🏛️ Context Flashcards
Where do De Waal live?
Birmingham in the 60s and 70s
When was MNIL written?
2016
Who were De Waals parents and what was their ethnicity?
Her mother was Irish and her father was Jamaican making them one of the only mixed race families in the area
What did her mother and father do?
Her mother was a foster carer, nurse, and childminder
Her father was an African Caribbean bus driver
What was Kit De Waals memoir called?
Without Warning And Only Sometimes
What has De Waals done in her adult life?
- Worked in criminal and family law as a magistrate for 15 years, and social care.
- She sits on adoption panels, works as an advisor for social services and has written training manuals on adoption and foster care
Why does De Waal write in 3rd person limited narrative perspective?
She’s worked with lots of children in foster care and often their story is told by somebody else, denying them a voice. She writes this way to keep a story in a characters voice, from their pov, but also incorporate insights into the bigger picture. Demonstrated her experience with children and foster care maybe she wants to present the issues to a wider audience.
What chapters in her memoir describe any prejudice against her and her family?
Ch. 7 —> I’m not living next to blackies (describes when they moved into a new house, neighbours surrounding the moved house because of the fact that they’d were a mixed race family)
Ch. 19 —> The Irish are like that (describes negative attitudes towards the Irish)
What were attitudes towards the Irish like in the police force?
Police discrimination with police dismissing calls from Irish complaints based on their presumed drunkenness
Police bias against Irish in Britain was revealed in 1997s commission of racial equality where it cited numerous examples of Irish people being treated unfairly
What were the attitudes towards the Irish like in everyday life?
A common theme in media depictions of the Irish in the 70s and 80s is a conflation of the Irish with the IRA, emphasises the supposed violent nature of the Irish people.
Anti Irish jokes portrayed them as stupid
“Paddy, and “Pat” denied them an identity
What does the IRA stand for?
Irish Republican Army
Example of increased xenophobia and violence towards the Irish in Britain:
- Racist signs outside of pubs, hotels and rental space reading “No blacks. No dogs. No Irish” portraying them as savage and giving them animalistic qualities- dehumanising
