There is a loss of a collective 'black' population, which was meant to stand for all that is not white (Caribbean, Asian, African etc).
CAPITAL VS LABOUR
LABOUR VS CAPITAL
(Inflates class solidarity and plays down the power of racism)
Gilroy wants the book, in the 21st century, to 'make 'race' and racism into social and political phenomena once again.'
SHALL I ACCEPT THIS RESPONSIBILITY?
'...'race' is nothing special, a virtual reality given meaning only by the fact that racism endures.'
'...(measured in health, life expectancy, educational achievement and economic achievement) life chances for the black and minorities show a 'worsening combination of inequality, poverty and misery.''
“MULTI-CULTURAL CONSUMERISM HAS BEEN PITTED AS MORE UNIFYING IN THE STANCE OF EQUALITY THAN DISCUSSIONS OF RACE AND MINORITY MARGINALISATION.”
Instead of...
REFUGEES and ASYLUM SEEKERS,
Gilroy prefers these much more suitable phrases...
POST-COLONIAL + SANCTUARY-SEEKING PEOPLES
His position with many existing positions, in their definition and understanding of 'race', are their 'capacity first to define blacks in the problem/victim couplet and then expel them from historical being altogether.'
Anti-racism must respond by 'revealing and restoring the historical dimensions of black life in this country.'
Gilroy argues that 'racism is not a unitary event based on psychological aberration nor some ahistorical antipathy to blacks.'
There is too much focus on the blacks as a problem/victim and it is time for them to be brought out this category. There is a need for much more education in the historical character of the blacks.
“The form of the state structures the form of political struggles.”
Classes are defined by their struggles. Different supposed classes can come together as one within a class struggle. This empathy unites, clearly defining class separately to race.
Anti-racism must respond by 'revealing and restoring the historical dimensions of black life in this country.'
Gilroy argues that 'racism is not a unitary event based on psychological aberration nor some ahistorical antipathy to blacks.'
There is too much focus on the blacks as a problem/victim and it is time for them to be brought out this category. There is a need for much more education in the historical character of the blacks.
RACE AND RACISM IS MUCH MORE COMPLEX THAN A POLITICAL CLASS STRUGGLE, BUT A DISCRIMINATION WITHIN FORMS OF SOCIAL SUBORDINATION.
“The form of the state structures the form of political struggles.”
Classes are defined by their struggles. Different supposed classes can come together as one within a class struggle. This empathy unites, clearly defining class separately to race.
“BLACK YOUTH”
RACE, CLASS, CLASS RELATIONS, CLASS STRUGGLE.
Gilroy poses the question as to how these forms of class can come to be political organised outfit.
(This was a great question posed in the 80's but is there an undeniable answer in the 21st century with the use of Twitter? I'm thinking of its crucial role in the riots of 2011)
Gilroy argues that 'racial signifiers' are backed up only by the 'ideological work which has been done to turn them into signifiers in the first place.'
...'RACE AS AN OPEN POLITICAL CATEGORY, FOR IT IS A STRUGGLE THAT DETERMINES WHICH DEFINITIONS OF RACE WILL PREVAIL AND THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THEY WILL ENDURE OR WITHER AWAY.'
This occurs through racial signifiers/stereotypes.
'CONTEMPORARY RACE POLITICS'
It is dangerous to allow political powers to continue with racial signifiers and ideologies as practices that sustain them and create them become less stable and more contradictory.
'THE ORDER OF RACIAL POWER RELATIONS HAS BECOME MORE SUBTLE AND ELUSIVE.'
Good Post.
ReplyDeleteJust some initial thoughts:
I don't feel that Twitter can be seen as an answer to organisation. Social media can be part of a solution. Its almost too easy to speak out on social media and because of this statements often lose their power. Change.org springs to mind; the site makes it so easy to sign a petition that it really reduces the power of the petition. Maybe it even makes physical mobilisation even more powerful?
Also Intersectionality springs to mind. I don't really want to say too much as I don't really know enough myself, but from what I do know I think it has some resonance with what the post is discussing.