Advertising: 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? 

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: in other words, trying to make them more like Western European society.

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

Refers less to a time period and more to a critiquing of a school of thought that came before it. Postcolonialism exists to question white patriarchal views with a particular reference to how they relate to race.

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

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 we identify something as being different from, or alien to our social identity. If something is ‘other’ it is different to ‘us’; it doesn’t fit well within the confines of our society.

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

This process of othering has proved very useful for populist politicians like Nigel Farage, who rode to victory in the 2016 referendum by harnessing a sense of discontent in British society and aiming it at immigrants, famously standing in front of a poster with a long line of mostly non-white migrants and the slogan ‘breaking point’.

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 that some races are superior to other ones. In Western culture, people who promote these ideas are usually advocating for white supremacy.

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

Recent media products challenging racial hierarchies include films like Black Panther and Girlhood. These shows how racial hierarchies have kind of had a way on how they can elevate or make it inclusive to every culture by making them the superheroes in the narrative. The Black Panther focused on African culure and how they are the superheroes in the narrative. While the Girlhood focused on a Black teenage girl's life in Paris.