Racist gang told teenagers: 'You can't wear England shirts because you are brown"

A racist attack started when a group of British boys told three brothers they could not wear England football shirts because their skin was brown, a youth court heard.

The four British boys, all aged 13 and 14, shouted racial abuse and launched an attack that left one of the victims needing hospital treatment. Delia Matthews, prosecuting, said the three brothers, aged 11, 14 and 17, were playing football in the Orchard Park play area at 5.30pm on January 24 in 2012. One of the youths said to one of them: “Why are you wearing an England shirt? You’re brown.”

More racist abuse was shouted before one of the boys launched an attack and a “bundle” took place. The victim suffered a black eye, needing hospital treatment and another was injured in the shoulder. Read more about this racist insult here.

Primary Pupils As Young As Nine Excluded From School For Racist Abuse in Britain

Primary school pupils as young as nine are being excluded from class for racist abuse, an investigation has revealed. The nine-year-old was suspended for half a day for physical attacks, racist jokes and verbal abuse, according to the Surrey Comet. The local Kingston paper conducted an investigation into racist abuse in the area's schools and found 14 children were suspended from school in the last year in the borough alone. Read the full story here.

In 2011, teachers logged more than 10,000 incidents nationally involving primary school students making racist insults during the previous year according to the sources here.

These figures are shocking as they show how much racist insults are common in Britain. Looking at other sources here also reveals racist insults are increasing in the UK.

A black woman banned from publishing a book about her experiences of racism in the Prison Service in Britain

A black woman banned from publishing a book about her experiences of racism in the Prison Service in Britain is taking the Ministry of Justice to a tribunal.



Almost British by Olivea Ebanks

Olivea Ebanks wrote the memoir Almost British following partial victory in a previous racial discrimination employment tribunal against the Prison Service in the UK in 2008. Ebanks is banned from talking about the memoir’s ban or her case because she is a civil servant. Read the whole story here.

European commission was criticised for its racist advert

The video, entitled Growing Together, features three men from ethnic minorities using martial arts skills apparently preparing to fight a white woman.

The ethnic characters include a threatening-looking Chinese man who shouts kung fu slogans, a sword-wielding Indian man and a dreadlocked black man and the woman wears a yellow dress, the color of the stars of the European Union (EU).

The woman stares at the men who are threatening her with marital art moves. She then multiplies herself to form a circle around the men who drop their weapons and sit down. The woman's yellow outfit then turns into the stars of the EU.

The video shows the words "The more we are, the stronger we are," at the end.

The European commission was accused of depicting other cultures in a racist manner and in stereotypes in the video, which was aimed at young audiences.

Institutional Racism and British Parliament

British Parliament is politically elite; you’re more likely to get into Parliament if you’re a white male who attended a private school. Yasmin Begum has documented an article proving clear presence of institutional racism in the Parliament in Britain. You can read the article here.  

"The UK police system is institutionally racist"

Finally, the murderers of Stephen Lawrence were found guilty after a struggle that lasted longer than the time the victim was alive. Lawrence, born in September of 1974, was brutally killed – in a racially-motivated murder – while waiting for a bus in south-east London, in April of 1993. He was just eighteen years old.

He was killed by a gang of young, white, racist men who stabbed him in a wholly unprovoked attack. The last word he heard before dying was “nigger”.

The murder sparked a national outcry; even right-wing newspaper the Daily Mail published a picture of four of the alleged gang, claiming that they were Lawrence’s murderers.  Yasmin Begum has written an article explaining the reasons why "the UK police system is institutionally racist". You can read the article here.  

A common culture of institutional racism in Britain

Institutional racism is that which, covertly or overtly, resides in the policies, procedures, operations and culture of public or private institutions - reinforcing individual prejudices and being reinforced by them in turn. Whereas individual racism is the expression of personal prejudice, institutional racism is the expression of a whole organization’s racist practice and culture.

If racist consequences accrue to institutional laws, customs or practices, that institution is racist whether or not the individuals maintaining those practices have racial intentions.

The word institutional racism was first coined in the UK in the wake of the MacPherson’s report on policing in the UK when Stephen Lawrence’s case was investigating. In MacPherson’s report, institutional racism was defined as the follow: "The collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people."