Responding to racialized divisions within the workforce ‐ the experience of black and Asian police officers in England

Sociological studies of police relations with black and Asian people have mostly been concerned with the differential use of legal and other powers. Social processes that mould the phenomenal forms in which race and ethnicity are perceived have been neglected. In this article, data from interviews with black and Asian serving police officers and resigners are used to discuss the different ways in which they responded to racialized categories sustained within the police workforce. It is argued that the occupational cultural context within which responses to racialization occur is central to such an analysis. The reflective approach of officers to assigned ethnic categories is equally central. Diversity rather than a similarity of responses is found. This, however, does not mean that a wholly situational account of racialized relations is desirable. Further studies of the type described here, undertaken in different occupational and organizational contexts, might identify essential forms and processes of social exclusion.