OSP: Paul Gilroy - Postcolonial theory and diasporic identity
Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks: 1) How does Gilroy suggest racial identities are constructed? Gilroy has consistently argued that racial identities are historically constructed and formed by colonisation and slavery, nationalist philosophies and consumerist capitalism. 2) What does Gilroy suggest regarding the causes and history of racism? Gilroy suggests race can be seen as shared biological identities inherited from previous generations that makes the identity of oppressors and the oppressed seem fixed and uniform but in actuality are caused by human interactions and are subject to change. 3) What is ethnic absolutism and why is Gilroy opposed to it? Ethnic absolutism is a line of thinking which sees humans are part of different ethnic compartments with race as the basis of human differentiation and Gilroy is opposed to it as its diametrically opposed to his theory that race has sociological basis. 4) How does Gilroy view diasporic identity? Gilroy...
