RACE OR ETHNICITY

Race or Ethnicity

Race or Ethnicity

Introduction

Since the late 1980s ethnic minority politics in Britain has shifted from “black”1 politics of inclusion and equality to Muslim and South Asian demands for distinct religious and cultural rights (Ansari 2005). Public discourse claims that Muslims and South Asians are alienated from mainstream Britain because they live in impoverished ethnic ghettos, participate in non mainstream religions, and politically organize via ethnically and religiously motivated networks (Leiken 2005, Reiss 2005). However, despite the availability of survey data there have not been many statistical analyses that analyze the motivations behind Muslim and South Asian British identification.

Racial Riots 1958

The Notting Hill race riots were a series of racially-motivated riots that took place in London, England over several nights in late August and early September 1958. The riot is thought to have started on Saturday 30 August when a gang of white youths attacked a white Swedish woman, Majbritt Morrison. The youths had seen her the previous night arguing with her Jamaican husband Raymond at Latimer Road tube station. They had shouted racial insults at him and were incensed when she turned on them. Seeing her the next night, the same youths pelted her with bottles, stones and wood and struck her in the back with an iron bar, until the police intervened and she was escorted home. Morrison later wrote an autobiographical book, Jungle West 11, which included details of her ordeal.

Later that night a mob of 300 to 400 white people, many of them "Teddy Boys", were seen on Bramley Road attacking the houses of West Indian residents. The disturbances, rioting and attacks continued every night until they petered out by 5 September. The sentencing of the nine white youths arrested during the riots has passed into judicial lore as an example of "exemplary sentencing" - a harsh punishment to act as a deterrent to others. Each of the youths received four years in prison. The Notting Hill Carnival was started by Claudia Jones in January 1959 as a response to the riots and the state of race relations in Britain at the time.

Riots of Liverpool, Bristol and Bradford

The Bristol Bridge Riot of 30 September 1793 began as a protest at renewal of an act levying of tolls on Bristol Bridge, which included the proposal to demolish several houses near the bridge in order to create a new access road, and controversy about the date for removal of gates. 11 people were killed and 45 injured, making it one of the worst riots of the 18th century.

The Bradford Riots were a short but intense period of rioting which began on July 7, 2001, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It occurred as a result of heightened tension between the large and growing ethnic minority communities and the city's white majority, stoked by confrontation between the Anti-Nazi League and far right groups such as the National Front. Similar race riots had occurred earlier in May in Oldham and in June in Burnley other parts of northern ...