The discussion notes that the gaps in information have been filled with rhetoric and outdated and irrelevant truisms rather than contemporary empirical data. It argues that British criminology has generally relied on unexamined stereotypes and false analogies and that opponents of racism have tried to impose a single version of events on the discussions about these issues. The paper describes criminology's rediscovery of class analysis and argues that without class analysis, criminology cannot understand problems of crime and criminalization or advance the understanding of black crime. Separating racism from a broader context of social disadvantage results in a loss of awareness of the material reality of discrimination and injustice and of black people as real occupants of disadvantaged social roles. The analysis concludes that research must be socially and historically specific and must appreciate the importance not only of class location of black communities but also of the cultural and political context in which the response to crime occurs.