Paul Gilroy - blog tasks

1) How does Gilroy suggest racial identities are constructed?

‘Race’ [is not] the eternal cause of racism [but is] its complex, unstable product. I should probably emphasise at this point that neither race nor racism are the exclusive historical property of the minorities who are their primary victims. (Gilroy, 2004) 

 Here Gilroy is saying that racism isn’t caused by race, racism causes race. Racism is not caused by the clash of two or more races – racism is not a natural phenomenon. Instead, Gilroy states that racial difference and racial identities are the product of racial oppression. Racial identities are caused by historical conflicts that have brought different groups into opposition. That is not to say that there were no human differences before historical conflict between different groups; different

human groups existed but their differences were not defined by ‘race’ lines.

2) What does Gilroy suggest regarding the causes and history of racism?

Race can be seen as shared biological identities inherited from previous generations. Gilroy would argue that race makes the identity of oppressors and the oppressed seem fixed and uniform; that racial categories are caused  by human interactions and as such those categories are subject to change. Around the world structures of political and social life have been constructed under race thinking. that these aspects of society are based upon race thinking is problematic, and as such there is scope to evaluate the equality of representations and identities created in the media.

3) What is ethnic absolutism and why is Gilroy opposed to it?

Ethnic absolutism is a line of thinking which sees humans are part of different ethnic compartments, with race as the basis of human differentiation. Gilroy is opposed to ethnic absolutism as it is counter to his argument that racism causes race.

4) How does Gilroy view diasporic identity?

Within the classic diaspora there is the belief or myth that people of diaspora can return to the place of origin. As such, the further a group move from the place of origin, the more their culture is diluted.

Gilroy does not see diaspora as limited to national contexts in this way. He considers a transatlantic diasporic identity, where groups across the Atlantic share cultural practices – a “single, complex unit” of black cultural practitioners as a result of a shared history of oppression and slavery.

5) What did Gilroy suggest was the dominant representation of black Britons in the 1980s (when the Voice newspaper was first launched)?

Gilroy insisted that black culture was interwoven into the wider society and cultural identities. In seeing the African diaspora in a wider context, Gilroy was challenging us to consider black culture and Britain – that ‘non-European traditional elements, mediated by Afro-America and the Caribbean, have contributed to new & distinct black culture amidst... Welsh, Irish, Scots and English.’ Gilroy argues that we need to take British slavery into account & consider the influence on history, culture and identity. However, in acknowledging the British slave trade as an essential component to British culture caused political issues in the 1980s.

6) Gilroy argues diaspora challenges national ideologies. What are some of the negative effects of this?

Diaspora challenges national ideologies, through the commitment and loyalty to the origin nation or place. However, diasporic identities can also become trapped within a national ideology; diasporic cultural ideologies and practices exist within a national ideology based upon its social, economic and cultural integrations and as such there is a cultural difference with the diasporic identities. This difference becomes associated with minority groups and a cultural tension occurs. This tension between the national ideology and the diasporic ideologies helps to create the diasporic identity. Identities are created in both positive and negative ways. Positive ways of creating an identity could be in the participation and relationships individuals experience. On the other hand, negative experiences of exclusion, exposure to regressive ideologies and marginalisation will also create an identity which is then shared within the diasporic community and perhaps from the origin country.

7) Complete the first activity on page 3: How might diasporic communities use the media to stay connected to their cultural identity? E.g. digital media - offer specific examples.

In March 2012, Kony 2012 was released by the charity Invisible Children with the intention of highlighting the human rights violations by Joseph Kony, a Ugandan guerrilla leader and head of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Kony is accused of war crimes including the abduction and abuse of children, including their indoctrination into his armed forces as front-line troops.

8) Why does Gilroy suggest slavery is important in diasporic identity?

Gilroy also argues the importance of slavery to modernity and capitalism. The modern world was built upon a normalised view of slavery, particularly plantation slavery. Slavery was only rejected when it was revealed as incompatible with enlightened rationality and capitalist production. Gilroy argues that the figure of the black slave of ‘the Negro’ provided enlightened thinkers and philosophers an insight into concepts of property rights, consciousness and art.

9) How might representations in the media reinforce the idea of ‘double consciousness’ for black people in the UK or US?

Double consciousness provides more ways of understanding the world, but it places a great strain on black Americans as they consistently feel they are looking at themselves through the eyes of others; there is a ‘two-ness’ within the identity of the black American which is unreconciled. Gilroy extends this concept of double consciousness to the whole African diaspora which he argues is simultaneously outside and inside the modern world. Black people are outside modernity as they have been deigned freedom and full citizenship; it was ‘proved’ by supposedly rational race scientists that black people were less evolutionally developed than Europeans (obviously this was not true!). Black people are also inside modernity as a result of the various and many contributions to science, literature, politics and society that has made the modern world (although these contributions have not always been acknowledged).

10) Finally, complete the second activity on page 3: Watch the trailer for Hidden Figures and discuss how the film attempts to challenge ‘double consciousness’ and the stereotypical representation of black American women.

The woman fight through the racism and sexism against them. The protagonists in the movie confront and fight against gender and racial inequality throughout. They struggle for recognition and fair opportunity rather than tolerating their injustice. This contradicts the stereotype that black women are weak and useless.