Anti-racism

Walter Mosley interviewed on What Next?

12 July 2003
Why did you write What Next?

Stephen Lawrence: the shocking case that lifted the lid on racism

19 April 2003
When Doreen Lawrence asserted that no police officer had tended her dying son because they didn't want to get "black" blood on their hands, the reverberations shook British society. Stephen Lawrence's stabbing in April 1993 followed a series of other murders and racist attacks in south east London, where the Nazi British National Party (BNP) had opened its headquarters.

A horrific string of racist attacks in the area where Stephen Lawrence was murdered

09 November 2002
"Unless there is urgent action then a black or Asian person is going to be murdered by racists in Eltham." That is the chilling warning from Dev Barrah, who works at the Greenwich Council for Racial Equality.

Rabbit-Proof Fence

09 November 2002
The new film Rabbit-Proof Fence is based on a true story. It tells the story of three Aboriginal girls in western Australia who run away from a state institution for "half-caste" children. This is what Australia was like in the 1930s.

Jury throws out police case in trial of Burnley Asians who defended community

19 October 2002
"NOT GUILTY." That was the jury's unanimous verdict on 12 charges against Asians who defended their community in Burnley from racist attack. The jury in Preston Crown Court last week sided with the Asians who on 24 June last year mobilised to stop gangs inspired by the Nazi British National Party terrorising the area.

Who wants to keep people divided?

22 December 2001
Official segregation The report on Oldham, whose economy centred on textiles, goes some way to acknowledging how racial segregation has happened over the last three decades. It describes how in the 1960s mill owners found it harder to "recruit people for anti-social work such as night shifts.

Leeds footballers trial: Sheer racist thuggery

22 December 2001
"Thug and Liar Walk Free". Amazingly, it was the front page of Rupert Murdoch's Times that summed up most people's feelings last week as Leeds United footballers Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate walked out of Hull Crown Court. The two players were cleared of causing grievous bodily harm to student Sarfraz Najeib.

National Civil Rights Movement

17 November 2001
Around 100 people attended the National Civil Rights Movement annual general meeting last weekend. Kwesi Menson, the brother of Michael Menson, Sukhdev Reel, the mother of Ricky Reel, and Doreen Lawrence were among the many relatives of victims of racism who spoke at the event.

Mixed Feelings: the colour of modern love

15 September 2001
Britain has one of the highest levels of mixed race relationships in the Western world. The number of mixed race people is growing. Half of "Caribbean" children have one white parent. According to the 1991 census, mixed race people formed 10 percent of the black population.

New Labour leads the hypocrisy on slavery

08 September 2001
The big powers at the UN conference also pushed aside calls for them to apologise for the slave trade. The British government led the pack. Britain was at the forefront of the slave trade in the 18th century.

The US won't even talk about racism

08 September 2001
Toxic Texan President George W Bush ordered the US delegates to leave the United Nations conference on racism this week. The US delegation marched out of the conference in South Africa because representatives of many countries had dared to condemn Israel's brutal treatment of the Palestinian people.

Racist murder of Firsat Yildiz – the bloody price of scapegoating asylum seekers

11 August 2001
Firsat Yildiz fled to Britain from Turkey in fear of his life. He hoped to find sanctuary from violence and terror. Last weekend he was murdered. At the age of 22 he bled to death in a Glasgow park.

Will we ever end racism?

04 March 2000
Kosovo's third largest city, Mitovice, has erupted in violence between Serbs and Albanians...

John Brown: he fought for slaves' freedom

06 January 2000
SOME 140 years ago white enemy of slavery John Brown stood in the dock of a Virginia courtroom, knowing that Southern slaveholders were certain to pass the death sentence on him...

Britain's Slave Trade: who won freedom?

30 October 1999
Channel 4's "Black History" month has restored my faith in the ability of television to take important historical subjects and present them in an unpatronising and accessible way. The centrepiece has been the four part series Britain's Slave Trade. It took as its inspiration Eric Williams's 1964 study Capitalism and Slavery, but updated it and brought it alive.