Policing Black Film: Racism, Black Resistance and the Applicational Dexterity of Race Relations in Babylon

Sociology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003803852098579
Author(s):  
Clive James Nwonka

The racial unrests permeating across Britain in the late 1970s resulted in a set of political agendas responding to racism to be brought into being though legislation, culminating in the passing of the 1976 Race Relations Act. Crucial to such agendas were strategies for the prevention of black urban uprisings against state authority and the politicisation of black youths against racism. The emergence of politicised black British film during the late 1970s offered a crucial counter-hegemonic exploration and re-enactment of an extra-filmic reality of police violence and popular racism within the British body social. However, these texts were subjected to forms of political censorship through a number of state organisations who identified radical black cinema as a political threat with the potential to incite violent responses from black youths. This article will offer a detailed analysis of Babylon (1980) and seeks to investigate the ideological processes leading to its X certification and the moral panic located in its representations of black youths within the crisis of race vis-a-vis the political, social and cultural authority of race relations, situating Babylon’s controversial X certification as an exemplar of the ‘applicational dexterity’ of the race relations discipline.

Author(s):  
Tetyana Dubitska

The Khotyn Uprising was an event that became one of the most striking pages in the history of the region in the XX century. Considerable attention was paid to the study of the history of this issue during the Soviet period, but interpretation of the rebellion has changed several times because of the increasing influence of ideology on the research of Soviet scientists. With the proclamation of Ukraine's Independence, it became possible to objectively cover these events, which led to a process of rethinking the scientific works of Soviet researchers. The presence of different approaches in covering this issue necessitates a detailed analysis of the transformations that took place in the interpretation of the Khotyn uprising. The article explores the specific features of the main approaches to the coverage of the Khotyn uprising in Soviet and contemporary Ukrainian scientific historical literature. It is established that in the 20th – 40th of the XX century the Khotyn uprising was reported as a spontaneous peasant rebellion against the Romanian invaders. According to the Representatives of this approach, one of the main causes of the defeat of uprising was the absence of a Bolshevik insurgency organisation. It is revealed that 50th of the XX century became a transitional period between the previous interpretation of the Khotyn uprising and the new coverage of events, as scientists still emphasized that the uprising was peasantry, but began to provide a significance to revolutionary elements among them. Since the 60th of the XX century the situation is changed: ideology has become a decisive element in research of the uprising and, therefore, all events related to the uprising have been covered in according to the ideology. Thus, the Khotyn uprising is reported as prepared by the communist-led committee, had a well-planned commencement and aimed at restoring Soviet power in the Khotyn region. It is established that with the proclamation of Ukraine's Independence in the coverage of the uprising, there are dramatic changes related to the nature and purpose of the uprising, the political orientations of its leaders, etc. In contemporary Ukrainian science, for example, the Bolshevik character of the uprising and the struggle for power of the Soviets is refuted; instead, the emphasis was made on national liberation; it was confirmed the thesis about the orientation of some of the organizers of the uprising to the Ukrainian People's Republic in Kiev. The neutrality of the UPR’s Directory is explained because of the threat of war with Romania. Keywords: Khotyn uprising, Soviet historiography, contemporary Ukrainian historiography.


Author(s):  
Stephen Menn ◽  
Justin E. H. Smith

The life of Anton Wilhelm Amo is summarized, with close attention to the archival documents that establish key moments in his biography. Next the history of Amo’s reception is considered, from the first summaries of his work in German periodicals during his lifetime, through his legacy in African nationalist thought in the twentieth century. Then the political and intellectual context at Halle is addressed, considering the likely influence on Amo’s work of Halle Pietism, of the local currents of medical philosophy as represented by Friedrich Hoffmann, and of legal thought as represented by Christian Thomasius. The legacy of major early modern philosophers, such as René Descartes and G. W. Leibniz, is also considered, in the aim of understanding how Amo himself might have understood them and how they might have shaped his work. Next a detailed analysis of the conventions of academic dissertations and disputations in early eighteenth-century Germany is provided, in order to better understand how these conventions give shape to Amo’s published works. Finally, ancient and modern debates on action and passion and on sensation are investigated, providing key context for the summary of the principal arguments of Amo’s two treatises, which are summarized in the final section of the introduction.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Paul M. Renfro

The introduction sketches the contours of the book. It details the construction of a moral panic concerning the abduction of children by strangers in the late twentieth century and lays out the political and cultural ramifications of this panic. As the introduction indicates and the rest of the book demonstrates, this panic—precipitated by the bereaved parents of missing and slain children, the news media, and politicians—led to the consolidation of a “child safety regime” and the expansion of the American carceral state. The introduction situates this argument within the existing historiography of late twentieth-century United States politics and culture, as well as the growing literature on carceral studies.


Author(s):  
Brian R. Doak

Chapter 6 follows a tradition of comparative studies linking Saul with Greek heroic themes and takes up a detailed analysis of Saul’s bone-transferral narratives (1 Samuel 31; 2 Samuel 21) in light of what is known about heroic bone relics and the politics of hero cults in the Iron Age Western Mediterranean. Saul’s status as an Israelite hero is a hitherto underexplored lens through which to investigate the meaning and power of his dead body, and here it is argued that by comparing the biblical account of the transferral of Saul’s bones with classical Greek texts of heroic bone transfer, we are able to see the political import of David’s actions in the Bible more clearly as a “body manipulator” and thus better understand the dynamics of bodily power in this text.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-58
Author(s):  
PATRICIA A. CAHILL

This essay examines the political significance of the career of Atlanta-based Shakespearean Adrienne McNeil Herndon in the early twentieth century. It contextualizes Herndon's writing in the activist journal Voice of the Negro and elucidates the radicalism of Herndon's Shakespeare work at Atlanta University and beyond. More broadly, the essay shows how Herndon's performances and pedagogy – especially her focus on elocution work, bodily expressivity, domestic spaces, and visual culture – repeatedly challenged the white supremacist culture of the Jim Crow South, offering black Americans a way to resist racial terrorism and endure racial trauma.


1989 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prosper Weil

The following remarks do not constitute a detailed legal commentary on the 29 September 1988 Award delivered by the Arbitration Tribunal, which was established to resolve the dispute between Egypt and Israel regarding the Sinai frontier, particularly in the region of Taba. These remarks do not relate to the origin of the dispute or address the political context in which the arbitration took place. Nor do they dwell on the innovation of introducing, through the Compromis, a conciliation procedure entrusted to a Chamber of the Tribunal in the very midst of the arbitration proceedings. Still less do they make a detailed analysis of the claims of the two parties or of the Tribunal's opinion on each point in dispute. Leaving aside numerous other interesting aspects of the case, the modest purpose of these observations is to shed light on the originality of the position adopted by the Award in two aspects relating to the judicial function in border conflicts. When one considers the place occupied by this type of conflict in judicial disputes and in international arbitration, the interest which this Award deserves, beyond the specific circumstances which generated it, is obvious.


2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Serra

ABSTRACTThis paper provides a detailed analysis of the cotton sector reform process in Mali from 2000 to 2011, explaining reform delays and ambiguities in terms of the wider political and socio-economic context and aid relationships. Contrary to arguments pointing to lack of state commitment and ownership, domestic stakeholders increasingly worked towards finding an acceptable and consensual reform package. The process encountered quite serious obstacles, however, due to divergent actors' incentives, and the existence of opposing philosophies about what a restructured cotton sector should look like. As a consequence of donors' misjudgement of the political and social realities underlying the Malian cotton sector, dialogue among stakeholders was difficult and polarised, forcing the government to spend considerable time and resources to find a suitable compromise. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the merits and limits of pursuing consensual policy processes against the constraints posed by divergent donors' policy paradigms.


1999 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-139
Author(s):  
Margarita Diaz-Andreu

The increasingly voluminous literature on nationalism and archaeology published in recent years is providing archaeologists with a firm basis to self-analyse the connection of their endeavours to the socio-political context of which they are imbued. Yet, the work undertaken is not beyond criticism, as the authors make clear in their introduction. Most studies, including this one, approach the topic adopting a historiographical perspective. Yet, trying to summarise two hundred years of politics and archaeology in a few thousand words is not an easy task. It makes it necessary to simplify usually very complex processes into seemingly neat sequences of events. In addition, writing for an archaeological audience does not make things easier. Most archaeologists have an understandable lack of knowledge on the complexities of the political aspect of the argument, a problem aggravated in the case of discussions of countries other than the one most of the readers are more familiar with. A detailed analysis of the intricate political context is simply unattainable and although references to other analytical works are often provided, it is difficult for authors to avoid giving the impression of adopting an objectifying position and a positivistic approach. Despite Hamilakis and Yalouri's awareness of this problem (p.115), on occasion their account falls precisely into the latter category (especially in the section ‘Imagining the nation in modern Greece’). As someone who has often been faced with this problem in my various publications on the relationship between archaeology and nationalism in Spain, I am still convinced of the validity of offering general overviews, despite the risks entailed. It is only after producing an intelligible outline, as they in fact have done, that it is possible to undertake a deeper and more sophisticated analysis of more concrete issues related to the connection between archaeology and nationalism.


1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 839-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Jennings

AbstractThe focus of this article is upon the extensive debate in France that surrounded the concept, content and application of the rights of man in the years between 1789 and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. Beginning with a detailed analysis of the discussion that surrounded the formulation of the Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen attention turns to two broad strands of criticism directed at the discourse of rights: that articulated by the defenders of counter-revolution (most notably Montlosier, Rivarol and de Bonald) and that associated with the idéologues (Daunou, Roederer and de Tracy). Amongst the former rights were associated not only with a new species of revolutionary government but also with the political, social and moral disintegration of France itself; for the latter, emphasis, via the logic of utilitarianism, fell upon seeking to deprive the language of rights of its radical dimensions and implications. It was left to Benjamin Constant to point out the possible contradictions between the claims of utility and those of rights.


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