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Books

Cities of Refuge

John Mann reviews three books on race, asylum and immigration by Matt Cavanagh, Michael Dummett and Jacques Derrida.

In the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 the British government strengthened the Race Relations Act of 1967 by attempting to address the problem of institutional racism. One section of the act presented general and specific duties for all schools to comply with. As a school governor responsible for multiculturalism I had to ensure that our school complied with the act: this included reviewing existing school policies in terms of race equality and ensuring they were all race-equality proof. I was also responsible for making sure our school had passed a Race Equality Policy by 31 May 2002 and that the school was working to eliminate race discrimination and promote equality of opportunity and good relations between people of different racial groups. As a philosopher I wanted to reflect on the values and ideas implicit in the act and decided to read the books reviewed here to shed light on my experience.

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