Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Mixed-race relationships were controversial in the early twentieth century, and in the north-west of England these relationships were considered disturbing enough to justify academic research.

the mentally weak, the prostitutes, the young and reckless, and those who felt forced into marriage because of illegitimate children.

social class was determined by biological factors such as intelligence, health and the vague criteria of ‘moral values’.

Rachman’s reputation was so poor that his name became a synonym for bad treatment of tenants. Chambers 21st Century Dictionary defines Rachmanism today as ‘exploitation or extortion by a landlord of tenants living in slum conditions’.24

‘no blacks, no dogs, no Irish’

In 2002, prematurely released government files revealed that police detectives had successfully convinced then Home Secretary Rab Butler that the Notting Hill riots weren’t about race, but instead were simply the work of hooligans.

Throughout the 1950s, the government was reluctant to recognise that the country had a problem with racism.

MP Archibald Fenner Brockway

Race Discrimination Bill with the aim of outlawing ‘discrimination to the detriment of any person on the grounds of colour, race a...

Coming into effect on 31 May 1962, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act drastically restricted immigration rights to Britain’s Commonwealth citizens.

earlier. With a new emphasis on skilled workers, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act stated that those wishing to move to Britain now needed a work permit to settle in the country.

Race Relations Act

At the time, the BBC reported those specific acts of discrimination included ‘refusing to serve a person, an unreasonable delay in serving someone, or overcharging’.31

At the time, the BBC reported: ‘The new Race Relations Act is intended to counter-balance the Immigration Act, and so fulfil the government’s promise to be “fair but tough” on immigrants.’

On 7 March 1965, African Americans were beaten bloody on a civil rights march led by Martin Luther King, Jr. They were demanding their constitutional right to vote.

Recounting his interview to the BBC35 fifty years later, Guy recalled the exact moment he was rejected by the receptionist. ‘She said to the manager “your two o’clock appointment is here. But he’s black.” And the manager said, “Tell him we have no vacancies here, all vacancies are filled.”’

It had been set up by a small group of young men: Roy Hackett, Owen Henry, Audley Evans and Prince Brown. The group called themselves the West Indian Development Council.

the bus company was not to hire anyone not already approved by the local TGWU branch.

Racism had infected worker solidarity, with a union representative at the time insisting that more black workers would be taking away jobs for prospective white employees, and that employing them would mean reduced hours for current employees.

a meeting of five hundred bus employees met and agreed to discontinue Bristol Omnibus Company’s unofficial colour bar.

1824 Vagrancy Act. The section in question gave the police the power to stop, search and arrest anyone they suspected might commit a crime.

The notion of who does and who doesn’t look suspicious – particularly in a British political climate that just ten years earlier was denying black people employment and housing – was undoubtedly racialised.

But the importation of the word mugging brought with it a coded implication that the perpetrators were overwhelmingly black, and that mugging was an exclusively black crime.

The fear of mugging was about so much more than the fear of crime and violence; it was about the anxieties of those who had been scared of black liberation struggles in the 1960s, and their intense fears around race, reparations and revenge.

of police officers arresting black boys for the crime of look...

a group of plain-clothes white police officers targeted and tackled...

‘it was clear they intended to pick the pockets of passengers’.

feeling. In 1975 they organised a march against black muggings, which they led through London’s East End.

Robert Relf became a national news story in 1976 when he put up a sign outside of his house that read ‘For sale to an English family only’.

‘To avoid animosity all round positively ...

Ideas of blackness and criminality were becoming inherently interlinked.

the new laws meant police had to have reasonable belief that an offence had already been committed before stopping and searching a suspect.

search (research in 2015 revealed parts of the country where black people were seventeen times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people.)

unemployment for black and Asian men rose by roughly 20 per cent

There was a feeling among some that unemployed young black people chose not to work, and instead took up lives of social aggravation.

1982, PC Dick Board, a police officer working in the city, made his feelings about unemployed young black people clear.

‘Let’s be fair,’ he said. ‘We’re talking about a certain type of people now. We had all these reasons in the twenties and thirties, and we never had this. We never had the soaring crime rates, and what we now know as the American phrase “mugging”. Which is robbery with violence. We have a different sort of person, who by hook or by crook is going to get his own way at the expense of everybody else. Even his own kind. That’s the point. Never mind this unemployment business, we’ve got a situation here now that is being used deliberately and there’s no question about it, they couldn’t care less whether they’ve got a job or not, in fact they’re happier without them.’ He continued: ‘All this is complete twaddle about they’re looking for jobs and “I can’t get a job” and all this . . . A l...

The summer of 1981 saw more riots across the country

month. The social conditions of each area were very similar. Poor. Black.

Brixton,

performed over a thousand stop and searches in just six days.43

police gave chase to a black motorcyclist, believing his vehicle was stolen.

Newham Monitoring Project bucked that trend.

formed in 1980 after Asian teenager Akhtar Ali Baig was murdered by a gang of white skinheads on his way home from college.

‘motivated by racial...

people in the community clubbed together to offer logistical support against racist harassment, and the Newham Monitoring Project was born.

1983 report gives a glimpse of what it was like to be black in east London at the time.

project received seventy-six reports of police harassment.

‘Each time the police officers have had warrants with them, made out for stolen goods. Each time they have found no evidence and therefore have preferred no charges . . . the family expect their home to be invaded at any time. They live in constant fear of the next visit by the police.’46

‘while he was in the bathroom in his house, 10–12 police officers smashed their way in, breaking down his front door. He was then dragged naked out of the bath,