Black Britons, Race, and Policing

This book explores the historical and contemporary policing of Black communities in Britain, revealing how much has and hasn't changed. Drawing on 58 interviews with young people, elders, and community workers in a heavily policed North London neighbourhood, it offers a powerful, intergenerational account of racialised policing and its everyday consequences. Through an intersectional lens, it examines how race, gender, class, and place overlap to shape Black Britons' encounters with police and their sense of belonging. Through the voices of those most affected, the book traces how these experiences have produced enduring cultural narratives of mistrust, resistance, and exclusion. Exposing how policing continues to racialise and criminalise certain communities designated suspect status, it connects these practices to the legacies of empire and the politics of othering. It concludes by considering what these histories mean for the present and future of police-community relations and offers practical recommendations for building trust, accountability, and justice.

Focusses on lived experience and intergenerational experiences through an intersectional equity lens Draws on qualitative ethnographic analysis Reframes the long-standing debate of race and policing in Britain and beyond

Autorentext

Bisi Akintoye is Lecturer at University of Roehampton, UK, and a solicitor whose research focuses on the intersection between race, drugs, policing, and youth experiences.

Klappentext
The book's focus on institutional harm is a refreshing approach, overcoming the customary focus on individual responsibility to foreground how the historic processes of racialized policing continue to undermine the everyday lives of Black British peoples including their ability to integrate. This study crosses disciplinary boundaries giving it wide appeal beyond academia, to include activists, policymakers, teachers, and anyone with an interest in understanding what it means to be criminalized and surveilled. -Dr Esmorie J. Miller , Lancaster University, School of Sciences, UK This book explores the historical and contemporary policing of Black communities in Britain, revealing how much has and hasn't changed. Drawing on 58 interviews with young people, elders, and community workers in a heavily policed North London neighbourhood, it offers a powerful, intergenerational account of racialised policing and its everyday consequences. Through an intersectional lens, it examines how race, gender, class, and place overlap to shape Black Britons' encounters with police and their sense of belonging. Through the voices of those most affected, the book traces how these experiences have produced enduring cultural narratives of mistrust, resistance, and exclusion. Exposing how policing continues to racialise and criminalise certain communities designated suspect status, it connects these practices to the legacies of empire and the politics of othering. It concludes by considering what these histories mean for the present and future of police-community relations and offers practical recommendations for building trust, accountability, and justice.

Bisi Akintoye is Lecturer at University of Roehampton, UK, and a solicitor whose research focuses on the intersection between race, drugs, policing, and youth experiences.

Inhalt

Part I.- Chapter 1. Introduction: What's the Story?.- Chapter 2. Locating the Study: Theory, Methodology, and Site.- Chapter 3. Tracing Shadows: Histories of Racialised Policing.- Part II.- Chapter 4. The State Never Left: Intergenerational Experiences of Racialised Policing.- Chapter 5. At the Margins: Policing Black Women and Girls.- Chapter 6. Policing the Victimised 'Other': Experiences of Black Victims of Crime.- Chapter 7. Cultural Toolkits and Lessons in Survival.- Chapter 8. The Long Shadow: Legacy and Intergenerational Cultural Narratives.- Chapter 9. Resisting Surveillance: Everyday and Organised Struggles Against Racialised Policing.- Chapter 10. Empire's Echo: Race, Identity and the Politics of Belonging.- Chapter 11. Conclusions: What Now?.