OSP: Paul Gilroy - Postcolonial theory and diasporic identity

 Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet 170: Gilroy – Ethnicity and Postcolonial Theory. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or you can access it online here using your Greenford Google login.

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/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.

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

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.

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?

The classic diaspora considers the originating

place for those displaced as the original source of unity and permanence

for the diasporic identity. The means that the country a group have been

forced to leave will always be the place that defines the cultural or ethnic

identity for those individuals.

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

that

‘non-European traditional elements, mediated byAfro-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.

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

Gilroy’s intervention in the diasporic thinking was an attempt to

challenge those that would see black culture as the property of a

single nation.

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.
Communities can use the media to keep in touch with different aspects of a culture with things such as potential events related to the culture or significant days.
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.

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

disillusion.’ Gilroy claims that the

inside/outside position of black people enabled writers and thinkers to

question the liberty offered to white North Americans and Europeans.

It ‘forced a special clarity of vision – a dreadful objectivity’ (Du Bois)

as a result of being black and living in the modern world with a sense

of double consciousness.

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.

It highlights how the gender, race and ethnicity has no impact on intelligence, breaking the stereotype created by white people that they are superior when it comes to intelligence and expertise.