Ethnicity marxism 40

1 castle and kossak

reserve army of labour

divide and rule

Bour exploited the pros

em fall into the category of pros

2 Cox

racism underpins capitalism

• racism didn’t emerge till 14th century prior to that people were seen as different but there was no supiroirty/ inferiority

• capitalism went hand in hand with colonialism

• colonialism assumed European culture was superior and was imposed on the colonies uk had taken over

• colonials were exploited by conquering nation and English was imposed instead of they month tongue

• English law imposed

• European farming techniques imposed

• colonial people weren’t paid or given power

• to justify the systematic exploitation people in colonies encouraged racism so that it would be believed that white/ European were super to other races

• ‘if capitalism never developed the world might have never experienced racial prejudice

• DU - Brown and gay w/b/a names white getting 2x more offers

2 Cox CA

• roberts - economic differences between asian and afro-caribbean em are plausible

CCCS The centre for contemporary cultural studies cox was wrong for assuming that racism emegered during colonialism as there is evidence that it emerged before colonialism

• early christianity white denoted purity and black as satanic

• christians characterised non christians as pagans

• CCCS shows racism developed since colonialism but colonialism didn’t create racism/ not the only source of of racism

• cccc states the bourg have been successful at developing racist tendencies in contemporary white wc Britain so that black britons are seen as problematic eg back males are 3 to 9 times more likely to be stopped and searched bassed of the typical delinquent and racial profiling according to multiple sources (the statistic varies)

3 castle and kossak/ hall et al

• ck argue when society is troubled w social and economic problems widespread frustration can arise and instead of directing this anger to the capitalistic class they pick on vulnerable minotories

• they use black ppl as scapegoats to divert attention away from the corruption of capitalism and they are blamed for lack of housing/ increased unemployment as ‘the immigrants are taking all the jobs’

• EG racism that evolved due to brexit

• scapegoating is doen in favour of powerful groups as it protects them from direct criticism and reduces the pressure for radical change

• racism helps justify low pay and poor working conditions bc black workers have and are seen as second-class citizens

• cap employers benefit from the cheap labour of EM

• Hall policing the crisis

• bourg control the police/ media (superstructures) and use these agents of control to distract the population from the real probs of capitalism by using scapegoats

• 1970s young black men were scapegoated in the mugging crisis and were portrayed as dangerous/ threatening which distracted the pop form the real villains the bourg

  • asylum seekrs/ migrants are blamed for issues such as nhs bed shortages yet there’s no evidence, it may be austerity measures have led to welfare cuts

3 hall et all and castle and kossack CA

functionalist young

• Ethnic inequality isn’t best explained by scapegoating but by meritocracy

• EM have fewer rewards and that’s bc they haven’t worked hard enough to achieve good merit

• hall and ck blame society for its disadvantaged corrupt gov but young blames the individuals failure to cooperate and improve their merit

• young believes all social groups have the same opportunities in society but don’t work as hard as others

4 boudieu

cultural capital

• some ppl have higher levels of social capital which they use to maintain priv

• cultural capital = skills and characteristics which align with the future of those in power and benefits them

• dominant ethnic groups hold higher cultural capital than EM

• EG employers concern as to wether someone will ‘fit in’, if most people are white then they seeks people ‘like them’ other white ppl

• wearing clothes that signify a difference: turban, budga, burqa, hijab, may disadvantage EM people

• cultural capital includes subtle idea like Friday pub night where muslims are less likely to attend meaning that the cultural capital of some EM is less of a ‘fit’ with dominant powerful class of people in charge of promotions

• hence inequalities in the work place

• might emplane high levels of self employment amongst Bangladeshi and pakistani men/ low wages for EM.

4 bourdieu CA

postmodernist

• society is much more diverse and complex than marx give credit for

• they assume there are large groups like wc and exiling class that share common values

• whilst it appears that way this is only on the surface

• more detailed analysis shows that individuals in these groups are as different to each other as they are to their opposite

• we can’t distingush different norms of specific groups because each person within those groups are also different