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 can be seen as shared biological identities inherited from previous generations. Gilroy would argue that race makes the identity of oppressors and the oppressed seem fixed and
uniform. Around the world structures of political and social life have been constructed under race thinking.
Gilroy sees race as a result of racism, the fact that these aspects of society are based upon race thinking is problematic.
Ethnic absolutism is a line of thinking which sees humans are part of different ethnic compartments, with race as the basis of human differentiation.
Diasporas are considered to comprise of members of ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious groups who live in countries to which their ancestors migrated. Identities of individuals within a
diaspora are formed over time, as a result of the historical, social and cultural relationships within the group and other groups. He considers a transatlantic diasporic identity, where groups across the Atlantic share cultural practices – a “single, complex unit” of black cultural practitioners as a result of a shared history of oppression and slavery.
Gilroy sees black identities as a product of movement – the African diasporic identity is based on ROUTES taken throughout history, and not the ROOTS of origin.
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 of black Britons was as “external and estranged from the imagined community that is the nation.
Diasporic identities can also become trapped within a national ideology; diasporic cultural ideologies and practices exist within a national ideology based upon its social, economic and cultural integrations and as such there is a cultural difference with the diasporic identities.
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.
- Social media platorms to stay conected to news and culture
- News- Al jazeera gives representation to different regions
- streaming services- Netflix offers a range of latin series and films
8) Why does Gilroy suggest slavery is important in diasporic identity?
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. Gilroy argues that the figure of the black slave of ‘the Negro’ provided enlightened thinkers and philosophers an insight into concepts of property rights, consciousness and art.
9) How might representations in the media reinforce the idea of ‘double consciousness’ for black people in the UK or US?
The media will offer a range of representations for various groups. However, these are often limited from some groups more than others. The dominant representations of black males, primarily in the US, is either a rapper, criminal or gang member, or an athlete.
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 trailer shows the intelligenve of three black women and highlghts the invisibility black women in America history. In regards to diasporic identity, the trailer shows how black peole may struggle to come to terms with their own identity when they are constantly percieved to be diferrent in western socieites.
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