Ethnicity

Question 1

What did Hebdige explain?

Answer 1

• The Rastafarians: Saw this culture as forms of resistance to white culture and racism with roots in the relationships of slavery.
• Brasians: fusion between Asian and British culture

Question 2

What did Johal suggest?

Answer 2

• Some Brasians adopted a ‘hyper-ethnic style’, exaggerating their parents’ culture.
• This included watching Indian or Hindi films and listening to Asian music.
• This gave them the ‘empowerment through difference’.

Question 3

What term did Nayak come up with?

Answer 3

White wannabes - young, white working-class males who adopt the style and language of ‘black culture’

Question 4

What did Sewell state?

Answer 4

• For black males, the culture of the streets is anti-education, valuing style and seeing education as feminine.
• A successful black male would be a target for bullying, whereas educational failure becomes a badge to wear with pride.
• Argued that the majority of black boys were conformists, but it was the minority (18%) who got the attention and created the negative stereotypes.

Question 5

What did Mizra identify?

Answer 5

• A more pro-education attitude among African-Caribbean girls.
• The girls she studied resented teacher labels, racism, and the expectation they would fail.
• Adopted ‘strategic rationalisation’, as in what they saw to be wasteful and unproductive lesson time.
• Adopted strategies to maximise their chances of success, often keeping their heads down, sitting at the back of classrooms and getting on with their work.

Question 6

What did Archer consider?

Answer 6

• Considered Muslim boys and how they demonstrated their masculine and religious identity in peer groups, whilst constantly fighting Islamophobia and the demonization of Muslim males in the media.
• They saw their identity as Muslim, not Pakistani, but also knew that being a member of their subculture gave them protection from other racial groups and racist bullying.

Question 7

What did Strand and Wilson find?

Answer 7

• Negative peer relationships were significant in underachievement of African-Caribbean boys, whereas for white boys, underachievement was more related to low self-esteem and lack of parental aspirations.
• They also found Asian boys tended to have positive peer support and were surprised when asked if their friends would laugh at them for working hard or doing well in school.