Racial Citizenship Revision

How did British Imperial education work to instil the importance of Empire?

The state school curriculum and Geography played a key role in encouraging emigration to the colonies as this was an explicit topic, emigration was promoted as an ‘honourable enterprise’ and settler dominion over the tropical colonies was valorised

What was Empire Day and when did it begin?

A ritual celebration of the British Empire introduced in 1904 and becoming a feature of the calendar for over 50 years; it attempted to politically indoctrinate children in the state school system through flags, myths, rituals, culture etc. with the Empire story taught and children dressed up in patriotic clothes to foster a sense of Imperial and racial superiority; the general public and adults also celebrated with Union Jacks displayed in important buildings and public spaces, military parades, public lectures and church services to foster civic pride

How did perceptions of Empire Day change in the interwar years and how was this symbolic?

Empire Day began to be politicised during the interwar years as imperial resistance grew, as it began to disappear this was symbolic of the beginnings of the gradual dislocation of Empire’s hegemony

What is the history of multi-racial Britain?

Britain has long been a multi-racial society with many Asian and Black populations occupationally related to the sea; there have always been a large numbers of Asian and Black communities important in their number and influence but also in challenges of discrimination, racism, equal opportunities, cultural identity and pluralism

What was the Common Code?

An attempt to consolidate the colonial effect through an easy recognised imperial subjecthood formed through cooperation of the British Dominion governments; this provided unity under the monarch

How was the Common Code challenged in the interwar years?

WW1 changed the relationship between Britain and the Dominions as anti-alien sentiment grew, by WW2 each Dominion had its own citizenship as well as the Common Code leading to a weakening of the British Empire

What act signalled the shift from British subjecthood to Commonwealth citizenship?

Canadian Citizenship Act 1946

How did the Komagata Maru 1914 voyage contribute to the breaking down of the Common Code?

The Komagata Maru voyage bought a collection of Sikh Indian migrants on a quest for a better environment and wages but the Government of Canada held much anxiety about immigrants/aliens/foreigners entering their country; they developed an obsession with control, deportation, border policing and surveillance, lance based on a suspicion of an international conspiracy developing against the colonial government; this restricted Asian migration and refused the arrival of the ship forcing migrants to wait in the harbour; the ship was forced to return and made final landing in Budge Budge where British policed fired and a massacre took place

Where did racial violence take place in 1948 and what was the impact of this?

In Liverpool there were three nights of racial violence initiated by white rioters in 1948, this shifted the relationship between the Black population and the police leading to heightened political activity and policing, wrongful arrest and exercise of power

What was formed as a response to Liverpool 1948 race riots?

The Colonel Deference Committee was a hallmark of black political opposition to policing predating the ‘Windrush years’ of 1950s and 60s

What was the British Nationality Act 1948 and what did it create?

A response to growing calls for independence form the colonies but did not create a citizenship of it's own, instead four sub-groups were formed including the ‘United Kingdom and Colonies’ citizenship as a British Commonwealth citizenship that applied to all, irrespective of race, gender or origin

What did the British Nationality Act 1948 facilitate?

Mass non-White migration from the Commonwealth, vast generations of Afro-Caribbean migrants journeyed to Britain to shape the political postwar landscape

What was the difference between the official policy and informal national identity?

The official policy was expansive and inclusive, but informal national identity manufactured by the state and accepted by the public was narrow and worked to exclude groups based on racialised understandings of the population

How was nationality used as a tool by Britain?

After WW2 the Empire was considerable weakened financially and militarily, it was also being challenged by calls for national self-determination so this act was used to maintain a united Empire that would support Britain’s political and economic aspirations as a world power

How was state racism and governmentally formed post-1948?

The Ministry of Labour deliberately generated and practiced racialised principles that would govern how Black British migrants could enter the workforce; this anti-Black sentiment was continually reflected in everyday life as an unquestioned reality as biopolitics limited Black migrant opportunities in England at a local level

What is institutional racism?

The perpetuation of race as a political category rather than a biological/scientific one; this sees negative characteristics and stereotypes assigned to Black bodies and reinforced through politicians, editors, institutions and powerful roles such as policemen and magistrates

What are the direct and indirect consequences of institutional racism?

Direct harm and hostile behaviour work alongside unfairness in employment, mortality rates, wages, educational opportunities etc. to make and perpetuate racialised inequalities

How is national identity produced and how is this related to Black migration to Britain?

Through boundaries draw up to distinguish the collective self and the other; after 1945 the rapid increase of Commonwealth migration saw the characteristics of Black migrants in Britain mapped against white natives to divide notions of essential Britishness; the national community excluded and othered non-white monitories

What headline illustrates the othered perception of migrants in Britain?

‘Dark strangers in our midst’

What was the Empire Windursh?

A ship arriving in Britain in 1948 trying a huge number of Afro-Carribean migrants who pushed the move to the ‘Mother Country’ as Britain promised greater opportunities and a better quality of life

Where was the anti-Black common sense reflected on a local level?

Barriers to work, suitable housing, police brutality and race riots

What percentage of Black migrants arriving in the 1950s obtained jobs at a higher occupational category to their previous role?

5%

What characteristics were associated with Blackness in the labour market and how did this play out?

Black migrants were see as quarrelsome, violent and united to the workforce seeing skin colour transformed into an unremediable predictor of inferior mental and physical characteristics that justiced unofficial quotas for hiring Black workers and overlooking them for senior positions

When are where did race riots peak and what did this show?

In London and Nottingham in 1958 illustrating a greater national racist climate and new cargoes of ‘Britishness’

How did the Metropolitan Police interact with Black migrants in the 1950s and why?

In the 1950s the police force shared prejudices of Black and Indigenous communities through racial stereotyping and rigidity; this led to mistrust and confrontation due to a perceived ‘lack of education, social and cultural knowledge’

How were the policy unwilling to understand Black cultures?

They refused community support from ethnic groups attempting to raise awareness of different cultures as they believed their role was purely law enforcement and did not see the value of social and community matters; even when Race Relation training was eventually adopted in the 1965 it was likely tokenistic and the police have done little to learn from failures

When and where did a riot break out based on the reintroduction of the Vagrancy Act in the mid-1970s?

Brixton 1981

What did the reintroduction of the Vagrancy Act mean for Black British residents?

This allowed the police to arrest people on suspicion of committing a crime and was disproportionately used on the Black youth

What was the effect of the Vagrancy Act being reintroduced?

Repeated clashes between police offers and Black communities, often parental failures were blamed for children’s delinquency with the police not implicated in the strain on community relations

Which famous speech and by whom strongly opposed mass immigration into Britain from the Commonwealth'?

‘Rivers of Blood’ 1968 by Enoch Powell

What was the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962?

The first statutory attempt to restrict free movement of Commonwealth citizens justified through an attempt to manage the strain of Black immigration on housing and social tensions; this required vouchers from the Ministry of Labour

What was the Immigration Act 1971?

A consolidating immigration law by establishing a ‘right of abode’ system distinguishing between those with close ties to the UK through ancestral links (a patrial system)

What was the British Nationality Act 1981?

The final establishment of a British citizenship as a result of racist policies since WW2, this abandoned the ida of jus soli and required blood links for citizenship

How did the British Nationality Act 1981 form a ‘citizenship gap’?

This defined, limited and removed the entitlements of citizenship from the Commonwealth; race and ethnicity were never directly named but this sought to exclude Black and Asian communities

What were the hostile environment policies and what did they bring in?

A set of policies bought in by Home Secretary Theresa May during the 2012 Coalition Government to embed immigration control within a range of public and private services; this bought the border to inside the country to widen targets on migrants, limiting access to housing, jobs, healthcare and legitimate marriage

How did this impact the NHS with acts in 2014 and 2017?

The 2014 Act gave power to public services to demand fingerprints and passports to access the NHS; in 2017 upfront charging was bought in in hospitals and data sharing was enabled to allow patient data to be used for immigration enforcement, tracing, detention and deportation

What was the impact of the NHS hostile environment?

Care was withheld or delayed, people were deterred from seeking treatment due to being fearful of being detained and deported and extra admin work in charges and checks for doctors takes away time from care

How were hostile environment policies tied to reproductive politics?

This sought to form legitimate families and reduce ‘illegitimate’ migrant strain on th public sector during austerity driven shrinking of the welfare state; therefore, the hostile environment sought to limit access to the public welfare state as well as individual reproductive activities such as housing, health and legitimate marriage

What was the Windrush Scandal?

The Home Office targeted those who arrived as children from the Caribbean and children of the Windrush Generation as people who should by law have citizenship rights, in 2010 the Home Office destroyed original landing cards that would have provided evidence of lawful status and then demanded proof which was impossible to meet leading to people being forcibly detained, deported and basic rights restricted

How was this at odds with cultural attitudes cemented during the Olympics in 2012?

In 2012 the dramatised arrival of the Empire Windrush during the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games symbolised Britain becoming inclusive enough to make Black presence part of its national story celebrating a multicultural attitude; however, threats to deport and criminalise the Windrush Generation and descendants tears up and reverses this myth