The murder of Stephen Lawrence led to the widest review of institutional racism seen in the UK. Sections of the white working-class communities in south London near to the scene of the murder, however, displayed deep hostility to the equalities and multiculturalist practice of the local state and other agencies. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, this book relates these phenomena to the ‘backlash’ to multiculturalism evident during the 1990s in the USA, Australia, Canada, the UK and other European countries. It examines these within the unfolding social and political responses to race equalities in the UK and the USA from the 1960s to the present in the context of changes in social class and national political agendas. This book is unique in linking a detailed study of a community at a time of its critical importance to national debates over racism and multiculturalism to historically wider international economic and social trends.
ROGER HEWITT is Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths College, University of London. He has published widely in the fields of racism, language and cultural processes and is the author of White Talk Black Talk: Inter-Racial Friendship and Communication amongst Adolescents (Cambridge, 1986).
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, CB2 2RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521520898
© Roger Hewitt 2005
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions
of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may
take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2005
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13 978-0-521-81768-4 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-81768-4 hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-52089-8 paperback
ISBN-10 0-521-52089-4 paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for
external or third-party internet websites referred to in
this book, and does not guarantee that any
content on such websites is, or will
remain, accurate or appropriate.
For Ella and Oscar
| List of figures | page viii | |
| Acknowledgements | ix | |
| 1 | Introduction | 1 |
| 2 | Politics and ‘backlash’ on the large stage | 18 |
| 3 | Greenwich and its racial murders | 35 |
| 4 | Narrative, counter-narrative and the boundaries of legitimate discourse | 56 |
| 5 | Residence and resistance: the case of the Eltham Tenants Forum | 79 |
| 6 | ‘Race’ and ‘culture’ in education: from neighbourhood schools to the multicultural highway | 103 |
| 7 | Backlash, multicultural politics and the global turbine | 132 |
| Select bibliography | 157 | |
| Index | 166 |
| 3.1 London borough of Greenwich | page 37 | 3.2 The borough of Greenwich within Greater London | 38 |
The number of people who have helped in different ways during the research on which this book is based is very large. I extend my sincere thanks to them all despite the fact that only a few can be mentioned by name. I would like to thank in particular Professor Jagdish Gundara of the International Centre for Intercultural Studies, Institute of Education University of London, who supported and encouraged my work during its crucial period. Professor Michael Keith, Director of the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR) at Goldsmiths, University of London, also provided me with the space and time to complete the book in its final stages. I had important support from Greenwich Council's Central Race Equality Unit, and from the staff of Greenwich Housing and Youth services, which I gratefully acknowledge. Those who helped me ‘on the ground’ when I was conducting field-work in south London were legion but I would particularly like to thank Dev Barrah, Linda Nash, Linda Corbell, Bernie Bristow, Loraine Webster, Paul Bailey, Arthur Blackman and Jeannette Cunningham. I also gratefully acknowledge generous grants from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Nuffield Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council. I would like to thank Tony Skillen for his critical eye and helpful suggestions, also my friends and colleagues in the CUCR with whom I enjoy the intellectually stimulating and warm working environment that we have all been fortunate enough to inhabit. I thank Moira Inghilleri with whom I have shared so many conversations concerning the issues discussed in this book. She has been an unfailing support, critic and life-partner and contributed immeasurably to its completion. Finally, I would like to thank our children, Louis and Pablo, for the endless delight and distraction they have provided.