75
See also: Michel Foucault 52–55; 270–77 ■ W.E.B. Du Bois 68–73 ■
Elijah Anderson 82–83 ■ bell hooks 90–95 ■ Benedict Anderson 202–03I
n his book There Ain’t No
Black in the Union Jack,
British sociologist Paul Gilroy
focuses on racism in Britain in
the 20th century. He points out
that in the 1970s Britain worried
about its “national decline”
almost obsessively, and many
commentators ascribed this
to the “dilution of homogenous
and continuous national stock”—
specifically, Gilroy says, to the
arrival of black people in Britain.
Gilroy indicates that fixed
notions of nationality, such
as “Britishness,” may not be
intentionally racist, but they have
racist consequences. In seeking
to define Britishness, 20th-century
writers always seemed to imagine
a white Britain—black people were
seen as permanent outsiders. They
were denied authentic national
membership on the basis of their
“race,” and it was often assumed
that their allegiance lay elsewhere.
While accepting that the idea
of race has been a historical and
political force, Gilroy says that it
is no more than a social construct,a concept created in society. Where
some sociologists have suggested
a discussion of “ethnicity” or
“culture” instead, Gilroy proposes
that we should abandon all of these
ideas. Whatever terms we use, he
says, we are creating a false idea
of “natural” categories by putting
disparate people into different
groups, leading to a division
between “them” and “us.”Raciology
According to Gilroy, all these types
of discussion leave us enmeshed
in what he calls “raciology”—a
discourse that assumes certain
stereotypes, prejudices, images,
and identities. Anti-racists find
themselves inverting the position
of racist thinkers, but are
nevertheless unable to displace
the idea of racism altogether. The
solution, Gilroy suggests, lies in
refusing to accept racial divisions
as an inescapable, natural force,
and instead developing “an ability
to imagine political, economic,
and social systems in which
‘race’ makes no sense.” ■SOCIAL INEQUALITIES
T H E R E A I N ’ T N O
BLACK IN THE
UNION JACK
PAUL GILROY (1956– )
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Racism
KEY DATES
18th–19th centuries
Biological-based ideas of race
are used to justify slavery
and colonialism.
1940s The Nazi party uses
“race” to justify political
inequality and introduces
ideas of “racial purity.”
1950 UNESCO declares that
“race” is a social myth.
1970s Michel Foucault argues
that biological ideas of race,
linked with certain essential
traits, arose with colonialism.
1981 US sociologist Anne
Wortham publishes The Other
Side of Racism, identifying
five black movements that
prevent society from reaching
a position “beyond racism.”
1987 Paul Gilroy publishes
There Ain’t No Black in the
Union Jack.