Collective Identity

'Black Britain' on Prezi

The media texts are representative of the changing landscape of Black Britain in the past, present and future because the people in these texts are provoking change and trying to change the bad reputation and stigma people have of Black Britain.

The film Flame in the Streets was produced in 1961 must have provoked controversy because it was seen as promoting a 'melato Britain' but, the purpose of this film is to change the attitudes of people on racism in society.

There is also a change in the landscape of Black Britain from the past because now artists that are not black.are now producing music that people consider to be 'black music'. This may be because urban music has become widely known across the world and these artists have started to sing songs that they have been heavily influenced by. For example, RnB and grime artists like N-Dubz and Devlin have been influenced by urban music because of their background.

Bob Marley's music was widely known across the world. In the 60s his music helped West Indians to find solace from the way they were targeted in society.

Radio 1Xtra 'What is Black British culture?'

When people think of Black British culture the first thing that comes to mind is their parents and their heritage, where they come from, food (chicken, rice and peas), black fashion/style and music. There is also a question of whether a person has to be black to be part of Black British culture?

Black British style was a way people back then shaped their identity by using clothes. This practice started back home in the West Indies because they had to look their best on Sundays but they put in more effort when they got to Britain because they wanted to look their best. The second generation of black people in Britain began a new way of living. They mixed everything together from the style of the Jackson 5 to batik and African prints worn with jeans, giant John Lennon sunglasses and an afro. The way some black kids have dressed over the years has influenced British culture. The impact of America on British was massive particularly during the hip-hop period through the baseball caps and puffer jackets.

Black style has now appealed to a lot of races across the world. People now wear their jeans baggy, skinny jeans and hats. Asians and white people have now started to dress the way black people dress they have taken on black culture. Those who borrow from black culture are often accused of acting black because of the way they dress, the way they speak and the way they act. Being loud, abrasive and rude wearing big earrings and those kind of stereotypes could also be said as borrowing black culture. In the 70s and 80s Jamaican culture was popular even to those who weren’t Jamaican particularly the religious movements of Rastafarianism and Reggae. Parts of the Jamaican language Patois are now been used as slang by Black British youths with phrases such as ‘you get me’.

When people think of Black British they also think of gangs and crime. Black British youths have not found a place for them to fulfil themselves so they turn to crime and gangs when other communities such as Asians have found a way to fulfil their instincts. In recent surveys it shows that black boys are underachieving than their other counterparts. The reasons for this is partly because a father figure is not there to help these kids so the mother is left on her own to cope. This is the view some people have of Black Britain because of the way Black Britain is constructed by the media and the only information in the media of Black Britain is mostly always negative. Some people argue that young black people feel alienated because there is a lack of positive stereotype and representation in the media. They are constantly hitting a barrier and slowly believe what the media has portrayed them to be. Music also influences them, images and words they are shown in music videos are also part of the problem.

The biggest achievement that black people have made in Britain is music. Black music such as hip hop, RnB, grime and garage are now listened to by every race around the world. The question raised is whether it is right to call it black music because it appeals to so many races not just black people. Young black people don’t have to decide whether they are black or British it’s no longer one or the other.

I think Black British culture consists of various things and when people think of Black British culture they think of the food, music style and lifestyle. I don’t think gang culture within black youths is part of Black British culture because every other culture has a negative side to it and the media has portrayed gang culture in black youths to be part of black British culture because it is something black youths do but it shouldn’t be part of Black British culture because it is not something that sets Black British culture from every other culture. I also do not think a person needs to be black to be part of Black British culture because, it provides an opportunity for different races to embrace each other but I think to an extent a person needs to be black to empathize with the collective identity of Black British people.

1958 Nottinghill Race Riots radio extract

The radio extract is from 1958is a representation of black people in Britain.

The first part of the radio extract is said by a white man. The tone of his voice suggest he is anti-immigrant and against West Indians settling in Britain. He describes the settling of the West Indians as an 'invasion' despite the fact that they were invited over and they are part of the British colony so they have a right to come over and stay. Black people are represented by this man as horrible invaders and he says the most 'important' problem is their arrival leading to a 'melato Britain' causing more interaction between black men and white women. This suggests that the man wants Britain to remain the same they are perhaps scared of the'invasion' of black people from the West Indies and fear that they will make a massive impact and change Britain for the worse.

The background music from the second part of the extract has a sense of fear as it sounds like music from a horror film and instigates fear to the listener. The target audience for this radio station would have been white people in the 50s so the music could serve as a warning against the 'invasion' coming to Britain and warning white people to be ready. The words 'new and ugly' presents black people as monsters, that will destroy everything white people have built and also destroy their unity and heritage of white people. Black people are also represented in this radio extract as trouble makers or criminals because the only way they could stop the riots is by using 'violence' this suggests that they think these black people are animals because violence is a way they think will be able to tame them.

THE WINDRUSH YEARS (1948-1998)

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.