0745644082 (N) by Harriet Bradley

Author:Harriet Bradley [Bradley, Harriet]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2015-12-20T22:00:00+00:00

Defining Terms: ‘Race’, Ethnicity and Nationality

Discussion of racial inequality has often become bogged down in debates about the appropriate usage of the key concepts of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ and related terms such as racism, racialism and racialization. Disputes also relate to what terms should be used to describe various ethnic groups. Terms like ‘coloured’ (now thoroughly discredited) or ‘Black’ can be attacked as being themselves racist, or alternatively as being essentialist and covering up real differences among groups so categorized. By and large, sociologists have tried to use the terms which are preferred by members of the various groups themselves. In Britain, the term ‘Black’ was adopted by Black Caribbean and Asian activists as a chosen political identity. The term ‘of colour’ was used in the same way in America. But it can be claimed that such umbrella terms conceal the distinct situations of the different groups involved (Modood 1992); Modood has argued that the specific experience of British Asian groups has been subsumed into ‘Black’ writings that chiefly express the viewpoint of those of African origin. In this book, I have used ‘Black’ and ‘of colour’ where it seemed appropriate to refer to political alliances across ethnic minorities or because these terms are used by authors whose work is under discussion. Otherwise, I specify which particular ethnic groups are concerned.

These debates have been amply explored elsewhere (for example, Miles 1989; Mason 1992). Here I merely indicate how the terms are used in this book. I have drawn particularly on the usages proposed by Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval-Davis, whose approach seems to me analytically coherent and useful.

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