18 June 2020 — Institute of Race Relations
As the world wakes up to police racism following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, activists and campaigners are working tirelessly to draw attention to the long histories and present day realities of the violence of police racism in the UK – it happens here, too.
This week, we publish up-to-date statistics on deaths in custody in the UK of people from a BAME, refugee or migrant background, compiled from IRR News coverage and media releases by Inquest. We have found that since September 2014 there have been sixteen deaths involving the police, nine in prisons and fifteen in immigration detention. Alongside the lists of custody deaths, we publish a comment piece that highlights restraint concern, the frequency with which mental illness is part of the scenario and continued police impunity – not one officer has been convicted since the IRR started collecting figures on black deaths in 1969.
The Black Lives Matter movement has provoked many revelations and discussions of institutional racism in various fields, which we document in a special BLM roundup, alongside our regular calendar of racism and resistance.Watch IRR director Liz Fekete discuss the current situation in the US at a recent Global Justice Now seminar with Abdul Alkhalimat and Walden Bello.
In order to further contribute to this important political moment as resistance against police racism is coming to the fore, we highlight here key IRR anti-racist educational resources. We have also freed up a collection of Race & Class articles on policing and the carceral state in the US and the UK, featuring seminal writers including A. Sivanandan, Angela Davis, Micol Seigel and Lee Bridges. See our twitter threads, one on the UK and one on the US for further information, as well as anti-racist archival footage on @IRR_News.
IRR News team
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3 – 17 JUNE 2020 Black Lives Matter Roundup
The Black Lives Matter movement has provoked many revelations and discussions of institutional racism in various fields, not only criminal justice but also education, sport, media and culture; we cover a selection here.
3 – 17 JUNE 2020 Calendar of Racism & resistance including Covid-19 roundup
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe
Website
In response to Black Lives Matter, we have collated a series of helpful resources on our website.
Resourcing Struggles for Racial Justice
We draw attention to the IRR’s varied resources that give context and specificities to the declaration of Black Lives Matter that, ‘It Happens Here Too.’
Update on UK Deaths in Custody
We reflect on BAME, refugee and migrant deaths in custody since September 2014.
Reading on police racism in the UK & US
A collection of Race & Class articles (all free to download for the next six weeks) on policing and the carceral state.
A thread on reparative histories
A Twitter thread with a selection of articles exploring the way we ‘do’ history – history is not etched in stone, but curated. If you’re not on Twitter, find it here.
The New Dark Age 
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