ABSTRACT
The principal concern of this essay is racism as it is manifested in the response of central and local government to British Gypsies. In order to put this question into perspective, however, the discussion is prefaced with some comments on the state’s perception of minority groups as ‘problems’, particularly in regard to the spatial concentration of minorities in cities. The contrast between the responses to black minorities, for example, which have an integral rôle in capitalist economies, and to a semi-nomadic, peripheral minority may be illuminating.
