Race, Neoliberalism, and "Welfare Reform" in Britain

Race, Intersectionality, and Neoliberalism AS OTHER SCHOLARS HAVE NOTED (SEE SCHUSTER AND SOLOMOS, 2004; WORLEY, 2005), New Labour's first term saw the introduction of several high-profile pieces of legislation: the Human Rights Act 1998, the Macpherson Report 1999, the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, and "The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain" (2000), more commonly known as the Parekh Report. Some saw the legislation as a positive step by New Labour to tackle racism. However, in recent years new forms of racism continue to morph into insidious guises and a number of overlapping phenomena continue to shape the national imaginary. Coinciding with the increasingly hostile construction of asylum-seekers and immigrants as criminal, Britain has intensified the policing of national borders; it has also increased patterns of targeted surveillance and continues to reproduce a climate of fear. Alongside this, New Labour's Anti-social Behaviour Order 1997 and Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (both passed during its first term in office) support the "tough on crime," "catch and convict" rhetoric and a system that particularly affects people from ethnic minority (1) communities and communities of color, who are more likely to be caught up in the criminal justice system. With this in mind, Britain has witnessed a dramatic increase in incarceration rates that has disproportionately affected black women, women of color, and other racial-ethnic groups. The accompanying boom in prison construction is mirrored elsewhere as well, especially in Europe and North America (Sudbury, 2002). Due to the uprisings in several northern British cities (e.g., Bradford, Burnely, Oldham, Leeds, and Stoke-on-Trent) during the summer of 2001, as well as the events of September 11 and the London bombings in July 2005, "difference"--especially around issues of race--is highlighted in Britain's state debates. Specifically, after September 11 and the London bombings, there has been an onslaught of attacks on British Muslims, Muslim communities, and the Islamic religion. Anti-Muslim prejudice is a current manifestation of racism in Britain. Moreover, earlier discourses of assimilation, integration, and immigration continue to be invoked. Such discourses, which are couched in the language of culture, nationalism and citizenship, and ethnicity, are racialized and mark a distinction between "us and them"--Britishness and the other. Corresponding with the entrenchment of "Fortress Europe" in Britain, "discourses on immigration are joined together with the rhetoric of crime and prevention in such a way that migrant populations are popularly viewed as being clandestine, 'illegal,' and therefore more prone to criminal behavior" (Angel-Ajani, 2003: 435). In Britain, these overlapping phenomena intersect with the political, economic, ideological, and moral forces of neoliberalism. Under the guise of "welfare reform," the logic of neoliberalism strongly embraces widespread privatization and individuality; it calls for cutbacks in social and public services; and it imposes increases in the cost of living. All the while, it reinforces racial-ethnic, gendered, and class inequalities. Within this context, many communities of color/ethnic minority communities try to survive. Path-breaking intersectional approaches by and about U.S. and Third World women of color (Crenshaw, 1995; see Alexander and Mohanty, 1997) have shed light on the ways in which race as an axis of inequality, difference, and power intersect with gender and other forms of inequality (i.e., class). These paradigms are useful in making sense of structural inequalities and in understanding the complex matrix of race, class, gender, and nation. Intersectional approaches, for example, are helpful in talking about the ways in which low-income women of color are differently positioned with respect to the state and are experiencing neoliberalism. This essay uses an intersectional approach to explore the impacts of the rise of neoliberalism on some poor and working-class women of color in Britain, as well as the role of the Southwark Black Women's Centre (SBWC) in alleviating their hardships. …