1. Immigration and race in postcolonial britain
Making History
Week 4
Dr. Jack Saunders

2. Lecture Content Note
Racism (including racial slurs and racist violence)
Violence (including police and state violence)

3. Multi-cultural dreams (2012)
“At no other point in Britain's history would an important ceremony like this revolve around a mixed-race family and a non-white young couple. And there is no other country in Europe that would have such a couple as symbolising youth in general.
The high profile given to this young couple shows how far Britain has come in its attitude to race.”
Dianne Abbott, ‘Race and the Olympic Opening Ceremony’, Jamaica Observer (2012)

4. brexit and britishness (2016)
"We have got to get this right because there are bubbling tensions in this country that I just think could explode. You had those riots in If riots started again in Leeds and bits of my constituency - it's like a tinderbox."
Rachel Reeves MP, Labour Party Conference, 2016

5. Open door Britain (1948-1962) 1948 British Nationality Act
British reliance on Commonwealth both for labour and for foreign exchange
Enduring imperial identities and ties
Costs of border control
“We hope to raise them to such a position of education, of training, and of experience that they too shall be able to share the grant of full self-government which this house has so generously given during the last few years to other places.”
James Chuter-Ede, Home Secretary (Labour), 1948

6. the empire windrush (1948)
What do the interactions in this video clip tell us about 1948 as a migratory moment?
What do you think the passengers of the Empire Windrush understood Britishness to be?
What are the terms of this particular post-colonial encounter?

7. Exclusion (1950s)
Overt discrimination in housing, employment, personal interactions.
Commonwealth immigrants largely restricted to undesirable manual work, regardless of qualifications or experience.
Restricted in housing choices, often forced to rent from disreputable landlords, concentrated in particular areas of inner-cities.
LEVELS OF HOUSING AMENITY ( )
Indians 3.0 to 2.8
Pakistanis 4.3 to 5.2
Jamaicans 5.7 to 4.2
Irish 3.7 to 2.6
English 1.4 to 1.4
(Source: Rose, Colour and Citizenship, 1969)

8. Racist Riots (1958)
“Something new and ugly raises its head in Britain. In Notting Hill Gate, only a mile or two from London’s West End - racial violence. An angry crowd of youths chases a negro into a green grocer shop while police reinforcements are called up to check the riot, one of many that have broken out here in a few days. The injured victim, a Jamaican, is taken to safety. But the police have not been able to reach all the trouble spots so promptly and the quietest street may flare up at any moment. … Opinions differ about Britain’s racial problems. But the mentality which tries to solve them with coshes and broken railings has no place in the British way of life. This violence is evil and the law and public opinion must stamp it out.”

9. Immigration Control (1962)
A response to:
Long-term pressure to control (esp. non-white) immigration
Fears of economic stagnation
Anger at housing shortages
Shock of Notting Hill ‘race riots’
And weakening economic and cultural ties to Empire/ Commonwealth

10. Immigration Control (Post-1968)
1968 Commonwealth Immigration Act: further restricts the rights of citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies to prevent further settlement by Kenyan Asians and others.
1971 Immigration Bill/ 1972 Immigration Act: further restricted primary migration, introduced concepts of patriality [parents/grandparents born in UK] and ‘right of abode’ for ‘patrials’ while eliminating the idea that Commonwealth migrants would automatically be entitled to settle regardless of length of stay. Enabled funded repatriation.
1975 Race Relations Act: finally established that discrimination on grounds of race/ethnicity/national origins was illegal in the fields of employment, the provision of goods and services, education and public functions (e.g. housing, NHS).
1981 British Nationality Act: defined a distinctive ‘British’ citizenship (as opposed to CUKCs) modified jus soli to include children born to citizens or settled residents (male or female) only; removed right of abode from non-citizens.
2000 Race Relations (Amendment) Act placed statutory duty on public bodies to PROMOTE equality and to demonstrate effectiveness of anti-discrimination measures

11. Parallel Processes (1960s)

12. The Rise of Explicit Racism (1960s)
“She is becoming afraid to go out. Windows are broken. She finds excreta pushed through her letter box. When she goes to the shops, she is followed by children, charming, wide-grinning piccaninnies. They cannot speak English, but one word they know. "Racialist," they chant. When the new Race Relations Bill is passed, this woman is convinced she will go to prison. And is she so wrong? I begin to wonder.”
Enoch Powell, 1968
Conservatives win Smethwick election after overtly racist campaign, (See:

13. Multi-culturalism & anti-racism (1960s)
“I do not regard [integration] as meaning the loss, by immigrants, of their own national characteristics and culture. I do not think that we need in this country a ‘melting pot’, which will turn everybody out in a common mould, as one of a series of carbon copies of someone’s misplaced vision of the stereotyped Englishman… I define integration, therefore, not as a flattening process of assimilation but as equal opportunity, accompanied by cultural diversity, in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance”
Labour Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, 1966
“I am disturbed by reports that coloured people in Smethwick are being treated badly. I have heard they are being treated as the Jews were under Hitler… I would not wait for the fascist elements in Smethwick to erect gas ovens.”
Malcolm X, Visiting Smethwick (1965)

14. The Government View (1968)
‘Our best hope of developing in these Islands a multi-racial society free of strife lies in striking the right balance between the number of Commonwealth citizens we can allow in and our ability to ensure them, once here, a fair deal not only in tangible matters like jobs, housing and other social services but, more intangibly, against racial prejudice. If we have to restrict immigration now for good reasons, as I think we must, the imminent Race Relations Bill will be a timely factor in helping us to show that we are aiming at a fair balance all round. Conversely, I believe that the reception of the Race Relations Bill will be prejudiced in many minds, and support for it weakened, if people think that the numbers entering are unlimited or unreasonably high…’
James Callaghan, Home Office 1968
(PRO, CAB 129)135, Home Secretary's memorandum C(68) 34, 12 Feb. 1968

15. The 1970s as crisis and “moral panic”
During the 1970s widespread feeling that Britain was in steep decline.
Rising levels of civil unrest and political violence: Especially – civil war in Northern Ireland, massive strike waves.
Economic problems – massive inflation, especially after 1973 Oil Crash, stagnant economic growth, rising unemployment.
General perception of decline in respect for institutions, traditions and the law.
Growing “moral panic” about public morality and a supposed rise in violent street crime.
Much of this “racialised” in public imagination, seen as product of “black inner cities”.

16. Racist violence (1970s)

17. Anti-racist activism (1970s)
Surge in anti-racist activism during the 1970s.
Focus on opposition to racist violence, discrimination in public life (especially: work, housing and education)
High profile public events like Rock Against Racism ( )
Clashes with far right: Battle of Lewisham, 1977, death of teacher Blair Peach at an anti-fascist demonstration in Southall, 1979.
Darcus Howe, editor of Race Today, addresses a crowd of anti-racist activists during the Battle of Lewisham, 1977

18. Trade unionism and race in the 1970s
Public sector workers day of action, 1976 (NUPE Archive, Modern Records Centre)
Strike at Grunwick Photo Processing, 1976 (grunwick40.wordpress.com)

19. Margaret Thatcher: “Swamped” (1978)
“If we went on as we are then by the end of the century there would be four million people of the new Commonwealth or Pakistan here. Now, that is an awful lot and I think … that people are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture … the British character has done so much for democracy, for law and done so much throughout the world that if there is any fear that it might be swamped people are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in.
Margaret Thatcher, 1978

20. Life in the cities (1980s) Rising unemployment in early 1980s Britain.
“Disorder again erupted in Brixton on 15 July At 2am eleven houses in Railton Road were raided by 176 police officers, with a further 391 held in reserve. The police had warrants to look for evidence of unlawful drinking, and to search 5 houses for petrol bombs, although no evidence of either was found. During the operation the houses sustained considerable damage – windows, sinks, toilets, floorboards, furniture, television sets and personal possessions were smashed.”
Scarman Report, 1981
Rising unemployment in early 1980s Britain.
Young black men disproportionately affected.
Increasingly heavy-handed policing, particularly of young black men.
Police racism and corruption not uncommon.
Perception that cities had been largely abandoned by central government.
Grant cuts to urban authorities.

21. Brixton Riot (1981)
Reaction to “Operation Swamp 81”: A programme of intensified policing in Brixton area.
Overwhelmingly targets black community.
Context of widespread use of “Sus” Law
Around 5,000 people involved in clashes with police.
Substantial damage to property. 280 police and 45 members of public injured.

22. The Scarman Report (1981)
ON PATROL WITH PIG IN THE MIDDLE
“2 days [in Brixton]... sharpens appreciation for the police's peculiar situation. Esteemed by the silent majority, but reviled by activists of many persuasions, they can easily come to see themselves an under-appreciated oasis of order and discipline.”
Editorial in The Times, November 1981
Report into Brixton Riots focuses on social situation, including unemployment and decaying urban environment.
Sheds light on aggressive and inappropriate policing.
But also treats black youth as inherently alien, dwells on nature of rastafarianism.
Focuses on the “threat” of young black people socializing on the street.
Nevertheless much of the right-wing press depicts Scarman as a “bleeding heart”.

23. Conservativism and Race in the 1980s
“[Lord] Young's new entrepreneurs will set up in the disco and drug trade; Kenneth Baker's refurbished council blocks will decay through vandalism combined with neglect; and people will graduate from temporary training or employment programmes into unemployment or crime”
“Riots, criminality and social disintegration are caused solely by individual characters and attitudes. So long as bad moral attitudes remain, all efforts to improve the inner cities will founder.”
“Lower-class, unemployed white people lived for years in appalling slums without a breakdown of public order on anything like the present scale; in the midst of the depression, people in Brixton went out, leaving their grocery money in a bag at the front door, and expecting to see groceries there when they got back.”
Oliver Letwin, Memo to Margaret Thatcher, 1985.

24. Conclusion: “Unresolved Contradictoriness”