There Ain't no Black in the Union Jack
For our first meeting of the year, we are going to look at Gilroy's seminal 1987 book There Ain't no Black in the Union Jack. We will be reading Chapter two - '"The whisper wakes, the shudder plays": 'race', nation and ethnic absolutism' - pages 43-72 in the first edition.
Gilroy's first book is centered on race and class, and caused uproar when it was first published for accusing politicians and intellectuals on both sides of the political divide of not taking race seriously. He argues that racism is deeply interwoven with nationalism in Britain, and Chapter two focuses on the capacity of racism to link discourses of patriotism, nationalism, xenophobia, Englishness, Britishness, militarism, and gender difference into a complex system that gives 'race' its contemporary meaning.
This recent Guardian long-read article and the interview Gilroy gave after receiving the prestigious Holberg Prize in 2019 are particularly interesting. Although we won't be explicitly discussing these in the meeting, they help to outline Gilroy's expansive career so far and are very useful for getting re-familiarised with his work.
This year's meetings will be delivered in a hybrid online and in-person format, with our first meeting of the year being delivered online via Zoom.
To join us on the 7th of October for our first Quilting Points meeting of the 2021/22 session, please email Ghada at en14gh@leeds.ac.uk to be added to the mailing list, through which you will receive the Zoom link.
We look forward to seeing you all there!
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