UK:The making of home to the beat of a different drum
Abstract
Comnmlentary UK In December 1997, the Institute of Race Relations launched HomeBeats, the first CD-ROM on racism and the black presence in Britain. Based on the sum of IRR's pioneering work in anti-racist education, it also carries forward both that analysis and that practice. Below, A. Sivanandan out- lines the philosophy that led to the production of HomeBeats; Arun Kundnani, the designer, describes its implementation, and Liz Fekete demonstrates how, elsewhere in academia, anti-racist education is being displaced by approaches centred on identity -rescuing the racists from themselves by furnishing them with a new, raceless identity. The making of home to the beat of a different drum* There is a feeling in Britain that we are far in advance of the rest of Europe in combating racism. In some senses, this is true. There has indeed been some sort of economic and social mobility for African- Caribbeans and Asians in the middle tranches of society. Equal opportunities and the Race Relations Act have worked for them. But, in the deprived and inner-city areas, on the dilapidated housing estates, in that third of society which has been socially and econo- mically excluded for almost a generation, racism has got