Multi-Racist Britain

268 Pages·1988·27.906 MB·English

by  Philip Cohen, Harwant S. Bains (eds.)

YOUTH QUESTIONS
SeriesEditors: PHILIPCOHEN and ANGELA MCROBBIE
This seriessets out to question the ways in which youth has traditionally
been defined by social scientists and policy-makers, by the caring
professions and the mass media, as well as in 'common-sense' ideology.
Itexploressome ofthe newdirections in research and practicewhich are
beginningtochallengeexistingpatternsofknowledgeandprovision. Each
book examines a particular aspect of the youth question indepth. All of
them seekto connecttheirconcernsto the majorpoliticaland intellectual
debates that are now taking place about the present crisis and future
shape of our society. The series will be of interest to those who deal
professionally with young people, especially those concerned with the
development of socialist, feminist and anti-racist perspectives. But it is
also aimedat studentsandgeneralreaderswhowantalivelyandaccessible
introduction to some of the most awkward but important issues of our
time.
Published
Inge Bates, John Clarke, Philip Cohen, Dan Finn, Robert Moore and
Paul Willis
SCHOOLING FORTHE DOLE?
TheNew Vocationalism
Cynthia Cockburn
TWO-TRACKTRAINING
Sex Inequalitiesand the ITS
PhilipCohen and HarwantS. Bains(eds)
MULTI-RACISTBRITAIN
Andrew Dewdneyand Martin Lister
YOUTH,CULTUREAND PHOTOGRAPHY
Dan Finn
TRAININGWITHOUTJOBS:NEW DEALSAND BROKEN PROMISES
FromRaisingthe School-LeavingAge to theYouthTrainingScheme
Angela McRobbie (ed.)
ZOOTSUITS ANDSECOND-HAND DRESSES
AnAnthologyofFashionand Music
AngelaMcRobbieandMica Nava (eds)
GENDER AND GENERATION
Forthcoming
Desmond Bell
ACTSOFUNION
Youth CultureandSectarianisminNorthernIreland
PhilipCohen and Graham Murdock (eds)
THE MAKINGOFTHE YOUTHQUESTION
Robert G.Hollands
THE LONGTRANsmON
Class,Culture and Youth Training
Angela McRobbie
FEMINISMAND YOUTHCULTURE
KevinRobins and FrankWebster
COMPUTERS, INDUSTRY AND EDUCATION
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CustomerServices Department. Macmillan Distribution Ltd
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire. RG21 2XS. England.
Multi-Racist Britain
Edited by
Philip Cohen and Harwant S. Bains
M
MACMILLAN
EDUCATION
Selectionandeditorial matter©PhilipCohenand HarwantS.Bains1988
Individualchapters (inorder)©PhilipCohen,PaulGilroy and Errol Lawrence,
JohnSolomos, Prathibha Parmar,Tuku Mukherjee,HarwantS.Bains, Ansel
WongandBobCatterall,TrevorGriffiths, Karim Alrawiand HarwantS.Bains
1988
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Firstpublished 1988
Publishedby
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TypesetbyWessexTypesetters
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublication Data
Multi-racistBritain-(Youth questions).
1. Racism-Great Britain
I. Cohen, Philip II. Bains,HarwantS.
III. Series
305.8'00941 DAl25.A1
ISBN978-0-333-33249-8 ISBN978-1-349-19399-8(eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-19399-8
Contents
Introduction: Perspectives on the Present 1
Philip Cohen
PARTI PROBLEMATICS
1 The Perversionsof Inheritance: Studies in the Makingof
Multi-Racist Britain 9
Philip Cohen
PART II POLICIES
2 Two-Tone Britain: White and BlackYouthandthePolitics
ofAnti-Racism 121
Paul Gilroy and Errol Lawrence
3 Institutionalised Racism: PoliciesofMarginalisation in
Education and Training 156
John Solomos
PART III PRACTICES
4 Gender, Raceand Power: The Challengeto YouthWork
Practice 197
Prathibha Parmar
5 The Journey Back 211
Tuku Mukherjee
6 Southall Youth: AnOld-FashionedStory 226
Harwant S. Bains
vi Contents
7 NoHeat Loss 244
Ansel Wong ininterviewwith Bob Catterall
8 OiFor England 253
Trevor Griffiths ininterviewwith Karim Alrawi and
Harwant S. Bains
Noteson theContributors 261
Introduction: Perspectives on the
Present
Philip Cohen
At a first, cursory glance many people may be inclinedto misread
the title of this book. We are, after all, supposed to be livingin a
multi-racial society, to send our children to multi-ethnic schools,
where they do multi-cultural studies and learn to respect,appreci
ate or at least tolerate each other's diversity. That is the official
story-line, and it is one in which we would all like to believe.
Current realities are very different,however, and soisour title.
The realities include: a black community struggling to achieve
social justice and a better deal for its children at a time when
Britain is increasingly divided into two nations; a police force
actively erodingcivillibertieswhichthe lawissupposed touphold;
a popular press which daily relays racist images and chauvinistic
sentiments whilst orchestrating moral panics against 'ideological
bias' in schools; mass youth unemployment, in which ethnic
minoritiesare over-represented,disguisedbygovernment training
schemes in which they are discriminated against. Wecould goon,
but the point of this book isnot to rehearse, yet again, the terms
of the present conjuncture but to take a step back and to look at
what has helped to shape these several 'front lines'. We have,
therefore, set outto examineinturn the problematics, the policies
and the practices which have played a crucial role inconstructing
issues of 'race' within education and the youth service, amongst
socialists, trade unionists and feminists, and most importantly of
all, amongst young people themselves.
In this way we have tried to set a series of contemporary
debates - absolute or relative autonomy of 'race', multi-cultural
1
2 Introduction
or anti-racist education, separatist or pluralist youth provision,
moralor physicalforce against racism- within somekind ofwider
context of understanding.
In Part I we consider some of the theoretical maps which
have informed policies and practices, particularly in the field of
education. Taking issue with the dominant view of race, ethnicity
andclass,Iargue for amulti-dimensionalmodel ofideology which
allowsracist discourse to 'speak' at a numberof different levelsof
meaning, whilst also pinpointing its different modes and codes as
these are articulated within the wider framework of society. I use
this model to look at some of the key historical and cultural
processes which have shaped Britain into a multi-racist society.
By locating the peculiarities of English racism in the internal
contradictions of itssocial structure, I try to draw a map in which
it is possible to make cross-references between the Jewish, Irish
and Black experiences in Britain with greater precision. Finally,
by looking at popular culture as a complex site of negotiation
between gender and generation, ethnicity and class, I suggest a
possiblefocusfor work with young people. I argue that unless the
inner workings of the racist imagination are properly understood,
there islittle chance ofchallengingits 'commonsense'. As long as
educationalinitiatives remain lockedina 'civilisingmission' which
is itself founded on a hidden curriculum of middle-class racism,
they willcontinue to be resisted by the majority of working-class
pupils.
In Part II we move on to consider the territories which make
up the front lines of current struggles. All the contributors in
this section were associated with the group at the Centre for
ContemporaryCultural StudiesinBirminghamwho produced The
Empire StrikesBack.This book broke new ground in locatingthe
politics of 'race relations' within the crisis of hegemony in post
warBritain. Here, that analysis isdeveloped and deepened.
PaulGilroyandErrolLawrencebeginbylookingatthedynamics
ofrace, youth and classin the light ofrecentpoliticalevents.They
examine the interpretations of the 1981riots offered by political
commentators and the mass media, and argue that these repre
sentations indicate the centrality of 'race' to the strategy of crisis
management adopted under Thatcherism. The authors go on to
contrast the reading of the riots constructed from above with
the very different systems of meaning mobilised by the youth
PhilipCohen 3
themselves. They trace the development of black youth cultures
and their impact both on the politics of the black community and
on white youth. The chapterconcludes bylooking atthe attempts
ofthe Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism to establish a
popular cultural politics centred on 'two-tone music' as a means
of drawing white and black youth into a common struggleagainst
racism. In assessing the successes and failures of these campaigns
the authors address some searching questions to the British Left
and Labourmovementregardingbothitspast policiesand present
practices. Their conclusions are particularly timely in the light of
the reneweddebate aboutthe role ofblacksectionsinthe Labour
Party.
In the following chapter, John Solomos surveys the effect of
both Labour and Conservative government policiesin marginali
sing black youth in theeducationalsystem and the labour market.
Hetracestheshiftfrom assimilationtointegrationto'multicultura
lism'asthebasisofStateintervention;heshowshowthecumulative
impactofthesepolicieshasbeentoreinforceinstitutionalprocesses
of discrimination and cement popular definitions of black youth
as 'the problem'. A test case, examined in detail here, is the
development of special training provision for blackschool-leavers
and unemployed youth. Far from improving theirsituation, these
schemes confirm their marginal position in the secondary labour
market while simultaneously deflecting attention away from the
real issues of race and class. With the development of two-year
Youth Training Schemes (YTS) and the proposals to abolish the
right to social security benefit of those under eighteen years old,
Solomos's analysis of the restructuringofyouth transitions and its
role in reproducing inequalities of race and classhasbeen power
fully confirmed. It remains to be seen whether the processes of
marginalisation he describes produce new sites and forms of
struggle amongst blackand white youth.
In Part Three we move on to the terrain of anti-racist practice
itself, and focus on strategic initiatives in the recent past which
have set outto transform the position ofyouth in thecommunity.
We begin with a chapter by Pratibha Parmar, entitled 'Gender,
Race and Power', where she looks at the struggle to articulate
new policies within the youth service in response tothe emergent
demands of black women and girls. Herselfa pioneer in the field
of anti-sexist and anti-racist youth work, she draws here on her