None Provided17, Sociology, College Term Papers.com


		Data Bases
		• Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism?

		Links
		• Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com

		Free Essays
		• Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers

Search Lots of Essays

Back to Subjects - Sociology

None Provided17

None Provided17 Critically explore the practices and processes shaping racism in British society. The concept of racism is a relatively modern term that made its appearance in the 18th century. The practices and processes that have helped shape racism in British society today must be looked at as a series of ideologies, that have been built into British institutions and organisations as a consequence of the historical contexts of colonialism and imperialism. However, ideas of race and differences between races are rooted even earlier than this, even as far back in history as the 16th century. Even though racism can operate on levels of both individual racism and institutional racism, it is the later that will be looked at in this essay together with the historical context of Colonialism, and the political ideologies in the form of the Immigration acts that have shaped and still shape racism in British society (Mason 1995). When looking at how institutional racism as an ideology is embedded, in society it is necessary to look at historical events that have given rise to racism in Britain. Even though migration to Britain has been occurring through out time immemorial, the notion of race and racism as terminology really only came into popular use as an ideology from around the 18th century (Ramdin 1987). The fifteenth century saw the great voyages of exploration by Columbus and the beginnings of the Portuguese slave trade followed by the British explorative activities of Sir Francis Drake and Hawkins, which led to the rise of mercantile trade that extended British links to Africa and North America during the 16th century. These explorations led to what is commonly called the triangular journey in which ships left British west coast ports like Liverpool and Bristol laden which firearms, gunpowder, metals, alcohol, cotton goods, beads, knives and mirrors (Brummagem ware). These goods were exchanged for slaves who where then taken on the second leg of the triangular journey to the West Indies and Southern America where they were used to produce goods such as cotton, tobacco, sugarcane and coffee. These slave produced goods were shipped back to Britain where they were manufactured or refined, and either sold domestically or re- exported (Ramdin 1987). This growth of trade during the 16th and 17th century, brought about the establishment of the Colonial Board in 1661, its objective was to decide how best to populate and work the colonies of the new world. The political aspect of this was the increasing concern that emigration of white workers to the colonies would eventually leave a shortage of cheap labour at home. The Royal Family gave its patronage to the African slave trade in 1680 by the formation of the Royal African Company (Ramdin 1987). This move could be argued to be seen as giving legitimacy to the belief that the Africans where more suited to labour than the white peoples, it could be argued that it is here that we see the first signs of racism emerging in British society. The 18th century saw a great change in moral and religious beliefs brought about by the period of the enlightenment. From 1748, arguments arose against slavery. In 1758 the Quakers started to campaign against slavery and were quickly joined by the Protestants. By 1783 anti slavery had become a National political issue. This can in some part be attributed to the American and French Revolutions when the ideas of equality and liberty began to gain credence. In such a climate, slavery could not be seen as anything but wrong. Such support helped the abolitionist William Wilberforce to get a bill banning the trading of slaves through the House of Commons in 1796. However, war with France and a fear of radical uprising in Britain stopped the bill becoming law for another 11 years There are so many factors that help explain the death of the slave trade, but the reason they find success at the end of the 18th century is that suddenly they all appear to come together and become relevant (Saggar 1992). Industrial expansion meant that the economic arguments against slavery could finally be proven. Enlightenment thinking became popular, and suddenly there were sound political arguments as to why slavery should be stopped. With the industrial revolution slave labour was no longer cost effective. As a result, in 1807 The Abolition of Slave Trade act was passed (Saggar 1992). The abolition of slavery however did not put an end to black settlement in Britain and it was estimated that there was a population of 10,000 black people at the end of the nineteenth century (Ramdin 1987). During the Victorian Era, the acquisition of territory and of further trading concessions continued; reaching its peak when Victoria, at Disraeli's instigation, had herself crowned Empress of India in 1876. Followers of Disraeli's imperialist foreign policies justified them by invoking a paternalistic and racist theory, which saw Imperialism, as a manifestation of what Kipling would refer to as "the white man's burden.” It could be argued that the implication behind this was that the Empire existed not for the economic benefit of Britain itself, but for the purpose of civilising primitive peoples, incapable of governing themselves and who could with guidance become civilised and christianised. (Saggar 1992). These views of racial superiority were further strengthened by the pseudo scientific writings of De Gobineau’s text The Essay on the inequality of the human races and Darwin’s Origin Of The Species these texts were to have an integral role in racial thinking in countries like France and Germany. Darwin’s works were taken as themes to be developed by the social Darwinists, and used in debates about race (Solomos & Back 1996). Colonial literature gives images of the differences between races and the notion of the ‘other’ who was primitive, uncivilised and savage, Africa itself was called the ‘Dark Continent’, these images gave rise to the popular stereotyping of the black people (Mason 1995). When looking at the historical context of racism, the Jewish immigrants must also be looked at. Where black settlements had been formed as arising from slavery, Jewish immigration to Britain formed the largest bulk of immigration between 1881 and 1945, by 1901 there was reported to be nearly 83,000 Jews in Britain many whom had fled from the Russian revolution. Response to this rising immigration was the formulation of the 1905 Aliens act, which was to form the foundations of future immigration acts (Saggar 1992). The 1905 Aliens act refused entry to all who could not support themselves and also gave the means to deport any one who received poor relief, where living in overcrowded or unsanitary conditions within a year of entry. This set the precedence for and established the right for the home secretary to deny entry to or expel undesirable immigrants and at this time the word immigrant was almost synonymous with the word Jew (Ramdin 1987). Further acts were passed in 1914 and 1920 as a result of the First World War. Again these acts were to put in place to restrict undesirables with limited financial resources gaining entry to Britain. However British subjects from the colonies were exempt. (Mason 1995). The next largest wave of immigration was of course the Jewish refugees fleeing from persecution during the war and the years preceding it. One thing that is important to note about these acts is the fact that they were designed not to keep out immigrants, but to keep out undesirable immigrants, these were classified according to the act as those who travelled steerage class but not those who could afford a cabin. It could be argued that the ideology of institutional racism was set up within this act by the use of class inclusion and exclusion. The act was designed specifically to stop Jewish immigration because at that time they were seen to be both an economic burden and as having undesirable traits as a race (Miles 1993). Post war migrations to Britain consisted first of people from the Caribbean, followed by immigrants from India, Pakistan, Africa and the Far East. These people were British subjects of the new commonwealth and as such entry was not restricted to them under the British Nationality Act of 1948. This act gave them the right to enter and settle with their families. This first wave of migrants came in response to the post war labour shortages and was seemingly encouraged by the Government and employers such as London Transport, who even had recruiting offices in Barbados. It was believed at this time that the immigrants would be assimilated into British society taking on the mores and norms of British culture (Miles 1993). The start of our modern legislation was the 1962 Immigration Act. This act appears to be in conflict the 1948 Nationality act under which all British subjects had the right to admission to the UK. Immigration controls had been applied against Commonwealth citizens. The racial divide was heightened when, in practice, it was seen that white Commonwealth citizens were not subject to controls while black Commonwealth citizens now had to apply for work vouchers. The 1962 Act was an important precedent, which established the principle of the exclusion of black people, even when they held passports as citizens of the UK and Colonies (Mason 1995). The 1968 Commonwealth Immigrants Act introduced by Labour revealed once again that the dividing line for admission to Britain was one of race. After the independence of Kenya in 1963 many Asian people with UK passports found that they had lost the right to live and work in Kenya. The 1968 Act allowed entry to Britain only if a person, or one parent or grandparent was born or naturalised in the UK, a requirement that very few of the Kenyan Asians could meet. They were denied their right to enter their country of citizenship, contrary to international law, entirely on the grounds of race and colour. White settlers from Kenya were welcome. Asians with UK passports were not (Saggar 1992). The Conservative 1971 Immigration Act took the idea of birth and ancestry from the 1968 Act. New terms of Patrial and non-Patrial were introduced in the 1971 Act. This marked a clear division between Citizens of the UK and Colonies who were white and those who were not. Patrials had the absolute right of entry; non-Patrials were subject to immigration control (Malik 1996). The immigration acts of 1981 and 1988 further reinforce the restrictions put upon coloured immigrants whilst not discriminating against white immigrants (Saggar 1992). It could be argued here then that racism is embedded as an ideology in the Laws of Britain. Immigration Acts operate on levels of exclusion and inclusion, which is one of the primary facts of racism. Since 1962 state racism, entrenched in our notions of nationality and reproduced in government institutions, has served to marginalise ethnic communities. Such marginalisation can be seen in areas such as Education, Policing and the Health Service where Ethnic minorities are believed to receive lower standards of service than white people (Skellington R, Morris P and Gordon P 1992). Race relations acts in between 1965 and 176 were passed to try to combat racism, however the acts called for the elimination of racial discrimination but also accepted that the population was composed of people of different races and that racism does affect these races. The members of these races were identified in laws such as Section 11 of the 1966 Local Government Act as members of the New Commonwealth countries and Pakistan (Miles 1993). The term institutional racism is one that has come to be synonymous with racism in the police force after the death of the black youth Stephen Lawrence. The Macphereson report (cited in Solomos 1999), states that institutional racism is "The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people." The report found the Metropolitan Police force to suffer from institutional racism highlights that racism is embedded in the institutions of British society (Solomos 1999). Since the publishing of the Macpherson report other institutions like the Armed Forces, the Church of England and even the Home Office have admitted to being inherently racist. It is notable that all these institutions and departments are historically based. The roots of racism appear to be deep in history, and in particular colonial history and how it has affected the development of immigration laws since the Second World War. It could be argued that it is history that affects how we determine who belongs to British society how we view differences in culture and ethnicity and how we view the ‘other’. In terms of History it seems that immigration has always been determined by the economic needs for manual labour. This in itself has broadened fears among the white population of employment and housing shortages, which again comes down to an economic level. It could also be argued that racism is a political construct, that it is not racism practised by the majority of individuals in society that causes misunderstanding and distrust, rather that it is institutional and organisational practices that promote and replicate racism. (Mason 1995). Bibliography: Bibliography Mason D, (1995) Race and Ethnicity in Modern Britain, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Malik K (1996), The Meaning of Race, London, McMillan Press. Miles (1993), Racism After ‘Race Relations’ London, Routledge. Ramdin R, (1987) The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain, Aldershot, Gower. Saggar S, (1992) Contemporary Political Studies, Race and Politics in Britain, Hemel Hempstead, Simon and Schuster. Skellington R, Morris P and Gordon P, (1992), ‘Race’ in Britain Today, London, Sage. Solomos J and Back L, (1996) Racism and Society, London, McMillan Press. Solomos J, (1999), Social Research and the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry: Sociological Research Online, vol. 4, no. 1, available online from www.socresonline.org.uk/socresonline/4/lawrence/solomos.html> accessed 12th Dec 2001.

Word Count: 2226