Racism in Britain

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how, in order to eradicate racism in Britain after the Second World War, several theories of racism have been adopted as public policy to attempt dealing with this issue. It analyzes four distinct and successive theories according to which the issue of racism was handled in Britain during the postwar period and beyond.

Outline
Race Neutrality and Assimilation Theories
Racial Harmony and Issues of Identity
Positivism and Essentialism

From the Paper:

"The positivist approach to race includes the categorization of people according to observable phenomena. Race, ethnicity and culture are thus researched and recognized by a list of pre-established criteria (Pfeffer 1998). While this does comply with the policy of recognizing each ethnic group and its identifying markers, the problem is that the approach is also essentialist. Classification of race and ethnicity thus occur by means of criteria that are unchangeable and unquestioned. Cultural criteria outside of the physically observable are therefore excluded from these classifications. Also, the inherent human tendency to evolve and develop is not recognized here."

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