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E-book
Author Perry, Kennetta Hammond, 1979- author.

Title London is the place for me : Black Britons, citizenship, and the politics of race / Kennetta Hammond Perry
Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2015]
©2015

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 317 pages) : illustrations
Series Transgressing boundaries, studies in Black politics and Black communities
Transgressing boundaries.
Contents Introduction : Windrush politics -- Race, empire and the formation of Black Britain -- Migration, citizenship and the boundaries of belonging -- "Race riots" and the mystique of British anti-racism -- Are we to be mauled down just because we are Black? -- Exposing the racial politics of immigration controls -- The limits of campaigning against racial discrimination -- Epilogue : Black Britain, the state and the politics of race
Summary "Black people in the British Empire have long challenged the notion that "there ain't no black in the Union Jack." For the post-World War II wave of Afro-Caribbean migrants, many of whom had long been subjects of the Empire, claims to a British identity and imperial citizenship were considered to be theirs by birthright. However, while Britain was internationally touted as a paragon of fair play and equal justice, they arrived in a nation that was frequently hostile and unwilling to incorporate Black people into its concept of what it meant to be British. Black Britons therefore confronted the racial politics of British citizenship and became active political agents in challenging anti-Black racism. In a society with a highly racially circumscribed sense of identity-and the laws, customs, and institutions to back it up-Black Britons had to organize and fight to assert their right to belong. In London Is The Place for Me, Kennetta Hammond Perry explores how Afro-Caribbean migrants navigated the politics of race and citizenship in Britain and reconfigured the boundaries of what it meant to be both Black and British at a critical juncture in the history of Empire and twentieth century transnational race politics. She situates their experience within a broader context of Black imperial and diasporic political participation, and examines the pushback--both legal and physical--that the migrants' presence provoked. Bringing together a variety of sources including calypso music, photographs, migrant narratives, and records of grassroots Black political organizations, London Is the Place for Me positions Black Britons as part of wider public debates both at home and abroad about citizenship, the meaning of Britishness and the politics of race in the second half of the twentieth century. The United Kingdom's postwar discriminatory curbs on immigration and explosion of racial violence forced White Britons as well as Black to question their perception of Britain as a racially progressive society and, therefore, to question the very foundation of their own identities. Perry's examination expands our understanding of race and the Black experience in Europe and uncovers the critical role that Black people played in the formation of contemporary British society."--Publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Black people -- Great Britain -- History
Black people -- Civil rights -- Great Britain -- History
Citizenship -- Great Britain -- History
National characteristics, British.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Discrimination & Race Relations.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Minority Studies.
Black people
Black people -- Civil rights
Citizenship
Emigration and immigration
National characteristics, British
Race relations
SUBJECT Great Britain -- Race relations -- History
Great Britain -- Emigration and immigration
Africa -- Emigration and immigration
West Indies -- Emigration and immigration
Subject Africa
Great Britain
West Indies
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2015025428
ISBN 9780190240226
0190240229
9780190240219
0190240210
0190493437
9780190493431
Other Titles Black Britons, citizenship, and the politics of race