Thread by @hiddendepths

1/THREAD This yr I researched the impact of racism on YP in Eng. Some findings. Not easy reading. Thx to YP with lived exp involved with @NExclusions, @TakeBackTPower, @StopWatchUK & others for helping me understand #racism #criminaljustice #education #edutwitter #school #housing

2/ EDUCATION - the over-exclusion of Black students is present at all ages. There's a persistent problem of stereotyping & unconscious bias, a “cumulative process of mounting disciplinary sanctions for relatively low-level disruption that might go unpunished for others”

theguardian.com/commentisfree/… 3/ Schools sometimes label naturally growing afro hair as a uniform violation or exclude children for having dreadlocks. These policies are highly discriminatory, undermine a child’s sense of school belongingness and make them feel devalued and unwelcome.

4/ Ability groups: Racial stereotypes are “bleeding into set placements.” Eg. once differences in socioeconomic background were controlled for, black pupils were 2.54 times more likely to be misallocated to a lower set in maths, compared with white pupils. tes.com/news/exclusive…

blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpol… 5/ HOUSING. LSE assert - “institutional racism” perpetuates "racial disparities in housing”. “BAME people” are: “offered poorer quality homes..." steered away “from white neighbourhoods, based on judgments about social class as well as racial grounds”.

6/ YOUTH JUSTICE - Everybody knows about the 1999 Macpherson report that described the London Metropolitan Police Service as “institutionally racist”. What about now? Have things improved?
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-473003…

7/ Today, black people are subject to Stop and Search 9x more than white people, mostly for drug offences & far more likely to be arrested and convicted. This is despite research consistently showing that whites are more likely to use drugs.

8/ S & S “Disproportionality ratios varied from 1.7 in Durham to 20.4 in Dorset” and is highest in relatively wealthy and affluent boroughs. However, white people are subject to very low (and decreasing) rates of S & S. Black people are subject to high (stable) rates everywhere

release.org.uk/publications/C…. 9/ Stop and Search “has less to do with the immediacies of crime control and more to do with containing and disciplining categories of people who are considered a threat to a particular vision of social order”. No evidence that Stop & Search reduces crime

10/ The number of “black males on the (London Gang) Matrix is disproportionate to their likelihood of criminality”. There’s a “perception that a gang is often comprised of young black males” which “either directly or unconsciously influences the enforcement focus of the police”

london.gov.uk/mopac-publicat… 11/ I've direct exp of this disparity, w/g as a psych in a London Youth Offending Serv in a majority white area. Some YP committed offences & named themselves, eg “The X Estate Crew”. Never labelled as a “gang”, nor added to Matrix.

equalityhumanrights.com/en/our-work/ne… 12/ The 2017 Angolini Review into deaths in police custody found that "police reliance on racial stereotyping of Black men as having ‘exceptional strength’" can be problematic.

13/ In sum, as summarised by Theresa May in a surprisingly candid statement of accuracy - “If you’re Black, you’re treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you’re white.”

gov.uk/government/spe…

researchgate.net/publication/24… 14/Evid of syst racism crosses contexts- “‘white supremacy’ is not the obvious & extreme fascistic posturing of small neo-nazi groups, but rather taken-for-granted routine privileging of white interests that goes unremarked in the political m/stream"

15/ We have an openly racist, pro-Empire PM has proclaimed, with mind-boggling arrogance and stunning ignorance: “The problem (with Africa) is not that we were once in charge, but that we are not in charge any more”.

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

16/ This thread only scratches the surface. IMHO, it’s important to self-educate about racism in Eng, particularly given the powerful vested interests seeking to deny all. In the words of James Baldwin, “ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have”

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