Introduction to Postcolonailism

 Introduction to Postcolonialism: blog tasks

Create a new blog post called 'Advertising: Postcolonialism blog tasks'. Read ‘The Theory Drop: Postcolonialism and Paul Gilroy’ in MM75  (p28). You'll find our Media Magazine archive here - remember you'll need your Greenford Google login to access.
Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) Look at the first page. What is colonialism - also known as cultural imperialism? 

From the 16th century onwards, European countries effectively got into a race to see how many undiscovered lands they could conquer first, and by ‘undiscovered’ I mean, ‘countries where the indigenous population didn’t have good enough weapons to fight back’. Countries like France, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and Britain effectively turned into the seagulls from Finding Nemo, zipping around, shouting ‘MINE’ at every new piece of land they discovered. They fought and conquered the native populations, and often fought each other for the rights to those lands. With that came attitudes that are now collectively known as ‘cultural imperialism’ or ‘colonialism’ – the belief that native people were intellectually inferior, and that white colonisers had a moral right to subjugate the local populace as they were ‘civilising’ them: in other words, trying to make them more like Western European society. 

2) Now look at the second page. What is postcolonialism? 

The process of decolonisation gathered speed in the 20th Century and with it, many of the attitudes associated with colonialism began to be challenged. Postcolonialism, like postmodernism, refers less to a time period and more to a critiquing of a school of thought that came before it. Postcolonialism exists to question white patriarchal views with a particular reference to how they relate to race.

3) How does Paul Gilroy suggest postcolonialism influences British culture?

Noted postcolonial thinker, Paul Gilroy in his 2005 book Postcolonial Melancholia suggested that Britain had not quite faced up to its colonial past, that the national psyche had not quite come to terms with no longer being a global superpower, and this had resulted in the desire to still subjugate those from different races, particularly immigrants. As Gilroy puts it, Britain’s ...criminalisation of immigrants and their descendants especially those from the Caribbean and South Asia signifies a melancholic response to these social and political groups that are essential to late modern British life.

4) What is 'othering'?

Othering is the phenomenon whereby we identify something as being different from, or alien to our social identity. If something is ‘other’ it is different to ‘us’; it doesn’t fit well within the confines of our society.

5) What examples of 'othering' are provided by the article?

The process of othering has been the domain of tabloid newspapers such as the Daily Express, who printed 179 anti-migrant stories between 2011 and 2016, that’s roughly one anti-immigrant headline every ten days. This type of othering in the media has several negative effects. For the white readers that these are aimed at, it perpetuates a stereotypical view of BAME communities, but it also has an effect on the people that it is othering as well.

6) What is 'double consciousness'? 

Reflection of the a Black experience in the UK and USA.

One aspect is living in a predominantly white culture and having an aspect of identity rooted somewhere else - “liquidity of culture.”

Also used to highlight the disconnect between black representations in the media and the actual lived experience of Black Britons. Often, these representations are created by white producers.

7) What are 'racial hierarchies'?

Another hold over from colonialism is the idea of racial hierarchies: the idea that some races are superior to other ones. In Western culture, people who promote these ideas are usually advocating for white supremacy. However, perceptions of different ethnic groups can change

over time.

8) What examples from recent media products challenge the idea of racial hierarchies? 

There are numerous media texts that challenge these ideas of racial hierarchies by putting people in minority groups in positions of authority. Some choose to examine the implications of being BAME in these positions, such as Brooklyn Nine- Nine’s ‘Moo Moo’ episode from its fourth season, where Lt. Terry Jeffords is racially profiled by another cop. Some shows choose to largely ignore the character’s ethnicity and its impact on their role, such as Nick Fury’s role as director of SHIELD in the Marvel films, striving for a time when a person’s ethnicity doesn’t make a difference to anyone. So there we have it; postcolonialism is the study of the impact of colonialism in society, largely surrounding the issue of race. Still confused? That’s OK. Trying to understand fifty years’ worth of multi-disciplinary theory based on 400 years of oppression can be tricky, but definitely worth the effort.