Post Colonial Perspectives
“The first thing to insist on in discussions of ‘race’ is that there is just one human race. Human biology
does not divide people into different ‘races’; it is racism (and sometimes its counter arguments) that
insists on this division. In other words, ‘race’ is a cultural and historical category, a way of making
difference signify between people of a variety of skin tones. What is important is not difference as
such, but how it is made to signify; how it is made meaningful in terms of a social and political
hierarchy” (Storey 2009: 167)
Robert Wedderburn’s Forlorn Hope, 1817 -
• Born in Jamaica to an African slave mother and Scottish plantation owner
• In England, became a follower of the radical Thomas Spence
• Established Forlorn Hope as part of a campaign for a free press
• Campaigned to end slavery; was jailed for purportedly saying that a slave had the right to kill
his master
1920/30s: influence of pan-Africanism
International African Service Bureau (IASB) founded in 1937
Claudia Jones -
• Trinidad-born journalist and activist
• Moved to New York, USA as a child but was deported in 1955 for being a member of the
Communist Party
• Founded and edited the anti-racist and anti-imperialist newspaper The West Indian Gazette
and Afro-Asian Caribbean News in London in 1958
West Indian Gazette and the construction of community -
• “I became black in London, not Kingston” – Stuart Hall
• Reports of local black popular culture, e.g. calypso, inter-racial dances, carnivals
• Also a “medium of uncompromising anti-colonialism”
• Influenced by the US civil rights movement
3% of UK population is black, but only 0.2% of working journalists
7% of UK population is Asian, but only 2.5 % of working journalists
5% of UK population is Muslim, but only 0.4% of working journalists
“The first thing to insist on in discussions of ‘race’ is that there is just one human race. Human biology
does not divide people into different ‘races’; it is racism (and sometimes its counter arguments) that
insists on this division. In other words, ‘race’ is a cultural and historical category, a way of making
difference signify between people of a variety of skin tones. What is important is not difference as
such, but how it is made to signify; how it is made meaningful in terms of a social and political
hierarchy” (Storey 2009: 167)
Robert Wedderburn’s Forlorn Hope, 1817 -
• Born in Jamaica to an African slave mother and Scottish plantation owner
• In England, became a follower of the radical Thomas Spence
• Established Forlorn Hope as part of a campaign for a free press
• Campaigned to end slavery; was jailed for purportedly saying that a slave had the right to kill
his master
1920/30s: influence of pan-Africanism
International African Service Bureau (IASB) founded in 1937
Claudia Jones -
• Trinidad-born journalist and activist
• Moved to New York, USA as a child but was deported in 1955 for being a member of the
Communist Party
• Founded and edited the anti-racist and anti-imperialist newspaper The West Indian Gazette
and Afro-Asian Caribbean News in London in 1958
West Indian Gazette and the construction of community -
• “I became black in London, not Kingston” – Stuart Hall
• Reports of local black popular culture, e.g. calypso, inter-racial dances, carnivals
• Also a “medium of uncompromising anti-colonialism”
• Influenced by the US civil rights movement
3% of UK population is black, but only 0.2% of working journalists
7% of UK population is Asian, but only 2.5 % of working journalists
5% of UK population is Muslim, but only 0.4% of working journalists
