Unfree. Yet Powerful. Exploited. Not Forgotten.

The demonstrations and resistance inside Yarl's Wood have been the most important fight in Britain for women's rights and for immigrants’ rights, because they have been inspiring - because the people in this struggle are fighting to win the most basic of demands as human beings.

March 12^th signified the National Demonstration at Yarl’s Wood, for all the men and women held like cattle inside detention-deportation centres.   For all looking to break out from under the shadow of detention.  It was for all those at the borders of Europe challenging the cynical leaders a demanding in real life the promise of democracy and freedom, of which sanctuary is fundamental.  Nearly 2000 turned up in support of this demonstration, making it the largest event against indefinite detention.

Colour-blindness and Racist Ideology

Recently there was an interesting news item which discussed the high proportion of young Muslim men in prison. It was noted that the degree of overt institutional racism within the Met Police had reduced and other factors were to blame. This sparked my writing on this topic, as I believe that our definition and understanding of institutional racism within society has shifted and colour-blindness now appears to be a prevailing ideological perspective.

Colour-blindness, in sociological terms, is defined as ‘the disregard of racial characteristics; making no classifications, categorisations, or distinctions upon race’. This is no new phenomenon, but the existence of such attitudes has become more prominent in our society today as political correctness has extended its control over our freedom of speech. Advocates of colour-blind practices believe that treating people with no acknowledgement of race would lead to a more equal and tolerant society, whereby racial privilege would no longer exert the power it once did. However, those in opposition to such practices believe that racism and white privilege still remain defining features of many Western societies.