C-SAP teaching resources: Teaching race and ethnicity theoretical overview
- 3. Structural Inequalities What percentage of population? Approx 10% Educational disadvantage –African Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Pakistani Unemployment rates 2 or 3 times that of white group – even when well qualified More likely to live in social housing, and in poor over-crowded conditions.
- 4. Race & Ethnicity ‘ Race’: 'socially defined but on the basis of physical criteria.‘ Ethnicity: 'socially defined but on the basis of cultural criteria' Van den Berghe, 1967: 9 in Goldberg, 1992, 553 ‘ For social boundaries to be actively maintained, they need to be continually validated, and this requires regular interaction with members of out groups’ ( Frederick Barth, 1969, Ethnic Groups and Social Boundaries )
- 5. Race – ‘shifting signifier’ Race – said to be a social invention does not have a fixed referent At different times has been associated with species divide, religious belief, class, nation, citizenship, culture, ethnicity Consider notions of ‘breeding’ and eugenicist views
- 7. Instrumental or Primordial? Ethnicity as a resource to be used in times of competition. Ethnicity and race as deep-seated and relatively fixed
- 8. Marxism & Race Marx recognised that racism – the divide and rule of colonialism prevented a united working class opposing the bourgeoisie Race is not a primary category of analysis But serves as a convenient tool of capitalism which will wither away when economic reality is recognised, or a mask which serves to obscure true relations of power in a society, which are, in fact, class-based.
- 9. Neo-Weberian Rational Choice theory – ‘ race relations’ approach - the work of John Rex and Michael Banton Complex matrix of factors – class, status, economic and cultural factors, patterns of consumption, stereotypes, forms of representation etc…
- 10. Neo-Marxists 1. Relative Autonomy Model (Hall, 1980) class and ‘race’ should be examined together. 2. Autonomy Model (Gabriel and Ben-Tovim, 1979) racism cannot be reduced to class conflict 3. Migrant Labour Model (Miles & Phizacklea “ Race is an idea which should be explicitly and consistently confined to the dustbin of analytically useless terms.”(Miles, 1984:42 in Solomos p8).
- 11. Pierre Bourdieu concept of 'habitus', grounded in material conditions and experience struggle for ‘symbolic dominance’ the habitus is a reflexive, generative structure a useful tool to look at cases of inter-ethnic differences, alienation, and conflict which are in a state of constant adjustment and negotiation.
- 12. Black Feminism Historically profound connection between gender, sexuality and race Sojourner Truth: “...aint I a woman?” highlights the ‘double burden’ : sexism and racism Feminism recognised processes which are equally applicable to racialised groups: Erasure, Denial, Invisibility, Tokenism critique of White feminism
- 13. Postmodernism & Race End of ‘grand narratives’ of history Advent of Identity politics Depoliticised, factionalised Focus on representation rather than ideology Relativism and ‘differences’ rather than universalism and ‘equal’ rights
- 16. Race & Media slave figure Clown figures Rising Middle class non-threatening blaxploitation genre
- 18. Four Key Themes in Racial Representation exotic dangerous humorous pitied (Alvarado et al. 1987: 153)
- 22. The Circuit of Culture Production Consumption Identity Regulation Representation
- 25. Dominant white discourses: Romantic, Anthropological, Literary and Racist An imagined indigenous idyll The reality is often life in harsh and squalid urban camps – as below in Darwin
- 26. Moral Panics described as a condition, episode, person or group of persons which emerge to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests (Cohen, 1972, p.9). 1970s the image of the black mugger 1980s – image of rioter 1990s – gangsta, gun crimes etc 2000s – Media focus shifts to Muslims
- 29. Multiculturalism What does it mean? Ideal state – integration around a dominant culture – or complex negotiation between many cultures? Trevor Philips of CRE recent reversal over multiculturalism ‘ Sleepwalking towards segregation.’ Relativism V Universalism arguments Identity Politics V struggle against inequality
- 30. + + = MULTICULTURALISM Steel Bands Samosas Saris
- 31. Identity politics Criticised by left-leaning analysts as capitulation to cultural criticism in place of analysis of the material roots of oppression factionalizing and depoliticizing dominance of symbolic over material
- 32. Too Diverse? Multicultural Debate Kenan Malik responds: “ the real problem is not a surfeit of strangers in our midst but the abandonment over the past two decades of ideologically based politics for a politics of identity... The result has been the fragmentation of society as different groups assert their particular identities - and the creation of a well of resentment within white working class communities who feel left out.”
- 33. Bibliography Bronowski, J (1973) The Ascent of Man, BBC books Goldberg D. T. and Solomos J.(eds) 2002, A Companion to racial and ethnic studies, Oxford, Blackwell Goldberg D.T. (1993) Racist Culture, Blackwell Goldberg D.T. (Ed) 1994, Multiculturalism, a Critical Reader, Blackwell. Goodhart, David ‘Too diverse’ February 2004 Available online at: http://www.geocities.com/jjrinst/DavidGoodhart-Immigration-Prospect.htm Hall, S (2000) The Multicultural Question, Political Economy Research Centre, Lecture, transcript available on - http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/N-Q/perc/lectures/Hall.html) Hall, S. et al. (1978), Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order, Macmillan, London. Jenkins R (1997) Rethinking Ethnicity : arguments and explorations, Sage Loomba A (1998) Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Routledge Malik, K (1996) The Meaning of Race, Macmillan Malik, K (2002) Race, pluralism and the meaning of difference, ( paper in New Formations, no33 (Spring 1998) Available online at : http://www.kenanmalik.com/papers/new_formations.html Malik, K (2002) Against Multiculturalism first appeared in the New Humanist (Summer 2002). http://www.kenanmalik.com/essays/against_mc.html Malik, K (2004) Too Diverse: A Response to David Goodhart Muecke, S. (1982) ‘Available Discourses’ in Botsman, P. d (1982) Theoretical Strategies, Sydney, Local Consumption Press. PARIAH website (People Against Racism In Australian Homelands) managed by Mick Lambe (Better a Pariah than a Liar) http://www.country-liberal-party.com/pages/incarc_p5.htm Spencer, S (2006) Race and Ethnicity: Culture, Identity and Representation, Routledge