. This represented a 37% increase
compared with the same period last year. These figures, published this week, are updates of
those previously released - the NPCC says the statistics change over time because of retrospective
reporting of crime. The next reporting period, from 1-14, July, resulted in 3,235 reports of hate
crimes and incidents (these figures have also been updated by the NPCC). This was only 0.5% up
on the previous fortnight - the previously released statistics had shown a drop - but it was still a
29% increase on the same period in 2015. In 15-28 July saw 3,236 reports - virtually unchanged on
the previous fortnight and up 40% on the same period the previous year. Police Scotland
has said this rise in reports has not been witnessed north of the borde. so has something
permanently changed, or will hate crime levels revert to where they were before? It's normal for
reports of racist and bigoted behaviour to soar after major news events. "Hate crimes don't occur in
a vacuum," says Dr Stevie-Jade Hardy, lecturer in hate studies at the University of Leicester. In
May 2013, the month that Fusilier Lee Rigby was murdered, there were 109 anti-Muslim hate
crimes on the streets of London, according to Tell MAMA, a group which monitors Islamophobic
attacks. Prior to this, from April 2012 to April 2013, there were 28 anti-Muslim hate crimes per
month on average.

Likewise, there was a record high of 1,179 anti-Semitic incidents in 2014, which the
Community Security Trust (CST) attributed to reactions to the conflict in Gaza in July and August
of that year. Anti-Semitic hate crime also spiked in 2009, when conflict in Gaza also took place. So
it's possible that reports of hate crimes will return to normal levels, but there's reason to suspect this
won't happen straight away, says Supt Paul Giannasi of the NPCC's Hate Crime Group. There are a
number of reasons for this, he adds. Firstly, Brexit "isn't really over for most people". It still
dominates the headlines and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. It's also important to
remember that the referendum wasn't the only relevant event during this period, he says. Terror
attacks took place in Nice and Munich, and the Orlando shootings happened just before, so blaming
Brexit exclusively would be simplistic. It's likely campaigns like this made people more likely to
report hate crimes to the police, Giannasi says: "I think we are seeing a greater commitment by
people who are witnessing things. Most decent people in the country are utterly indignant." Police
recorded 52,528 hate crimes in 2014-15 - but the Crime Survey for England and Wales (based on
questioning people about their experiences) suggested there were an estimated 222,000 hate crimes
on average per year between 2012-13 to 2014-15. This suggests that only around one in four hate
crimes are actually reported. There's no inevitability that reports of hate crimes and incidents
actually will fall. The CST says incidents of anti-Semitism were up by 11% in the first six months
of 2016 compared with the same period the previous year despite there not having been any obvious
"trigger events". The authorities say they are determined to tackle the problem, however. Police
handling of hate crime is to be reviewed following the rise, the home secretary has said, and the
government has announced a plan to tackle hate crime in England and Wales. Her Majesty's
Inspectorate of Constabulary has been asked to study how forces deal with hate crime. Victims are
waiting to see what kind of impact this has.

"Things seem to have calmed down a little," says Jeraj. "There's been a very strong
response to say there's no place for hatred. But I know people who are afraid to leave their house."
When Venticinque posted the story of what happened to him on Facebook, he was overwhelmed by
the positive response he received from British people. "They told me that I was welcome, that they
were ashamed of what had happened," he says. People like the woman who approached him are, he
says, "a minority, but it's a minority that shouldn't feel so confident".

Bibliography

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-48692863

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36964916

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-the-papers-44091118