Q4 race essay

1. ESSAY PRESENTATION
By Sami Karamalla-Gaiballa

2. THE QUESTION
Explain why we need to consider historical context(s) when
examining the social construction of ‘race’ in Britain
 Base to write a plan
 Key words-highlighted
 The main argument (that we need to consider history when we
talking about ‘race’ in Britain)

3. INTRODUCTION
 Stating the main arguement
 Definition of the key words:
 ‘Race’- definition
 Social construction- ‘race’ is social not natural
 Historical context(s)- imperialism; the New Right in Britain; Race and
emergence of feminism
 I wrote how I am going to approach the question- ‘At the beginning
the essay is going to discuss….’

4. SECTION 1- IMPERIALISM
 Slave trade-economic needs were very important in understanding
the development of the concept of race (stated at the beginning of
paragraph)
 Empirical evidence- British imperialists started to insist on
divisions when slave trade started (Jordan 2000;)
 Link to the question and answering it

5. SECTION 2- POLITICS AND
NATIONALISM
 Two paragraphs:
 1- Impact of the immigration in 1980s; ‘new racism’; the New Right politics;
 2- further evaluation of ‘cultural racism’; English/British/Irish problem(s); and
some analysis of recent thinkers (Slavoj Zizek) as well as todays attitude:
‘…public has an exaggerated view about how instantly immigrants can access
welfare and health service, which is not surprising when anxiety is inflamed by
politicians on the hunt for a cheap headline’ (Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer
10/03/13)

6. SECTION 3- GENDER AND
RACE
 Both gender and race are socially constructed
 In both cases there is a need to consider the development of
British capitalism and colonialism (Persram 1997)
 Using stereotypes eg. Asian girls have no freedom while English
girls are thought to be in ‘liberated’ culture

7. CONCLUSION
 Restating briefly all three arguments
 Show that they support the thesis that historical context(s) are
important when discussing social construction of ‘race’

8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 It included:
 Books-some of them collections of articels by different authors
 Some statistics about immigration –from BBC website
 Some views from the press-in this case the Observer

9. ANY QUESTIONS ?