Race and racism

We asked ‘What is race? And how is it useful?’  In particular we were interested in thinking about whether the concept of race is useful in migration studies?

Notes from Rachel Humphris on the discussion

The forum opened with short overviews of the four readings above.

Firstly it was widely agreed that racism is considered as a mechanism of otherness and in creating ‘others’.

The key opening question of the debate concerned the definition of race. Does it have to be visible? Is it passed from parent to child? Is it a social group? What about sexuality, gender, ability? What’s the difference between racism and other forms of intolerance?

Read more…

Readings:

Ben Gidley’s piece on ‘Beyond the new racism’

Bridget Anderson’s chapter on ‘Subjects, Aliens, Citizens, Migrants’

Liz Fekete’s contribution on ‘The Emergence of Xeno-Racism’

The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/poverty-tsar-frank-field-white-working-class-need-own-citizenship-ceremonies-8559004.html

Topics

CitizenshipDiscriminationDiversityPoliticsPublic Opinion