OSP: Paul Gilroy - Diasporic identity

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?
They are biologically formed and acquired from your parents but also then shaped and moulded by the society you live in.

2) What does Gilroy suggest regarding the causes and history of racism?
Gilroy suggests that race is not the initial cause of racism and in fact racism is what creates race. He states that it is due to conflicts between different groups and due to things such as the Renaissance and slavery.

3) What is ethnic absolutism and why is Gilroy opposed to it?
It suggests that you can only engage and be a part of the ethnicity that is naturally acquired from parents and that society shouldn't mould or have an impact on it.

4) How does Gilroy view diasporic identity?
He views it as something that people cannot change, and believes that people who have fallen to a diaspora cannot return to their place of origin.

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

Gilroy suggests that the dominant representation of Black Britons were "external and estranged from the imagined community that is the nation". He the argues that we have to accept the role of slavery in the cultural identities of Britain and that we should challenge the negative stereotypes reversing the idea of being "external and estranged".

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

A negative effect of this would be that it will create an identity which is then shared within the diasporic community and perhaps fro the origin pf the country.

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 may use the media to stay connected by using the news to gain information or they would go on the BBC to understand cultural identities.

8) Why does Gilroy suggest slavery is important in diasporic identity?

He suggests that slavery is important as he feels like that it was what started the diasporic identity.

9) How might representations in the media reinforce the idea of ‘double consciousness’ for black people in the UK or US?

They would feel like they are seeing themselves within someone else perspective.

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 film attempts to challenge this as firstly, they use three black women as the protagonists and they end up working for NASA which differs from typical stereotypes as usually this may be a male character and typically a white male. Furthermore, the women end up become successful in what they do suggesting that women can be the same as men and could even be better.