Introduction to Postcolonialism: blog tasks

 Introduction to Postcolonialism: blog tasks

Create a new blog post called 'Advertising: Postcolonialism blog tasks'. Read ‘The Theory Drop: Postcolonialism and Paul Gilroy’ in MM75  (p28). You'll find our Media Magazine archive here - remember you'll need your Greenford Google login to access.

Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) Look at the first page. What is colonialism - also known as cultural imperialism? 

‘colonialism’ – the belief that native people were intellectually inferior, and that white colonisers had a moral right to subjugate the local populace as they were ‘civilising’ them:

2) Now look at the second page. What is postcolonialism? 

 Postcolonialism, like postmodernism, refers less to a time period and more to a critiquing of a

school of thought that came before it.

3) How does Paul Gilroy suggest postcolonialism influences British culture?

Gilroy in his 2005 book Postcolonial Melancholia suggested that Britain had not quite faced up to its colonial past, that the national psyche had not quite

come to terms with no longer being a global superpower, and this had resulted in the desire to still subjugate

those from different races, particularly immigrants. As Gilroy puts it, Britain’s ...criminalisation of immigrants

and their descendants especially those from the Caribbean and South Asia signifies a melancholic

response to these social and political groups that are essential to late modern British life.

4) What is 'othering'?

Othering is the phenomenon whereby vwe identify something as being different from, or alien to our social identity.

5) What examples of 'othering' are provided by the article?

The process of othering has been the domain of tabloid newspapers such as the Daily Express, who printed 179 anti-migrant stories between 2011 and 2016, that’s roughly one anti-immigrant headline every ten

days. This type of othering in the media has several negative effects.

6) What is 'double consciousness'? 

This othering can sometimes manifest in a confusion over identity, particularly for people from ethnic minorities living in the Western world. This confusion is referred to as a ‘double consciousness’

whereby people struggle to reconcile two nationalities or identities.

7) What are 'racial hierarchies'?

the idea of racial hierarchies: the idea that some races are superior to other ones.

8) What examples from recent media products challenge the idea of racial hierarchies? 

Paul Gilroy recounted an anecdote on Russell Brand’s Under The Skin podcast about how he was waiting in line at the post office She was an older white woman and she says; ‘you’re with us now’and she goes on about the blacks are alright because we’ve all been together for a long time but it’s Muslims now who are a problem.