“As far as I am concerned they thought I was the problem” Testimony of Racist Harassment and Violence

The case study presented below is an abridged version of an unstructured interview undertaken with a victim of racist harassment and violence in 2000. The victim and her son had suffered persistent and sustained racist harassment and violence for over 4 years before they were finally moved by their public sector housing provider. The interview is situated in a period of change and challenge in the United Kingdom in relation to how racist harassment and violence were responded to. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s there was a series of racially motivated murders and evidence was being collected across the country on the nature and extent of racist harassment and violence. Black and minority ethnic groups were advocating for racist harassment and violence to be taken seriously by local authorities, the police and government and to increase confidence in local black and minority ethnic communities that action would be taken if reports were made. In early 1990s a series of racially motivated murders increased the call for action. This call increased after the murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence in South East London in April 1993.