Paul Gilroy

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?

He says how racial identities are historically constructed, this is through colonialization, slavery, nationalist philosophies and consumer capitalism.

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

He suggests how rasism isn't caused by race but that racism causes race. He states that is a natural phenomenon and that racial difference and identity are the product of racial oppression.

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

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

4) How does Gilroy view diasporic identity?

He does not see it as limited to national contexts and considers a transatlantic diasporic identity, which is groups across the Atlantic share a cultural practise, to be a a “single, complex unit” of black cultural practitioners.

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

The dominant representation was a “external and estranged from the imagined community that is the nation.” This was in order to accept the role of slavery into the cultural identities of Britain would be to challenge the negative stereotype of black Britons at the time, and reverse the “external and estranged” relationship with the nation.

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

The negative effect of this is the experiences of exclusion,  exposure to regressive ideologies and marginalisation which will create an identity shared within the diasporic community.

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.

Staying connected usually happens through social media and its vast platforms many people can access. Being able to comment and post towards people from your own cultural identity shows how strong the connection is. This could be through listening to your own cultural music following people or even conversing with them.

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

He argues the importance of slavery  as the modern world normalised view of slavery, particularly plantation slavery. Slavery was initially rejected when revealed as  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?

He extends double consciousness to the whole of African diaspora. 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.

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 film attempts to challenge double consciousness as the trailer is representing the reality of African American women working in a white male dominated industry that causes them to face many challenges such as discrimination. The stereotypical representation of these women is seen as subverted as the main character is introduced with her intelligence and strong mind to argue for women in society and media that are overlooked.