Black History Month: No Justice Without Racial Justice
As Black History Month draws to a close, our Policy and Communications Officer Mia Edwards reflects on the historic roots and present-day manifestations of racial disparity in the youth justice system.
In 1999, the Macpherson Report, written in response to the racially motivated murder of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence, found institutional racism within the Metropolitan Police to have contributed to failures in the investigation surrounding his death. Nearly five years ago, the Lammy Review was published, citing racial inequality in the youth justice system as its “biggest concern”, and calling for a new requirement across the justice system to “explain or reform” racial disparities.
And what were the outcomes? Since the Lammy review was published, racial disparity within the youth justice system has only worsened. The flawed Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report – that concluded that institutional racism does not exist – contained no focus on youth justice.
And yet, between April 2020 and March 2021 in England and Wales, Black people were seven times more likely than White people to be stop and searched in the UK. YJB research shows that compared to White children, Black, Asian and Mixed ethnic children are more likely to receive harsher sentences. Statistics on children being strip searched by the Metropolitan Police between 2018 and 2020 highlight that 58% of boys targeted were black. Half of children in the secure estate are racially minoritized.
In this article, I examine the newly published academic work ‘Invisible Voices: The Black Presence in Crime and Punishment in the UK, 1750-1900' by Martin Glynn. By reflecting on the historical colonial backdrop that continues to shape racial disparity and police brutality in the UK, we share the thoughts of the Young Advocates - children and young people with whom we work to guide our policy influencing focus - on current manifestations of race in the youth justice system, and explore why reflecting on Black history is integral to reimagining a justice system underpinned with the understanding that there can be no justice without racial justice.
Invisible Voices: the academic perspective
Where does systemic racism in the criminal justice system come from?
In the newly published ‘Invisible Voices', Martin Glynn explores the ways in which the Black experience has been historically intertwined with British crime and punishment. Glynn argues that the discipline of criminology cannot continue to be shaped by “academic neutrality” which often involves omitting the historical experiences of Black people.
Glynn shares real accounts of the brutalisation and dehumanisation that slaves were subjected to. He provides an evidence-based backdrop to the powerful points he makes about the ties of slavery to present-day systemic racism. Glynn also shares evidence of an ex-slave providing testimony in court; perhaps you were - as Glynn was - unaware that ex-slaves were permitted to testify in court. In sharing this account, Glynn highlights that the version of the history of the UK’s justice system most commonly cited is limited and excludes historic and significant Black voices.
We often learn of White trailblazers or ‘elite’ Black figures active in the abolitionist movement, but seem to have collective amnesia when it comes to Black activists, writers, speakers; potent forces for social progress for centuries.
Glynn argues that unless we admit - academically and in society at large - that “the historical other’” continue to be reproduced in modern systems of oppression, "a continuing legacy of racialized dominance” will be perpetuated. He raises County Lines as being an example of modern slavery, in which vulnerable people – often children – are reduced to their economic utility, and questions what links this might have to a colonial past.
To construct a non-racist youth justice system, we must first acknowledge, comprehend and counter the colonial patterns of oppression that continue to be reproduced, and to amplify the previously silenced voices that have functioned within it. This would mean a revision of the justice system as we know it.
What do children and young people think?
Glynn sheds light on discriminatory facets of our justice system - such as the targeted use of stop and search - that demonstrate that racist societal foundations did not disappear alongside the Atlantic slave trade but have mutated into new outlets of control and oppression.
The Young Advocates have shared their thoughts on racial disparity in the youth justice system. Their accounts align with Glynn’s stance: racism firmly remains. Their own peer research with over 120 children and young people found that interviewees felt overwhelmingly that their experiences with the police and within the secure estate was marred with racism. Disturbing accounts included one child being called “a monkey” whilst “in a police station” , and a Black child in the secure estate being called a “n*gga” by a prison officer.
In a session that the AYJ held with the Young Advocates last week, we discussed their thoughts and experiences in more detail. They were particularly wary of education, describing how a “lack of education” and “cultural competence” amongst both school staff and their peers was resulting in differences in the treatment of White children and racially minoritized children from early formative years. They also recounted their observations that predominantly Black schools openly utilised more sanctions for pupils than predominantly White schools.
As Glynn highlights, education matters in the context of criminal justice, since it entrenches narratives of a racial hierarchy that stay with children as they grow up; it shapes “the self-concept of black children” , and reinforces children’s racialised understanding of the world.
“People with power aren’t using it for good – they’re more likely to cause trauma to people of colour and younger people.”
The Young Advocates felt that whilst there were clear cases in which it was necessary to hold individuals accountable for racial disparity in the youth justice system, the discrimination can be systemic and at times difficult to pinpoint.
“There’s something else much bigger going on than people.”
They spoke of the racism that they had witnessed as being institutionally woven into the police, the government, and the youth courts. They agreed with Glynn that a process of racial gaslighting in the justice system was feeding into the perpetuation of White supremacy.
“[The police and government] don’t want to solve the problem. The resolution is easy – but they want to keep the system going, to prolong finding a solution and to pick at Black people. They want to continue until it’s unsolvable, then they can be like ‘look...we tried.’”
The silencing continues.
What can we do?
Black History Month is a time of reflection. Educating, remembering, and reframing; only via acknowledging the past can be stop cycles of white supremacy within the youth justice system. Glynn recommends “activist scholars” to provide a counter-narrative to the currently white-dominated discipline, and that criminology be opened up to encompass contributions from previously excluded voices.
The Young Advocates’ practical advice was that professionals working education, the police, or the youth justice system, receive mandatory training in racial equity, cultural competence and (of course) safeguarding – and that more data surrounding strip searches be made public.
But these recommendations have identical foundations; people must research and teach about the historic roots of institutional racism. Reports such as the Macpherson Report and the Lammy Review have paved the way to our action. Only when we place Black History at the forefront of our political and activist agendas, will the children of today know justice.
‘Invisible Voices: The Black Presence in Crime and Punishment in the UK’ is available in print or as an eBook here. More information about the Young Advocates Project can be found here.
References:
Glynn, M. (2023). Invisible Voices: The Black Presence in Crime and Punishment in the UK, 1750-1900. Oxon, Routledge.