ABSTRACT
The chapter argues that, contrary to policymakers’ rhetoric about valuing fairness and justice, contemporary policy shows the dominance of ‘white ignorance’ and a spectacle of cruelty that is intended to punish minoritized groups, especially migrants, and to unite white racist sentiment. The chapter is in two parts; the first shows how racism-denial hides behind a façade of caring and ethical neutrality in the idea of so-called ‘colour-blindness’. This approach wilfully evades engagement with racism as an historically shaped and comprehensive force in society – often utilizing a fabricated caricature of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in order to lend its position a false sense of authenticity. The second part of the chapter looks at cruelty as a hallmark of contemporary policy, driven by anti-Black racism. The analysis reveals similarities in the shape and consequences of multiple policy issues, including the so-called ‘hostile environment’, the Windrush Scandal, the use of strip -searches against Black children, and the celebration of a system of exclusion from school that has always produced disproportionate harm for Black children. Drawing on Critical Race Theory, US political analysis and the work of British sociologist Stuart Hall, the chapter argues that the cruelty displayed by policymakers performs multiple functions; in addition to any crude and self-satisfying element of shared pleasure, in inflicting harm on minoritized groups, the spectacle of cruelty serves to further objectify and isolate the Othered group/s and unify the policies’ white spectators.
