Paul Gilroy Blog Task

Paul Gilroy - blog task

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

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:

1) How does Gilroy suggest racial identities are constructed?

Paul Gilroy suggests that racial identities are historically constructed. He believes they were formed by the colonialization, slavery, nationalist philosophies and consumer capitalisation.

2) What does Gilroy suggest regarding the causes and history of racism?

Gilroy states that racial difference and racial identities are the product of racial oppression. Racialidentities are caused by historical conflicts that have brought differentgroups into opposition.

3) What is ethnic absolutism and why is Gilroy opposed to it?

Ethnic absolutism is a line of thinking which sees humans are part of different ethnic compartments, with race as the basis of human differentiation. 

4) How does Gilroy view diasporic identity?

Diaspora means a scattering of people, from the original place to elsewhere. Diasporas are considered to comprise of members ofethnic, 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.

5) What did Gilroy suggest was the dominant representation of black Britons in the 1980s (when the Voice newspaper was first launched)?

Gilroy suggested that the dominant representation of black britons in the 1980s was that they weren't seen as good as white people or they weren't seen as good enough.

The dominant representation of black Britons was as “external and estranged from the imagined community that is the nation.” As such, to accept the role of slavery into the cultural identities of Britain would be to challenge the negative stereotype of black Britons at the time, and reverse the “external and estranged” relationship with the nation.

6) Gilroy argues diaspora challenges national ideologies. What are some of the negative effects of this?

Diaspora challenges national ideologies, through the commitment andloyalty to the origin nation or place. However, 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.

Diasporic communities would use different social media platforms to stay connected to their cultural identity. 
8) Why does Gilroy suggest slavery is important in diasporic identity?

Gilroy also argues the importance of slavery to modernity and capitalism. The modern world was built upon a normalised view ofslavery, particularly plantation slavery. Slavery was only rejectedwhen it was revealed as incompatible with enlightened rationality andcapitalist production. Gilroy argues that the figure of the black slave of ‘the Negro’ provided enlightened thinkers and philosophers an insightinto 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?

These areas were often defined in relation to slavery or blackness;the philosopher Hegel theorised that the master/ slave relationshipwas ‘a modernising force in that it leads both master and servant firstto self-consciousness and then to disillusion.’ Gilroy claims that the inside/outside position of black people enabled writers and thinkers to question the liberty offered to white North Americans and Europeans.It ‘forced a special clarity of vision – a dreadful objectivity’ (Du Bois)as a result of being black and living in the modern world with a sense of double consciousness.

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 for Hidden Figures successfully challenges the stereotypical representations of black women. They do this by giving black women a key role in NASA which is to calculate launch and landing. Not many women get a chance to work with NASA as it is predominantly men however, in this trailer, the black American women get the chance to prove themselves.