ABSTRACT

This article develops a framework to think sociologically about the containment of activism in contexts of state racism. It argues that normal everyday practices of the police and judicial system have mechanisms which contain challenges to their authority. It shows how state racism is embedded within the criminalisation of black people and enacted through policing. The analysis focuses on Scotland’s first black death in police custody and the campaign formed by his family to establish the circumstances of the death. Sheku Bayoh died shortly after being arrested and restrained by up to nine police officers in Kirkcaldy, a small town on the east coast of Scotland, in May 2015. I pay attention to the role played by racism in the media’s framing of Sheku’s death, common in explaining deaths of black people at the hands of the police.

摘要

本文开发了一个框架，以社会学的方式思考在国家种族主义背景下对激进主义的遏制。它认为，警察和司法系统的正常日常实践具有包含对其权威性挑战的机制。它显示了国家种族主义是如何嵌入对黑人的刑事定罪并通过警务实施的。分析的重点是苏格兰首例被警方拘留的黑死病，以及他的家人为确定死亡情况而发起的运动。Sheku Bayoh 于 2015 年 5 月在苏格兰东海岸的一个小镇 Kirkcaldy 被多达 9 名警察逮捕并拘禁后不久去世。我注意到种族主义在媒体对 Sheku 死亡的构架中所起的作用，这很常见在解释黑人死于警察之手时。