Collective Identity - Music - 2 Tone

• The Specials combined black and white street styles
• it was a contradictory movement that changed many of their audiences views on Black Britain
• After punk the music industry needed the next best thing - Specials were signed for their label - 2 tones
• Madness was signed by it, many other bands began to follow
• More of a movement than a fad 
• Coming together of politics and music, changing social views
• New arrivals during emigration was when the music came over - 2 tone was the time when it was truly accepted and openly enjoyed
• Reggae became known as pop music - not everyone understood where it had come from until bands like the Specials enabled this movement to take off
• Biggest fans of Jamaican music were the original 'Skinheads' - taking short hair a rolled up trousers from the traditional Jamaican clothes
• Some black people came to black music through white skinheads
• black skinheads however could be condemned for being racist themselves - the way that skinheads were racist towards Asian people
• Neo-Nazi's kept themselves surfaced during 70s
• as skinheads lost interest, punks gained interest in reggae 
• punk tried to copy many guitar solos

Pressure - Questions

    what event occured in the 70s and 80s that represent the presence of racial tensions?

Civil Rights Movement - Contrasted with idea's of Black Power had started to create this Black British identity that the older generations were not ready to accept - stereotypes, racism still existed

Why do you think Pressure was made?

I think Pressure was made to highlight the pressures coming from the older generations onto the younger generations. It's a film that allowed its audience to understand that Black stereotypes such as crime and rebellion is not actually for everyone and that it is the influences from those that have not made the transition from their own country to being Black British.
It is also to highlight that the younger generations, black and white, don't hold the same racism and blatant disrespect their elders do. For this reason, it shows that although black people are expected to do something wrong, it is the way the older white British generation boxes them into this stereotype and makes them feel as if they should be shied away from that inevitable leads to them fulfilling this stereotype. 

It is also to show that if the older generations on both sides cannot mix in the same way these white and black British young characters have been (going to the same youth clubs only to be not allowed into his girlfriends room because of her racist landlord)

What examples of racism are shown in Pressure?

• Landlord not allowing Tony into her house
• Tony not getting the job
• Tony and his white girlfriend stared at for being seen together 

How does the theme of collective identity come across in Pressure?

Although Tony starts off to be different from his family - buying fish and chips and not eating with his hands - he eventually becomes the same as the other Black people in his life - because of the racism he faces. Towards the end, after he has gone to his brother's meetings, Tony starts to eat the traditional Black food and eat it with his hands. The black people in the film, are all at one point made out to be quite animalistic - like Britains idea of 'civilising' these nations and new immigrants has not worked on any of them. His mum is animalistic in the beginning when she screams after her son, brother is animalistic in the way he eats, Tony at the end stabs the pig to death. They are all grouped together in these ways. To contrast, in many ways it breaks the idea of gourping all of these people together and shows that it is not in the person's nature that they fulfil these terrible stereotypes but in what is expected of them and the surrounding people and situations.

How do you think Pressure differs from mainstream representations of Black Britain? 

Pressure shows a side where the way these black people are is not their fault. The brother in particular talks about traditional Trinidad views and the mother agrees. This shows that the way they behave is a cultural norm to them - other than representing them as unjust criminals we are given an insight into the background of why they act the way they do. It is also putting the older, white British generation in a bad light - it is their pressure and horribly low expectations of the Black British youth combined with their families traditions that has left them with no choice but to act out. In these ways, this film whilst not portraying Black British citizens in the best light, does show the justification for why they act the way they do and for once, pins some blame on the White British.

Black Britain: Radio Broadcast

Culture:

• Parents
• Food
• Fashion 
• Heritage 
• Way of talking - accents
• Music 

Especially the way of talking and music is now a part of everyday life for even white people - white and black culture are mixing slightly (words and way of talking)

White people that grow up around Black British people that are influenced by their own parents, are acting slightly like the stereotypical Black person

History - first hand accounts

• Citizens of British Empire came to the motherland to fulfil their dreams of jobs
• 'everything was arranged, I came on a boat... taken to our various hostpitals' - check ups made on all immigrants
• 'I expected to find the quality of life much better' (Jamaican immigrant)
• People of colour not allowed in certain venues - went to own black dominated places - beginning of the Black British Culture (dancing, socialising, house parties, youth centres)
• In a way, it was this culture that gained interest in them from people and in a contemporary time is copied
• Dressing well on Sundays especially, fashion was a big thing - cultural clothe

Second Generation

• new way, mixing the two cultures together
• Jackson 5
• be a part of the 60s revolution 
• mixing the dress, afro/jeans
• early 80s the second generation was looking to Britain to mix their own styles more with British styles - still proud of being Black
• Music was mixing

Black Style: 

• Now more just 'style'
• Low hanging jeans particularly
• puffa jackets 
• where references were coming from was not being recognised - only borrowed from Black Culture

'Acting Black'

• If following Black culture seen to be following the stereotypical behaviour - even if white.
• If people are talking like Black British people 'acting black' they are expected to be bad people
• Is seen as a bad thing, even though it is popular with young people, to act like a stereotypical black person
• depends where the young people come from - they could be in a black British dominated area
• Taking black words and changing it to slang - many words don't mean what the did in their countries 
• 'Ya know what I mean?' phrases used by everyone are pronounced in a traditionally Caribbean way.
• multi ethnic - Using Jamaican/Caribbean accents can just mean one is young and from a big city in England 
• Younger generations only, not older generations

Black achievements/downfalls

• Black boys are generally underachieving in comparison to white counterparts
• culture of gangster has come in
• many of their dads are still in other countries - they have no male role models 
• First thing that come to mind with Black British - crime, gangsters, bad aspects
• Media only portrays the bad of Black people - makes it hard for young people to want to change
• Gun crime, drugs and alienation are all parts of poverty but young, black people are mainly alienated because of the media's representation - they live up to IT

Black Music

• Videos to black music degrades women and glorifies criminal activity such as gangs, guns, knifes
• though Reggae is very popular with Britain - indentation is now permanent 
• Drum and Bass, Grime, R&B, Hip-Hop are all black styles that have been adapted
• Not black owned any more - reliant on everybody liking it 

Racialisation of Britain:

The black people that had emigrated over to Britain to find work had come in large numbers and now it seemed that they were taking too many jobs. For this reason, Britain began to look for reasons to fire and stop them from coming to the country in the first place.

It was declared that ' black immigration into Britain is a fundamentally bad thing, and it should be prevented at all costs, except, of course, where the system would literally cease to function without it' - problem being that Black people had been doing these jobs for years now and it would mean that less white people were trained for them. For this reason, the black population of Britain was needed at this time for Britain to build up it's economy

The harmful effect  Black immigration was having on the 'racial character of the English people' was worrying those in Britain - Black immigrants were being blamed for all the problems in Britain at this time

Britain was using racialisation as an excuse to use the Black immigrants when they were needed for work reasons, but also used them to blame the crime, employment and social difficulties it was facing.

Research: Black Britain

what was happening between 1948-1962?

• immigration for work

• youth culture became more distinct - 'Teddy Boys'

• 1948 - All citizens of the ex Empire could come to UK

• Empire Windrush brought over thousands of Jamaican men and women 

• During 50s and 60s Britain encouraged emigration of Caribbean and Jamaicans 

• The amount of immigrants coming over was starting to become an issue during the '50s, in '58 (Watershed year) race became a real issue

• Nottingham riots put race problems on the political agenda

• Teddy Boys were growing and harassing more black people

• Black immigration became a bad thing - it was to be avoided at all costs

• '48 - Labour wrote to conservatives to appeal to control immigration 

• black people starting to be blamed for all the problems with work - '60s

Analyse the ways in which the media represent one group of people you have studied

The media’s representation of certain groups is something that has reflected on the way society has viewed types of people for many years. It is the representation that leads us as an audience to believe that we know someone because of their class, racial upbringing, sexual preference and many other reasons. The way in which these stereotypes are being represented is through mediation, which works to build these representations based on the context of the time and events surrounding this group. The ability to select the way a group is represented through mediation is what connects so well with an audience and allows the representation to merge with how the public view this certain group and at times for the group to fulfil these collective identities they are grouped into. In the case that I am going to be looking into ‘Black Britain’, the media has represented black people in a bad way since they began to immigrate from their own countries for a better life. Due to the downfall of the British economy after the loss of its empire, the media began to find a blame within the Black working community - one that was to impact the black community for generations to come. This continuous racial blame was to go from the blame of Britain’s economic downfall, to the blame of crime waves and many other problems within Britain. As demonstrated in the films Pressure and Sapphire.

The ways in which the films Pressure and Sapphire have represented Black Britain are similar when considering how they show the black migrants to be a contrast to the white British characters. Sapphire represents this through both the fact that Sapphire herself is represented as a character ashamed of being black, who once knowing she could pass for white, began to. The fact that we only see Sapphire at the beginning and that after that we only know what we are told about her by other characters portray her as a mystery and almost problematic. This is also done by small mise-en-scene connections such as the fact that when the police are going through her room they find a red dress, which could have been used to suggest a provocative side to this young, black female - which is further supported by the fact that two men are in question of her murder (a black man she used to dance with at the club and a white man who was in love with her). When in the dancing club we are shown black men and women dancing together, with very little white people there, which contrasts to the white men and women’s very formal and subdued characteristics. This represents the black community within Britain to be very different from the white community - although different in a more reckless, sexual way. This difference is also represented through the two men in question of Sapphire’s murder. The black man had only known Sapphire from when she went to the club and would dance with him, he seems to have been almost teased by her. In contrast to this man, the white man had been dating Sapphire and had been to the cinema with her - a much classier portrayal of romance. In this sense, Sapphire portrays Black Britain to be a stark contrast to the white community, which seems to be tainting the good, classy representation of Britain that the white community tends to portray throughout this film.

Pressure takes this concept of Black migrant contrast to the white British community and also include how the new black generation is more connected with the white community. Tony is used to contrast his mother and brother who are still connected to their Trinidad traditions and are very opposed to white politics. Tony starts off extremely different to his brother - almost more humane. This is shown in the beginning with the breakfast table scene where Tony eats using his knife and fork and his brother uses his hands and rolls his food into balls before eating it. The fact that his brother also uses a sauce that isn’t typically British shows that he dislikes the country he is in, whereas Tony eats fish and chips and dresses in a very white British way - which is explained by the fact all of his friends are white. Over the course of the story Tony is rejected more and more by the white communities - particularly when he is denied entry to his white girlfriend’s house and is denied the job because of his race. It is these events that push Tony to slowly turn to his brother and join their group of a revolution against the British. Tony begins to act less British as he too starts to eat with his hands and smoke marijuana, wearing clothes very similar to his brother. The fact that we can see that it is the way the white community have treated Tony that urged him to turn to his brother shows a slightly more contemporary view on the situation. Although it shows Tony’s brother as ill-mannered and rebellious, it also shows the white community as ignorant and unjust. The middle ground are the new generations (both white and black), which show that the real representation of Black Britain within Pressure is that the new generation of Black people are the ones that are in touch with Britain - yet it is the influence of their superiors (family and family friends) and the ignorance and attitudes of the elder white generation that both pressure and push them into becoming what they were being represented as at this time - against Britain, trouble makers and attracting crime wherever they go. It is the fact that this film was produced later than Sapphire that shows a nicer, more conflicted side to Black Britain. Yet, the fact that both films still in the end represent them in a bad light show that the representation of Black Britain is still very bad.

In conclusion, the representation of Black Britain is used to blame for many of the problems within Britain at this time - though on a smaller scale. Where the two films were made at different times, the level of this representation varies as the white British community begins to change and so the mediation of the representation changes too - they are still blamed for problems, yet it is also understood that many of the reasons that Black people supposedly act out is because they are expected to by every community - the white community expect them to because they are seen as to blame for Britain’s downfall and their own community expects them to not conform with the white man’s ideas of colonisation.