Task 6

What is Black British culture?

I think that Black British culture is a combination of things. Firstly, when I think of them term Black British, migrants of African and Caribbean countries come to mind as they have come to the United Kingdom for something that their native lands couldn't offer them; a better life and opportunity.

Black British people bring their traditions, food, music, religion , fashion and different way of talking with them as they do not forget where they come from but embrace it still as they will begin to embrace the British culture they will come to encounter as they live as Black Britons.

The people born in the UK of various backgrounds will regard themselves as 'Nigerian', 'Black British Caribbean', 'Black British with Ghanaian heritage' and 'British' or 'Black British'.

The radio extract shows that black people know their origin and where they come from. They associated their countries through their parents as they were born there.

As people leave their native lands for a better life, they think that the UK will be better; but they were in for a rude awakening, as they didn’t get a warm welcome as the white British people felt as if they were taking over.

Black style shows how they made their identities after being targets as a way for them to keep their pride. The music that they listen to and the way they did their hair brought back their flavour of being ethnic.

This generation is more accepting as both children and their parents came over.
The impact America had on England was noticeable as the way people dressed was imitated.
Black style is not just for black skinned people but everyone else; snapbacks, baseball jackets, baggy jeans, whiter than white trainers, tops 4 sizes too big and bling (jewellery) are the things associated with being/acting black but as it is such an attractive lifestyle, people of all nationalities cannot be said to be acting black because black people behave in a way which other nationalities may deem desirable. Being black is not always seen in a positive light, as there are stereotypes associated with negative things. Being black and acting black are two different things but people cant help them things they like or are into as non black people may have grown up in a black majority area.

The majority of black people that first came to Britain were the Jamaicans and they brought with them their loud patios language, but eventually toned it down when they realized that it sounded aggressive.
The introduction of reggae and Rastafarianism taught people some of the Jamaican language as they listened to it frequently and embraced it.
‘You get me?’ this phrase was widely and frequently used not only by the black Jamaicans but also by everyone else.

It has been found that white defendants were found guilty but more black people were sent to prison. Black boys are also doing the worst in school as they are solely focused on the gang and street life because they have no fathers present and their mothers’ can only do so much.

Young black people feel alienated because they have been demonized as some of them may be living in poverty, which may lead them to sell drugs and kill for money.

Black music (dancehall, hip hop, garage and grime) has some controversies as they are not always the cleanest but are embraced by all nationalities. Black music isn’t just for black people as it attracts all types of people, which makes this types of music flourish.

Task 5

The Notting Hill race riots took place in 1958, which resulted with the narrowing of ignorance toward the integration of black people into british society.
This extract represents the ongoing war/ feud between the Caribbeans that have come over from their countries with the white English people already living here. It is evident that a white person is the commentator, which shows that the station it is aired from is a predominantly white one.

However, I think that this extract is trying to say the feud should end. Even though the commentator describes the black people as ‘something new and ugly’ and wanting to remove them as they posed as a threat and caused a problem; this problem they think can only be solved with violence against the black people.

Both black and white people are being represented in the extract as the commentator is white and represents the majority white population. The black Caribbean man that is featured in the extract represents that minority of black people which have been targeted and abused; though he is on the extract, it might symbolize change.

The representation is communicated by the fact that it is on radio station being aired to millions across the country; this broadcast hopefully will send the message of peace and equality between both races. As both a black man and white man are on this radio extract, it may represent they coming together of two races, which will be communicated to their audience as they are listening.

Task 4

The Windrush Years (1948-1958)
After the second world war came the windrush years where Britain was infiltrated with 500 immigrants from the West Indies.
Many West Indians decided to stay after they had helped Britain to fight in the second world war and, they hoped they would be welcomed the same way they were welcomed during the war however, hostility grew in society towards West Indians and they were soon told to leave and go back to where they came from.

Part 1: The 50 years historic voyage of 500 West Indians. June 21st 1948 everyone wanted a way of the life of Britain. West Indians were brought as Britains in the Caribbean, they had the same lifestyle as people had in Britain because they went to Catholic school, sang english songs and respected the Royal family. During the war West Indians and Britains lived and died together. In 1957 200 men went back to the West Indies on intention to comeback.

Part 2: When the West Indians decided to come back to settle in Britain hostility began to grow because those who had fought in the war brought their families back. The slogan K.B.W (keep Britain white) started appearing everyewhere which alienated the West Indians.

Part 3: British people realised that the West Indians were here to so, they began race riots and mob violence, black homes were targeted and damaged.

Part 6: Mosley's leader of Britain's fascist anti-immigrant movement started targeting black men and beating them up. The police took sides with British people and were unable to defend the West Indians. This would have made the West Indians feel very unwanted and would have felt used as they were only used to fight the war and maybe British people only put up with them for the duration of the war. If a white woman was seen with a black man they will both be beaten up because it wasn't proper for them to be together.

Part 7: 1 September 1958 petrol bombs were made to target the West Indians and were thrown through the window into the homes of the West Indians. Many white people disagreed with Mosley's fascist ideas and rebelled but they had to be careful because if they were caught they would be beaten up by Mosley's teddy boys. West Indians had to protect themselves becauese the streets were dangerous and they decide to be not be passive anymore. They set up a headquarters to protect families street by street.
In May 1959, 8 months after the riots a West Indian man named Kelso Cochraine was murdered, which made it the first race murder in Nottinghill. However, because no one was arrested for his murder the black community felt they could expect little protection from the law.

Part 8: It wasn't only the black people that was dismayed by the death of Kelsp Cochraine many white people, felt that the violence on their streets had to be stopped. Kelso Cochraine's funeral, brought together people from all the different comunities. After Cocharine's funeral people's attitudes began to change in Britain towards the West Indians, they became more tolerant towards them. After Mosley's resignation from politics people attitudes changed further and West Indians were no longer guests in Britain.
The Blues party was introduced in the 1960s which was were black people went and was a place where they felt safe.

Part 9: New contact was established between young black men and whites girls through caribbean music. The scandal of Christine Keeler who crossed the line of high society and black street life. She had a string of West Indian lovers. Problems began when she started dating two West Indians Lucky Gordon and Johnny Edgecombe.
The new movement of Pentecostal church began to flourish when West Indians formed their own congregation.

Part 10: By the mid 1960s the visitors to Britain began to stay permanently. Black political action in Britain found its focus in 1963 in Bristol where the colour bar was still a fact of everyday life. A boycott was arranged by Paul Stephenson to allow black people to sit on buses in Bristol. It took four months before the boycott achieve what it wanted. Harold Wilson's Labour government came into power in 1964 and it took them a year and a half to introduce the first Race Relations Act.

Part 11: The RAS organisation formed Micheal X created a black house; a black power commune in London. Since the end of the 50s right wing immgration groups had been growing in strength and completed the formation of the national front in 1966. They were scared because they thoguht the West Indians were a threat and wanted a to change Britain from being northern European to become something else.

Part 12: Enoch Powell in 1968 began an anti-immigration message split the nation. Some people supported it and some didn't.

Part 13: In January 1981 a fire killed 13 children in a home in South London. At the beginning of the 1970s there was a shortage of jobs and it was three times as harder for a black child to get a job than it was for a white child. Black children started their own clubs because it was difficult for them to get into white clubs. Young blacks behaved differently from their parents, in the sense that they didn't put up with the insults and constraints their parents had to put up with. By the early seventies it was becoming an expected wisdom that black pupils would fail at school. Conflict between black youths and the police developed further by an incident in Nottinghill.

Part 14: The police began to follow black youths around everywhere searching them unnecessarily. People assumed that black youths were involved in most of the crimes in society because of the high number of crimes committed in that year. The Nottinghill carnival in August 1976, which showcased the culture of the West Indians became the unlikely setting for a bloody confrontation between black youths and the police.

Part 15: Bob Marley's music offered a different identity for black youths in Britain. His music, achieved huge popularity in mainstream British pop music. Many black youths began to live the Rastafarian lifestyle. In 1977 the National front staged a demonstration against black crime which would march through one of Britain's most significant black communities: Lewisham in south London. Black youths went to the demonstration prepared and planned to ambush them. That event did little to repair the relationship between the black community and the police.

Collective Identity- Task 2

Black Britain on Prezi

Task 3

Identity-

An identity is knowing what a person or thing is. A person's characteristics make up their identity. Nicolas Sarkozy said that "We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity,"

Collective Identity-

A collective identity refers to individuals' sense of belonging (the identity) to a group (the collective). From the perspective of the individual, the collective identity forms a part of his or her personal identity. An article done by the Washington Post have quoted Benny Morris saying, "But 1948 has haunted, and still haunts, the Arab world on the deepest levels of collective identity, ego, and pride," Morris writes. "The war was a humiliation from which that world has yet to recover."

Mediation- This is when a third party is involved with help to resolve an argument or dispute.

Roger Goodell of the Bangkok Post said, "We worked hard. We didn't reach an agreement," Goodell said. "The union walked away from the mediation process. We do believe mediation is the fastest and fairest way to reach an agreement."

Representation-

This refers to people having their own description or portrayal of someone or something. Representation is not always good as it can label a specific group of people a certain thing leading to stereotypes and prejudice.

Hegemony-

This refers to leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others It is known to be an unflattering term in Chinese politics, "hegemon" is used to refer to political power gained by physical rather than moral means, and that therefore lacks universal recognition. .

Colonialism-

The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. It is the exploitation by a stronger country of weaker one; the use of the weaker country's resources to strengthen and enrich the stronger country

Post Colonialism-

Post-colonialism (postcolonial theory, post-colonial theory) is a specifically post-modern intellectual discourse that consists of reactions to, and analysis of, the cultural legacy of colonialism. Postcolonialism comprises a set of theories found amongst anthropology, architecture, philosophy, film, political science, human geography, sociology, feminism, religious and theological studies, and literature.

Imperial other-

This is a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force.

Youth subculture-

This is usually a minority youth culture whose distinctiveness depended largely on the social class and ethnic background of its members; often characterized by its adoption of a particular music genre.A youth subculture is a youth-based subculture with distinct styles, behaviors, and interests. According to subculture theorists such as Dick Hebdige, members of a subculture often signal their membership by making distinctive and symbolic tangible choices in, for example, clothing styles, hair styles and language.

Syncretism-

The attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.

Post-modernism-

This means 'after modernism'. While "modern" itself refers to something "related to the present", the movements modernism and postmodernism are understood as cultural projects or as a set of perspectives

Urban music-

Musical genre of the 1980s and '90s defined by recordings by rhythm-and-blues or soul artists with broad crossover appeal. Urban contemporary began as an American radio format designed to appeal to advertisers who felt that "black radio" would not reach a wide enough audience.

Windrush Part 3

This part of the documentary shows the Windrush bringing 500 Jamaicans over to Britain. When these Jamaicans arrived many of them were uncertain of jobs, where they were going to live and most of them did not know what they was going to do. So, even though a huge amount of them were desperate to come over to Britain as they believed the conditions would be better their survival was uncertain. These Jamaicans were placed in a shelter but as soon as they received work they had to leave. Britain needed labour and many Caribbeans were desperate for jobs so they in turn took them, It also seemed to me that the Caribbeans were indeed very significant to the British people as Enoch Powell went all the way to the Caribbean to find nurses. A large amount of these Caribbean citizens believed that England was such a beautiful country and place, however, what they saw on arriving there was totally different from what they initially thought.

Windrush Part 2

This part of the documentary looks into the West Indians fight in the Second World War. The West Indians also became popular and well-known as musicians and singers. However, when Hitler was defeated (at the end of the Second World War) British views towards the West Indians changed, as someone within the documentary recalls 'Isn't about time they went back to their own country!' This clearly showed that British citizens clearly did not want the West Indians as they had paid their dues and they did not appreciate their presence any longer. Though, many West Indians were desperate to come back to Britain after they flew back to their own country (after ww2). So many West Indians had the opportunity to fly over to Britain on a one way ticket as the economic conditions in their native country were bad.

Windrush Part 1

The first part of the clip starts off with Black prominent figures, such as athletes, footballers. These Black British sports people are shown winning in their various fields as we see the Footballer scoring a goal and the athlete who seems to have won a sporting event for Great Britain. This lays an emphasis on Black achievement. Secondly, Black achievement is implied as we see a Black British group called 'Eternal' performing 'Angel of Mine' and also Trevor McDonald who was the first Black newsreader in the U.K., this shows the significance of Black Britain's in society. 'Britain today without these faces would be hard to imagine'. This suggests the these Black Britain's played a major and vital role in making Britain what it is today. The documentary also shows that half a million people from the West Indies came over to the U.K. and here the various speakers within the documentary talk about their experience on arriving in Britain. "Rooms for rent..No 'n******!" This portrays the harsh reality and lifestyle for Black people and how they felt unwelcome and did not feel part of the society. The west Indian citizens seems to have changed the country in a positive way as a man says 'we brought music, life, colour' which shows that the West Indians influenced the British way of life. Connie Mark says that 'they were taught to respect the Royal Family' and that 'they were brought up as British'. Therefore, from this it is percieved that the West Indians viewed themselves as British but the 'real' British citizens felt otherwise (due to their discrimination against West Indians through derogatory language and race riots etc). The West Indians were told to 'Fight for the mother land' which shows that they had a duty/a part to play to help Britain during the Second World War.