This work develops the concept of racialization. It is argued that a full understanding of racialized discourse must pay attention to both particular local circumstances in which they appear, and well established themes which unfold over time. An important aspect of the study is the examination of other discourses with which racialized ideas have co-joined, reflecting the way in which notions of "race" are socially constructed. The final part of the thesis returns to debates of the 1980s and argues that the racialization of unrest in that decade was closely intertwined with conservative perspectives which sought to deny socio-economic causes in favour of explanations based upon the supposed cultural or personal proclivities of those involved.