Embodying Black Madness, Embodying White Femininity: Populist (Re)Presentations and Public Policy - The Case of Christopher Clunis and Jayne Zito

This paper examines the representation of racialised and gendered bodies inrelation to both the media and public policy responses to Christopher Clunis’killing of Jonathan Zito in London in 1992. Analysing written and visual mediatext the first section of the paper argues that dichotomous constructionsbetween the dangerous black masculine body of Christopher Clunis and thevulnerable idealised white feminine body of Jayne Zito were drawn on to helpmake sense of the tragedy in a period in which public anxieties around mentalhealth care were increasingly evident. The effectiveness of theserepresentations can be seen in the setting up of the NHS Enquiry whose remit wasto investigate the care and treatment given to Clunis by psychiatricprofessionals. The second section of the paper focuses on the ways in which theissue of race and the racialised body played a complex and contradictory role inboth the findings of the Report and in determining the (inadequate) service thatClunis received once within the mental health care system