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 Introduction to Postcolonialism: blog tasks

Read ‘The Theory Drop: Postcolonialism and Paul Gilroy’ in MM75  (p28). You'll find our Media Magazine archive here - remember you'll need your Greenford Google login to access.

Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) Look at the first page. What is colonialism - also known as cultural imperialism? 

‘Cultural imperialism’ or ‘colonialism’ – the belief that native people were intellectually inferior, and that white colonisers had a moral right to subjugate the local populace as they were ‘civilising’ them: in other words, trying to make them more like Western European society.

2) Now look at the second page. What is postcolonialism? 

Postcolonialism, like postmodernism, refers less to a time period and more to a critiquing of a school of thought that came before it. Postcolonialism exists to question white patriarchal views with a particular reference to how they relate to race.

3) How does Paul Gilroy suggest postcolonialism influences British culture?

As Gilroy puts it, Britain’s "...criminalisation of immigrants and their descendants especially those from the Caribbean and South Asia signifies a melancholic response to these social and  political groups that are essential to late modern British life." This criminalisation and demonising of immigrants is done through a number of means, one of the key ones being othering.

4) What is 'othering'?

Othering is the phenomenon whereby we identify something as being different from, or alien to our social identity. If something is ‘other’ it is different to ‘us’; it doesn’t fit well within the confines of our society. The practice of othering persons means to exclude and displace them from the dominant social group to the margins of society. This obviously has a dehumanising effect on the people being othered.

5) What examples of 'othering' are provided by the article?

This process of othering has proved very useful for populist politicians like Nigel Farage, who rode to victory in the 2016 referendum by harnessing a sense of discontent in British society and aiming it at immigrants, famously

standing in front of a poster with a long line of mostly non-white migrants and the slogan ‘breaking point’. The process of othering has been the domain of tabloid newspapers such as the Daily Express, who printed 179 anti-migrant stories between 2011 and 2016, that’s roughly one anti-immigrant headline every ten days. This type of othering in the media has several negative effects. For the white readers that these are aimed at, it perpetuates a stereotypical view of BAME communities, but it also has an effect on the people that it is othering as well. Additionally people are reduced to labels such as "illegal immigrant" or "asylum seeker".

6) What is 'double consciousness'? 

This othering can sometimes manifest in a confusion over identity, particularly for people from ethnic minorities living in the Western world. This confusion is referred to as a ‘double consciousness’ whereby people struggle to reconcile two nationalities or identities.

7) What are 'racial hierarchies'?

Another hold over from colonialism is the idea of racial hierarchies: the idea that some races are superior to other ones. In Western culture, people who promote these ideas are usually advocating for white supremacy. However, perceptions of different ethnic groups can change over time.

8) What examples from recent media products challenge the idea of racial hierarchies? 

There are numerous media texts that challenge these ideas of racial hierarchies by putting people in minority groups in positions of authority. Some choose to examine the implications of being BAME in these positions, such as Brooklyn Nine- Nine’s ‘Moo Moo’ episode from its fourth season, where Lt. Terry Jeffords is racially profiled by another cop. Some shows choose to largely ignore the character’s ethnicity and its impact on their role, such as Nick Fury’s role as director of SHIELD in the Marvel films, striving for a time when a person’s ethnicity doesn’t make a difference to anyone.