Intersectionalities and the Question of Self-Segregation

Abstract

The above dystopian view of race relations was provided by Trevor Philips (2005) in his role as the chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, a non-governmental public body established to promote race equality and address racial discrimination. The speech, made two months after the London bombings in September 2005, made national and even international headlines and was to have significant impact on the ways in which the question of segregation and Muslim communities were viewed. The political rhetoric surrounding segregation, Muslim pupils and schooling appeared at a time when policy analysts were discussing important two studies conducted by Bristol University. The studies warned of the pervasive nature of ethnic segregation in some UK schools. The first report, published in 2004, demonstrated how residential segregation as one of the principal causes of ‘substantial segregation on ethnic criteria in some schools’ (Burgess and Wilson 2004:237). More significantly their second report, published in 2006, showed significant levels of ethnic segregation within primary and secondary schools but also ominously suggested that ‘school segregation is very substantially (and significantly) greater than is the case with residential segregation’ (Johnston et al. 2006:988). Fear and concerns over ‘Muslim ghettoes’ continued with the publication of the 2011 Census, with fear and concerns over how some towns and cities, including Slough, Luton and London in the UK, have become minority White (Simpson 2012).

Some districts are on their way of becoming fully fledged ghettoes — black holes into which no-one goes without fear and trepidation, and from which no-one ever escapes undamaged. The walls are going up around many of our communities, and the bridges… are crumbling. But the aftermath of 7/7 forces us to assess where we are; we are sleep walking our way to segregation. We are becoming strangers to each other, and we are leaving communities to be marooned outside the mainstream.