Whiteness, Class and the Legacies of Empire

Whiteness, Class and the Legacies of Empire
Author: K. Tyler
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2012-04-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230390293

This book explores why it is white ethnicity has been rendered invisible, arguing that contemporary people's conceptions of themselves are conditioned by, and derive from, the unknown and forgotten legacy of a colonial past that cannot be confined to the past.

What's racism about? Let's look at schools

What's racism about? Let's look at schools
Author: Alan Sharp
Publisher: Grosvenor House Publishing
Total Pages: 159
Release: 2022-01-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1839759283

What is racism? What's the best way to stop it and what can people do to stop it at school level? 'I wrote the book because of demand from people of colour (Africans, Asians, Latin Americans and Pacific Islanders). They were concerned about the way their school experiences in Britain had affected their life chances. And they didn't want another generation to go through this.' 'Cup o' tea?' 'Yes, please. I don't see colour.' 'But that implies you do see colour if you see it as important to make that statement. But it denies people of colour's daily experiences of racism. And when we look at social institutions - education, for example. When pupils take SATS at age 11, many teachers will mark black Caribbeans, black Africans, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis down. Black Caribbean and mixed white/ Caribbean pupils are two and a half times more likely to be permanently excluded from school than white British pupils. So, some people do see colour, and social institutions contain structural racism that works for white people and against people of colour. It's this structural racism that people need to get rid of first. I encourage everyone to start on a journey in their thinking and actions to take on an antiracist identity. This is a step towards working with people of all backgrounds to get rid of structural racism, so people of colour can achieve equality and liberation.' 'So what's happening in schools?' 'First, black Caribbean and mixed white/ Caribbean pupils are substantially underachieving versus white British pupils at GCSE level, with little prospect of this changing. I suggest it's not the pupils that need to change but the teachers. The first part of this is to give teachers training on dealing with racism and understanding pupils' cultures through teaching their history. I share some resources. The second part is to incorporate pupils' cultures into the teaching. I give an example of how pupils are helping teachers to understand their cultures. Through teachers becoming immersed in pupils' culture and pupils showing how they teach lessons in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in several countries. Further, school can become the beginning of a school-to-prison pipeline. In the context of persistent disruptive behaviour being the most common cause for exclusion, I outline how teachers can come to understand pupils of colour's different cultural capital from that of white, middle-class pupils. Finally, I look at two aspects of the curriculum. Re-enacting racism's history can cause trauma to people of colour. I suggest developing pupils' critical skills to engage with difficult histories. Further, very few pupils are learning about British black history. I suggest ways and resources to correct this.'

German Division as Shared Experience

German Division as Shared Experience
Author: Erica Carter
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2019-06-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1789202434

Despite the nearly three decades since German reunification, there remains little understanding of the ways in which experiences overlapped across East-West divides. German Division as Shared Experience considers everyday life across the two Germanies, using perspectives from history, literary and cultural studies, anthropology and art history to explore how interconnections as well as fractures between East and West Germany after 1945 were experienced, lived and felt. Through its novel approach to historical method, the volume points to new understandings of the place of narrative, form and lived sensibility in shaping Germans’ simultaneously shared and separate experiences of belonging during forty years of division from 1945 to 1990.

Literature of an Independent England

Literature of an Independent England
Author: C. Westall
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2013-07-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137035242

Some of the most incisive writers on the subject rethink the relationship between Britain, England and English literary culture. It is premised on the importance of devolution, the uncertainty of the British union, the place of English Literature within the union, and the need for England to become a self-determining literary nation.

Ethics and Nationalist Populism at the British Seaside

Ethics and Nationalist Populism at the British Seaside
Author: Ana Carolina Balthazar
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2021-04-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 100037968X

Drawing on ethnographic research at the British seaside, this book offers an original and insightful anthropological contribution to the study of contemporary Britain and nationalism. The volume focuses on people who have retired from different parts of the UK to the seaside town of Margate and nearby areas, exploring their ethical negotiations and relationship with things that ‘have history’. It considers how residents engage daily with objects, houses and places ‘with character’ and how such ordinary engagements underlie nationalist sentiments and the Brexit vote. Ana Carolina Balthazar demonstrates that those who have reached a comfortable financial position often look for ways to reconnect with their working-class upbringing and, while doing so, engage with the national past in a very tangible manner. Contributing to social scientific debates on class dynamics and ethics, the book provides a different perspective on nationalist populism, one which moves beyond media stereotypes and arguments made about the ‘left behind’ and ‘longing for empire’ in ‘post-industrial’ Britain.

Archaeology below the Cliff

Archaeology below the Cliff
Author: Matthew C. Reilly
Publisher: University Alabama Press
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2019-09-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0817320288

First book-length archaeological study of a nonelite white population on a Caribbean plantation Archaeology below the Cliff: Race, Class, and Redlegs in Barbadian Sugar Society is the first archaeological study of the poor whites of Barbados, the descendants of seventeenth-century European indentured servants and small farmers. “Redlegs” is a pejorative to describe the marginalized group who remained after the island transitioned to a sugar monoculture economy dependent on the labor of enslaved Africans. A sizable portion of the “white” minority, the Redlegs largely existed on the peripheries of the plantation landscape in an area called “Below Cliff,” which was deemed unsuitable for profitable agricultural production. Just as the land on which they resided was cast as marginal, so too have the poor whites historically and contemporarily been derided as peripheral and isolated as well as idle, alcoholic, degenerate, inbred, and irrelevant to a functional island society and economy. Using archaeological, historical, and oral sources, Matthew C. Reilly shows how the precarious existence of the Barbadian Redlegs challenged elite hypercapitalistic notions of economics, race, and class as they were developing in colonial society. Experiencing pronounced economic hardship, similar to that of the enslaved, albeit under very different circumstances, Barbadian Redlegs developed strategies to live in a harsh environment. Reilly’s investigations reveal that what developed in Below Cliff was a moral economy, based on community needs rather than free-market prices. Reilly extensively excavated households from the tenantry area on the boundaries of the Clifton Hall Plantation, which was abandoned in the 1960s, to explore the daily lives of poor white tenants and investigate their relationships with island economic processes and networks. Despite misconceptions of strict racial isolation, evidence also highlights the importance of poor white encounters and relationships with Afro-Barbadians. Historical data are also incorporated to address how an underrepresented demographic experienced the plantation landscape. Ultimately, Reilly’s narrative situates the Redlegs within island history, privileging inclusion and embeddedness over exclusion and isolation.

New Directions in Race, Ethnicity and Crime

New Directions in Race, Ethnicity and Crime
Author: Coretta Phillips
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2013-10-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136261419

The disproportionate criminalisation and incarceration of particular minority ethnic groups has long been observed, though much of the work in criminology has been dominated by a somewhat narrow debate. This debate has concerned itself with explaining this disproportionality in terms of structural inequalities and socio-economic disadvantage or discriminatory criminal justice processing. This book offers an accessible and innovative approach, including chapters on anti-Semitism, social cohesion in London, Bradford and Glasgow, as well as an exploration of policing Traveller communities. Incorporating current empirical research and new departures in methodology and theory, this book also draws on a range of contemporary issues such as policing terrorism, immigration detention and youth gangs. In offering minority perspectives on race, crime and justice and white inmate perspectives from the multicultural prison, the book emphasises contrasting and distinctive influences on constructing ethnic identities. It will be of interest to students studying courses in ethnicity, crime and justice.

The Smell of Slavery

The Smell of Slavery
Author: Andrew Kettler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2020-05-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108490735

Slavery, capitalism, and colonialism were understood as racially justified through false olfactory perceptions of African bodies throughout the Atlantic World.

Nationalism, Inequality and England’s Political Predicament

Nationalism, Inequality and England’s Political Predicament
Author: Charles Leddy-Owen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2019-03-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351617656

Based on fine-grained ethnographic research in an English city, this book offers a highly original perspective on England’s contemporary political predicament. It argues that some of the most influential academic accounts of the country's current political situation, particularly those focusing on culture or racism, have neglected the key role of nationalism as an often unspoken, banal political principle and framing ideology. Suggesting that economic inequalities remain the key causal ingredient of English political life and, crucially, that these are being interpreted by individuals in relation to a nationalist/cosmopolitan ideological axis, the author argues that any effective, progressive political future will require a reinvigorated sense of political community. Proposing a politics that will promote both nationhood and cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, Inequality and England’s Political Predicament advocates a seemingly contradictory but necessary approach by which explicitly anti-nationalist and anti-racist principles coexist expediently alongside short-term protectionist and immigration control policies.