There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation (Routledge Classics) [Paperback]

This is a post-modern take on race, racism, and particularly anti-racism in Britain between 1945 and 1985. Its fundamental suggestion seems to be that traditional Marxist approaches are not fully helpful in appreciating the value and significance of race issues. The book's emphasis is towards the Afro-Caribbean experience and looks closely at the anti-racist movements of the seventies and also and the popular music of the black 'diaspora' in Britain, the US and the Caribbean. In doing so it picks out the importance of culture as expressed in the life of the community and suggests revolution by a kind of cultural assertion.

Parts of the book verge on the unintelligible - 'These diverse elements combine syncretically in struggles to reconstruct a collective historical presence from the discontinuous, fractured histories of the African and Asian diasporas' - is fairly typical. Nevertheless Gilroy's enthusiasm and commitment comes through, he was there, you can smell the silk-screen presses making posters for Rock against Racism and get real insight into for instance what really happened on the Broadwater estate or the Bristol riots. There is a lot of detail and in my view a careful balance is maintained.

Gilroy adds a lengthy intro from 2002, somewhat more detached and resigned, but preserves his sense of humour. This is a very valuable overview of our 'multicultural society' for anyone who wants to penetrate the media waffle.

British academic, Professor Paul Gilroy has produced a masterpiece of a narrative that seeks to shed light upon the complex issues of race, class and nation in the UK. The racist slogan 'There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack' is associated with far-right movements such as Skinheads and the National Front - the latter of which still exists in Britain as the British National Party (BNP). As a descendent of Guyanese and English parentage, Prof. Paul Gilroy is well placed to observe both sides of the cultural divide. This book carries the subtitle of 'The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation'.

The paperback (2000) edition contains 271 numbered pages, and comprises an Introduction, six distinct chapters, and Appendices:

Acknowledgements.
Introduction.
1) 'Race', Class and agency.
2) 'The whisper wakes, the shudder plays': 'race', nation and ethnic absolutism.
3) Lesser breeds without the law.
4) Two sides of anti-racism.
5) Diaspora, utopia, and the critique of capitalism.
6) Conclusion: urban social movements, 'race' and community.
Appendices to Chapter 6.
Bibliography.
Index.

The cover to the 2000 edition has a picture from the Observer Newspaper, featuring a British black man (in smart civilian dress) wearing a chest full of medals and parading with a British military flag. It is a poignant symbolism for the book, because it serves to demonstrate Gilroy's investigation of just where 'blackness' fits-in within UK society. The Marxian notion that racism is the product of the tension and contradictions that exist between 'capital' (available wealth in a nation), and 'labour' (the meands by which this wealth is accessed), is explored by Gilroy, and he suggests that this type of analysis, although useful, is nevertheless unable to explain colour prejudice outside of the economic sphere. Gilroy expresses blackness in Britain as being viewed as a perpetual, existential 'problem'. A problem that has no cultural worth of its own, and whose very presence has a corrupting influence on non-black, British people. Furthermore, Gilroy is of the opinion that this kind of colour prejudice exists historically throughout British culture, and is exident on both the left and right wings of UK politics.

Blackness, or 'otherness', is perceived to be a threat to cultural purity. The person of colour is viewed as appearing existentially and out of any meaningful, historical context. For instance, those with this mind-set do not take into account the hundreds of years of British imperialism around the globe, or indeed, the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. It is as if the 'unfamiliar' has been demonised a priori. Zola Budd, a white South Afrikan who speaks only Afrikaans, was given British citizenship within ten days of her application - with the rightwing press in the UK writing glowing pieces about how 'British' she seems, even though she has no cultural link to Britishness, whatsoever. The same rightwing press demonised a British black man called Everton Sameuls (a Rastafarian), for a petty, cannibus related crime. Budd belonged, Sameuls does not - Gilroy gives numerous examples of this kind of assymetric representation within British society.

Anti-racism is assessed as limiting black freedom and equality, to fighting and containing the neo-fascist movement in the UK. In this situation, 'black' people are viewed as 'victims' that must be saved from an outside force, but who can not free themselves from racial domination. Gilroy highlights the illogicality of this situation - non-black people strive to save black people from a single type of oppression, but by doing so, miss the broader picture, and in so doing, deprive black people of self-determination. Gilroy treads a very difficult path through a mine-field of concepts and orientations. Race, racism and racialisation are difficult subjects to study, as their definitions tend to change over-time. This book is well written, and everyone should read it, regardless of background or political view. Gilroy is definitely not saying that all white people are racist - far from it - but he is saying that the situation is not as simple as 'us' against 'them'. Indeed, Gilroy does question certain black responses to racism, such as black social workers in the UK preventing non-black parents from adopting children of colour - claiming that this amounts to internal colonisation - Gilroy suggests that this a kind of black nationalism is out of place in the UK, as the black population is far too small, and far too diverse, to confirm to a narrow definition of 'blackness', based solely upon skin-colour. A supern book.