Standard discussions of police racism in Britain, present it as being a consequence of Britain becoming multicultural, as African, Caribbean and Asian people migrated to Britain in significant numbers after World War 2. These migrants are seen as disrupting a peaceful, united monocultural Britain. But historically, most of Britain’s policing hasn’t taken place on British soil – it has been deployed in its colonies. Millions of colonial subjects, exploited and controlled for the enrichment of Britain for centuries, required policing. British colonial policing was far more militarised and violent than policing on the British mainland. The racial hierarchy of the British Empire – the racism of colonialism – is what justified the violence and exploitation Britain imposed on the Africans, Asians and Caribbean people it colonised.
