Racial violence laid bare

By IRR News Team

Ongoing research by the Institute of Race Relations exposes the reach of racial violence that continues to spread across the county.

Following the publication of a briefing paper, Racial Violence: The buried issue (http://www.irr.org.uk/pdf2/IRR_Briefing_No.6.pdf) in June 2010, the IRR has continued to monitor racist violence in its various guises across the country; the list reproduced below is a collection of some of the most serious cases of abuse and physical violence that took place between the months of January and June 2010, that we have found so far this year.

Random street attacks by gangs of youths, attacks on workers in isolated jobs, such as taxi drivers, takeaway and restaurant owners, and railway staff, alcohol-fuelled racist abuse, arson attacks and cases of graffiti and vandalism all figure on the list below and have been chosen to exemplify how contemporary racial violence affects Britain’s minorities. Attacks on Muslims and vandalism in and around mosques also feature highly on our list.

The 2010 cases that have been analysed reflect the patterns of violence that emerged from our research for 2009. Where once such violence predominately affected people in deprived areas of London like Southall, Newham and Tower Hamlets, now victims of verbal and physical abuse are living in areas that have been traditionally white, and where migration has occurred on a relatively small scale.

• 1 January 2010: A 29-year-old Turkish man was assaulted on a street in Danbury, Essex, around midnight on New Year’s Day in what police called a ‘nasty’ racially aggravated attack. During the assault he was punched, kicked, and was left with a dislocated shoulder and cuts and swelling to his face. (Clacton Daily Gazette, 10 January 2010)

• 10 January 2010: 56-year-old Chinese takeaway owner Sui Chung was hospitalised for two nights after he was set upon by a group of around six youths in Clifton, Nottingham. After being racially abused, Mr Chung came out to challenge the youths but was attacked and suffered a broken arm and wrist, bruising to his face and a swollen eye. This is apparently not the first attack – Mr Chung says that in the fourteen years since he opened his takeaway he has had near constant abuse from gangs of up to thirty youths. (The Monitoring Group, 21 January 2010)

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