IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nos/social/y2021i4p33-45.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Deaths of blacks in police custody: a black british perspective of over 50 years of police racial injustices in the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • Yesufu, Shaka

Abstract

On 25 May 2020, the death of an unknown Blackman named George Floyd in the Minneapolis United States has led to a wave of global protests worldwide. The United Kingdom was not left out of these protests. The deaths of black people in police custody are not a new unfortunate phenomenon in the United Kingdom. The author looks at some of these deaths in the United Kingdom from a historical perspective, relying on both racial typologies theorists on one side and the responses, provided by Afrocentric theorists on race over time, on the other side. The author relies on several case studies of black deaths and secondary sources, arguing that racism can be held responsible for most of these killings by the police. The research findings are encapsulated in the trio unfortunate incidents of slavery, colonialism, and apartheid. These incidences have metamorphosed over time, becoming a social stigma black people wear from cradle to grave. The author suggests that police officers who murder black people and hide behind the wearing of uniforms should not be given immunity from justice. The author debunks the myth, suggesting that the life of a black person is often portrayed as worthless by whites folks. More findings are that both black lives and every human being's lives matter with great intrinsic value. No life must be wasted under the guise of policing. The right to life unarguably remains the most fundamental human right, which the state must protect at all times. Without the protection of life, all other fundamental human rights become meaningless.

Suggested Citation

  • Yesufu, Shaka, 2021. "Deaths of blacks in police custody: a black british perspective of over 50 years of police racial injustices in the United Kingdom," EUREKA: Social and Humanities, Scientific Route OÜ, issue 4, pages 33-45.
  • Handle: RePEc:nos:social:y:2021:i:4:p:33-45
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://journal.eu-jr.eu/social/article/viewFile/1981/1694.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nos:social:y:2021:i:4:p:33-45. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Helen Klimashevska (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://eu-jr.eu/social .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.