Radicalism, anti-racism and representation This study is set within a wider political context for the discussion of ‘racial’ representation and anti-racism (Part I). The remainder of the book (Parts II and III) is devoted to interview-based exploration of the ambiguities and political characteristics of ‘race’ equality consciousness amongst public educators. It is shown that there is no one anti-racism. Different ideals and assumptions have been arrived at within different historical and geographical contexts (both ‘multiracial’ and ‘white’). It is suggested that this intellectual plurality provides a resource for those wishing to rethink anti- racism in the light of its contemporary malaise. The study also explores and explains the development of self-critical, reflexive, anti- racist and radical consciousness amongst educators. The book provides the first sociological study of anti-racism. Indeed it is the first to provide a substantive critique of anti-racism from outside the New Right. It is also the first to look at this phenomenon geographically and to compare anti-racism in ‘multiracial’ and ‘white’ areas. Alastair Bonnett is a lecturer in human geography at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He has undertaken doctoral and post-doctoral research at McMaster University, the University of London and, most recently, at the University of British Columbia. The author’s cross-disciplinary studies of the development of ‘race’ equality consciousness have been published in journals in both Britain and America. Critical studies in racism and migration Edited by Robert Miles University of Glasgow Radicalism, anti-racism and representation Alastair Bonnett London and New York First published 1993 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1993 Alastair Bonnett All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bonnett, Alastair, 1964– Radicalism, anti-racism and representation/Alastair Bonnett p.cm.—(Critical studies in racism and migration) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Race awareness. 2. Race relations. 3. Intercultural education. 4. Pluralism (Social sciences) 5. Radicalism. I. Title. II. Series. HT1523.B66 1993 305.8–dc20 93–7402 CIP ISBN 0-203-41631-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-72455-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-07203-4 (Print Edition) Contents Acknowledgements vi Introduction 1 Part I Representations 1 Representing ‘racial’ difference and identity 13 2 Anti-racist dilemmas 47 Part II Public professional perspectives Introduction 67 3 The public professions and the ‘new radicalism’ 69 4 Multiculturalism: a public educationalist ideology 82 Part III Anti-racist formulations Introduction 101 5 Radicalism, ideology and reflexivity: anti-racism 104 in London 6 Anti-racism reformulated: Tyneside 134 7 The marginalization of radicalism: Devon 160 Conclusions 175 Methodological appendix 195 References 201 Index 218 v Acknowledgements This book was written between January 1991 and November 1992 in the Geography Departments of McMaster University and the University of British Columbia. However, it began life in 1986 as postgraduate research at the Geography Department of Queen Mary and Westfield College in the University of London. Between then and now various bits of it have been through many different hands. Thanks to all those who gave me their comments and/or assistance, particularly David Smith, John Eyles, David Harvey and my parents. Thanks also to all the people I interviewed for this work, I could not have wished for a more hospitable group of respondents. I would also like to thank the Leverhulme Trust for funding my research in Canada. My special thanks go to Robert Miles for enabling this work to come to publication and for his many useful suggestions, some of which I even heeded, and to Alison Kaye for her incisive and critical support. Chapters 3 and 6 incorporate passages previously published in Sociology (May 1993) and Antipode (January 1992). I am grateful to the publishers and editors of these journals for their permission to use this material. vi Introduction Recalling her activist past in the feminist movement the American poet Adrienne Rich (1985:11) observes, ‘We never meant less than the making new of all relationships’. ‘The problem was’, Rich continues, ‘we did not know who we meant when we said “we”’. The failure of social self-consciousness Rich identifies has in recent years become one of the central, and most contentious, areas of intellectual debate. The sense of urgency in this discussion may be partly linked to the decaying plausibility of monolithic emancipatory ideals. As heterogeneous critical currents, such as green politics and the women’s, gay and anti-racist movements, have emerged they have exposed anti-ecological, male, heterosexual and white biases within traditional visions of liberation. Moreover, for those on the left the question of who ‘we’ are and how do ‘we’ speak for others has become increasingly unavoidable as conservative forces have demonstrated their grip on political power. With the election of a Democrat President in the United States in 1992 the heyday of the New Right may be coming to an end. However, the conservative agenda has made profound in-roads into nearly all shades of contemporary political opinion. It has become an entrenched ‘common sense’, a taken-for-granted world- view deeply embedded within both popular and élite consciousness. The left, by contrast, has suffered a loss of direction and self-faith. Dazzled by the potency of conservative myths, radicals have been left wondering who (and how) they represent. The power of the political right has been felt particularly acutely within the ‘race’ equality debate. This process is especially clear in Britain, which has seen some of the most extreme and enduring examples of conservative entrenchment in the Western world. 1 2 Radicalism, anti-racism and representation Singled out for funding cuts and public ridicule, the confident local anti-racist interventions seen in some British cities in the early 1980s have given way to a sombre culture of survivalism. Indeed, obituaries have already been written for ‘what was once an anti- racist movement’ (Gilroy, 1990a:192). Although these funereal arrangements are premature they reflect a further problematization of the aspirations and attitudes of social egalitarians. As the failures of anti-racist orthodoxy have become evident so the need for an unsentimental critique, and rigorous questioning, of the anti-racist and radical project(s) has become apparent. This book is about how, why and where radical and anti-racist consciousness develops. Interestingly the group whose political ideas I will be focusing upon—public educationalists—have tended to be neglected in the emergent debate on the ‘politics of location’ (Rich, 1985). Whilst ‘racial’ and gender identities have been widely recognized as legitimate subjects for study, the shared location of many of those taking part in this debate, as public educationalists, has tended to be overlooked. Perhaps it has seemed too self- indulgent a topic to merit attention or a little too close to home for comfort. Whilst the latter assumption may be true the former is certainly misplaced. As we shall see, the critical exploration of public educationalist politics provides a range of insights into the formation of liberal and radical, multicultural and anti-racist, commitments. My concentration on educators acting within and against capitalism limits the scope of this work. No pretence is made that a comprehensive ‘total picture’ of political identity or radical struggle is being supplied. This explicit specificity opens, rather than forecloses, the themes that will be raised here to further exploration and constructive critique. Rather than being appropriated by a cursory and recuperative presence, issues pertaining to, for example, the gender and sexual identity of educators are absent from my analysis, whilst those relevant to their ‘racial’ identity are highly restricted. These absences are clear and self-conscious, they betoken the particularity of the present study whilst silently challenging the notion of ‘all-inclusive’ social research. This study begins by introducing a wider historical and political context for the discussion of ‘racial’ representation and anti-racism (Part I). The remainder of the book is devoted to an exploration of the formation of liberal, radical, multicultural and anti-racist consciousness amongst educators (Parts II and III). More Introduction 3 specifically it will be argued that educators’ contradictory political experiences working both for and against the reproduction of capitalism are reflected in their ‘race’ equality ideals and strategies. Using evidence from interviews with educators gathered in London and in two ‘white’ areas of England (Tyneside and Devon) I will also be looking at the way anti-racist ideology has taken shape in different ways in different places. Thus a range of social contexts will be introduced within which ‘race’ equality consciousness has been formed. It is shown that there is no one anti-racism, even amongst as specific a group as public educationalists. No one linear development of ‘the debate’ can be traced. Rather a variety of ideals and assumptions have been arrived at within different historical and geographical contexts. At the end of the book it is suggested that this intellectual plurality provides a resource for those wishing to rethink anti-racism in the light of its contemporary malaise. There is one last facet of this study that needs to be introduced. It has been noted that this book seeks to make visible public educationalists’ political representations. However, it also explores how, why and where reflexivity (i.e. social self-consciousness) has developed amongst this group. In other words, it seeks to explain how educators have come to recognize their own ambiguous political and social location. As this implies, Rich’s plea for a socially self-conscious ‘we’ is already being met by some educators. These individuals have begun to reject anti-racist ‘common sense’ in favour of a more critical form of radical consciousness. DEFINING TERMS: THE BRITISH AND AMERICAN DEBATES Issues of ‘race’ and politics both richly exemplify the cliché that the United States and Britain are two nations divided by a common language. There are four points of potential confusion between the terminology I shall be adopting and current American usage: Radical and liberal Nigel Wright (1989:15) notes that, whilst radicalism in America has ‘often meant a particularly vigorous form of liberalism’ amongst the British left it is ‘usually used in opposition to liberalism’. Although this generalization obscures the plurality of American and British