Chapter 9 – ‘Race’, racism and representation
In this chapter I shall examine the concept of ‘race’ and the historical development of racism in England. I shall then explore a particular regime of racial representation, Edward Said’s analysis of Orientalism. I shall use Hollywood’s account of America’s war in Vietnam, and its potential impact on recruitment for the first Gulf War as an example of Orientalism in popular culture. The chapter will conclude with a section on ‘whiteness’ and a discussion of cultural studies and anti-racism and Black Lives Matter.
Before you read
Warm-up
Watch Aisha Thomas’ TED Talk on racial representation [link]. How does it approach and analyse the importance of racial equality?
Preliminary questions
Chapter 9 discusses issues of ‘race’ and racism. As John Storey points out, there is only one human race, so when we divide people into groups of ‘race’, we engage not in biological distinctions, but in cultural and historical ones. Appreciating how ‘difference’ is made to signify is fundamental to understanding the work referred to here.
In this chapter, the historical emergence of racism is discussed, followed by an account of Edward Said’s work on Orientalism. ‘Whiteness’, as a cultural concept, is also problematized in its privileged position as ethnically ‘unmarked’.
In deconstructing ‘race’ and racism, John Storey points to the ethical imperative of Cultural Studies to help combat inequality. You might like to consider how the rise in Islamophobia, together with moral panics around immigration and national identity, is linked to racism.
Do you agree that academic disciplines have a duty to interrogate and counter discriminatory power differentials in society?
After you read: Important ideas
Chapter 9 outlines the cultural history of racial representation. You can now revise it with Quizzes 9.1 and 9.2, revisiting important concepts, phenomena and ideas responsible for reversing the racial representational discrimination and regime(s).
Quiz 9.1
Choose between true or false
Quiz 9.2
Match the answer to the statements (choose one)
Important names
Chapter 9 relies on certain terms important in cultural studies. Revisit them using the flashcards and think how they possibly relate to the problem of race, racial regimes and representation.
<Insert Ch9 Flashcards here>
Complementary materials
<Insert Icon 4 here> A great wrap-up of the analyses proposed in this chapter will be a documentary on Edward Said – an American-Palestinian scholar who defined the problem of representing ethnicity in his critical deconstruction of the Orient [link]. After you watch it, think how it resonates with John Storey’s take on the problem of race and representation as discussed in cultural studies.
Further considerations
Black Lives Matter
In Chapter 9, John Storey discusses the rise and actions of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Do you think the movement stands a chance for exerting a deep and long-term change for diminishing racism?
In what way can the recent ‘external gestures’ for eliminating racial discrimination (such as the demolition/removal of Confederate monuments) propel the change?
Representation
You should now have taken on board the main theoretical principles outlined in the chapter. Next, try some analysis yourself.
Choose a popular culture text such as a book or a film and attempt to engage with Orientalism and the West’s way of representing other cultures. For instance, you could choose to deconstruct Disney’s Aladdin and analyse the representations of Arab people. Or, look at some of the James Bond movies, Rules of Engagement (2000) or The Kingdom (2007) and identify, specifically, how other customs, places and rituals are portrayed. Are they celebrated, demonized or altered in any way? Watch and interrogate Lost in Translation (2003) for the construction of ‘othering’ Japanese culture. Whose point of view is being articulated in the film? In what ways do you think this is undertaken? How are East and West represented? Is this filmic text an example of clichéd cultural stereotyping or a critique of the comedy of cultural difference? Is its meaning just one of pleasure, as a film to be enjoyed?
Now, survey some travel brochures and see if you can identify Orientalist representations of holiday destinations. Are places ‘exoticized’ at all? Are westerners sold, for instance, ‘India’ as a place to ‘find themselves? Is it represented as a destination free from stress and pressure; or a mystical and spiritual space where truth will prevail? If so, how exactly does it do this? Do photographs depict wide open spaces to be explored and ‘conquered’? What clothes are native people seen as wearing? Do the promotions offer ‘real’ contact with ‘real’ people through a schedule of carefully managed excursions (for a price)? Are you being sold a construction of the ‘real’ India, Africa, Egypt? And, are other (perhaps old, colonialist) discourses intertextually drawn upon to do this? Do you agree with Thurlow and Jaworski (2012: 236) that much of contemporary tourism is ‘a reaction to the discomfort experienced as a result of the gradual decentring and de-privileging of the old power bases’?
Having analysed carefully these texts, continue to explore meaning further. You may well have identified an Orientalist theme containing some of the above but try to think more carefully about how meanings are made. Do you as a reader have any involvement in this? How are you processing these texts? As someone who is planning a holiday, say – or as a student wanting to write an essay about racism? Does this influence how you interpret and feel about the holiday brochures?
Reference:
Crispin Thurlow and Adam Jaworski (2012) ‘Elite mobilities: the semiotic landscapes of luxury and privilege’, Social Semiotics 22 (5), pp. 487–516.