Blogs – Page 5 – Citizenship, 'Race' and Belonging research group

Handsworth, 1985: Thatcher’s government and the criminalisation of young black men

16th February 2017 CRaB admin Blogs

By Jodi Burkett As part of my ongoing research into the creation of post-imperial Britain, particularly in changing conceptions of ‘race’ and attitudes to immigration, I have recently been reading reports by the Thatcher government regarding the ‘race riots’ in Handsworth in 1985. These documents, released after the 30th anniversary of the riots, reveal a government confident and self-assured in its belief that it was right in its handling of social and economic policies. However, there are hints that they were aware that something was not right in British society, although they fail to put a finger on what exactly

CRaB LONG READ: English nationalism, progressive politics and the Labour Party

18th January 2017 Charles Leddy-Owen Blogs

The question of Englishness – broadly, what should and can be done culturally and politically about ‘the English’ today – doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, in both senses of that phrase. It remains a point of lively discussion among journalists, politicians, academics and the general public, but with any satisfactory answer to the question seemingly as far away as ever. The perceived character, failures and promise of Englishness have of course long been analysed and debated, but it was New Labour’s devolution of powers to the smaller nations of the UK that is widely considered to have ignited the

Black Panthers in London – talk by Carlus Hudson

9th January 2017 CRaB admin Blogs

The Black Panthers are one of the most pivotal organisations in the histories of radicalism and anti-racism in the United States, and their ideas have had an enormous impact on activists who have come after them. Far less famous, but by no means less significant, was the Black Panther Movement in Britain. Active in the late 60s and early 70s, its history touches on the fight within the anti-racist movement in Britain between its liberal and radical wings, and the internationalisation of struggles against colonialism, neo-colonialism and the Vietnam War. CRaB research student Carlus Hudson recently gave a talk on