Black Youth, Racism and the State: The Politics of Ideology and Policy

In the past decade the position of young blacks in British society became a key issue in the analysis of race relations. High levels of black youth unemployment and incidences of urban unrest focused attention on this group. This book provides the first satisfactory analysis of the state’s role in this area of race relations. John Solomos examines the policies pursued by the state and related institutions towards young blacks in Britain from the 1940s to the 1980s. Referring to a wealth of original empirical material, he analyses the ways in which the central and local state have attempted to manage the ‘race question’ and concentrates in particular on the process through which young blacks came to be seen as a social problem. He also provides an overview of alternative perspectives.