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    Racism, crisis, Brexit

    Virdee, S. and McGeever, Brendan Francis (2017) Racism, crisis, Brexit. Ethnic and Racial Studies 41 (10), pp. 1802-1819. ISSN 0141-9870.

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    Abstract

    This article offers a conjunctural analysis of the financial and political crisis within which Brexit occurred with a specific attentiveness to race and racism. Brexit and its aftermath have been overdetermined by racism, including racist violence. We suggest that the Leave campaign secured its victory by bringing together two contradictory but interlocking visions. The first comprises an imperial longing to restore Britain’s place in the world as primus inter pares that occludes any coming to terms with the corrosive legacies of colonial conquest and racist subjugation. The second takes the form of an insular, Powellite narrative of island retreat from a ‘globalising’ world, one that is no longer recognisably ‘British’. Further, the article argues that an invisible driver of the Brexit vote and its racist aftermath has been a politicization of Englishness. We conclude by outlining some resources of hope that could potentially help to negotiate the current emergency.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Racism, crisis, Brexit, empire, Englishness, neoliberalism
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
    Research Centres and Institutes: Race Forum
    Depositing User: Brendan Mcgeever
    Date Deposited: 27 Oct 2017 12:34
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:36
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/20173

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