Twenty-one years since the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in South London, the criminal justice system maintains a reflex to deny racism. This amounts to the routine denial of justice.
The Institute of Race Relations examines racial violence in Britain since 1993.
The routine demonisation and vilification of migrant workers is underpinning the spread of racist violence into new areas in the UK. But it is rarely politically acknowledged.
Specific patterns of ‘hate’ are emerging and the far right is mobilising and making inroads in smaller towns and cities: often rural places, once-industrial, where the experience of marked inequalities and relatively recent demographic change go hand in hand.
As new patterns of racial violence emerge throughout the UK, anti-racist campaigners need to forge new solidarities based on an understanding of local realities