Interpretations of racial victimisation and victims movements: 1966-2003

Dr Claire Fox, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, The University of Manchester

Drawing from the rich collection of materials from the Commission for Racial Equality, its predecessors (the former Community Relations Commission, and the Race Relations Board) and the Institute of Race Relations archives held by the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre, this project will focus on the various social constructions of victims, victimisation and their social movements, alongside the personal narratives of specific events and incidents of racial victimisation. This will primarily involve exploring the language used, assumptions made and the descriptions offered, including any variations across the collections.

Given the recent incidences of victims movements, including the internationally-known Black Lives Matter protests as well as those on a more localised scale, there is much to learn about how instances of victimisation and discrimination have been represented in these collections including, whose voices were heard, which stories were told (or silenced), the manner in which they were narrated, and the form/shape of victim-related protests and movements that were inspired or more directly motivated by occurrences of victimisation.