Wednesday 28 June 2006

The deviance and threat posed by the white, working-class

In November 2011, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation published the startlingly truthful document from which the following was extracted.

It was written by a died-in-the-wool member of the PC Crowd named Harris Beider, a Professor in Community Cohesion at Coventry University.

“Community cohesion has been influential in shaping government policy since the 2001 disturbances in Burnley, Oldham and Bradford. During this period, few studies have assessed the contribution of white working-class communities to cohesion… A literature review was undertaken of secondary material about white working-class communities and community cohesion…

COMPARED TO THE RICH AND VARIED LITERATURE ON MINORITY COMMUNITIES, ANALYSIS OF WHITE COMMUNITIES AND ETHNICITY IS LARGELY ABSENT except for rather fleeting mentions. In much of the literature, INDIVIDUALS BELONGING TO WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES ARE VARIOUSLY DESCRIBED AS PERPETRATORS OF RACIAL HARASSMENT, HOSTILE TO IMMIGRATION AND INFLEXIBLE…

TYPICALLY COMMUNITIES ARE VIEWED AS BEING PROBLEMATIC, DYSFUNCTIONAL… DEVIANCE AND THREAT POSED BY WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES PEPPER MOST ACADEMIC AND POLICY NARRATIVES.

In contrast to the limited material on white working-class communities, community cohesion has generated a variety of responses. Initially a number of reports were published from inquiries into the serious disturbances of 2001... IN THE TEN YEARS SINCE THE DISTURBANCES THERE HAS BEEN VERY LITTLE FOCUS ON WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES IN THE COMMUNITY COHESION LITERATURE…

RESIDENTS’ CONCERNS WERE NOT BEING HEARD BY POLICY-MAKERS AT LOCAL OR NATIONAL LEVELS… IN GENERAL RESIDENTS FELT THAT THEY WERE CONSTRAINED AND THEIR VIEWS IGNORED…

THERE WAS A SENSE THAT GOVERNMENT WAS NOT LISTENING TO THE CONCERNS OF WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES AND NOT INTERESTED IN ENGAGEMENT. POLICY WAS SEEN IN THE CONTEXT OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, WHICH HAD BECOME A PEJORATIVE TERM MEANING BENEFICIAL TREATMENT TO ANYONE WHO WAS NOT WHITE WORKING-CLASS...

WHITE WORKING-CLASS RESIDENTS DID NOT FEEL THEY HAVE BEEN TREATED FAIRLY BY GOVERNMENT. THE SENSE OF UNFAIRNESS WAS MOST ACUTE IN TERMS OF ACCESS AND ALLOCATION OF SOCIAL HOUSING…

RESIDENTS FELT THAT THEIR VIEWS WERE NOT BEING ACKNOWLEDGED and that there was no space for discussions about change, immigration and access to public resources…

THE RESEARCH LITERATURE IN RECENT DECADES HAS FOCUSED LARGELY ON MINORITY COMMUNITIES. Consequently, studies of white working-class communities and race, and more recently community cohesion, are inadequate, ALLOWING CULTURAL AND NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES TO POPULATE THE GAP…

The research findings demonstrate that WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES DO NOT FEEL THEY HAVE A VOICE…

THE VIEWS OF WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES ON COHESION HAVE BEEN LARGELY IGNORED IN THE ACADEMIC AND POLICY LITERATURE… The challenge was to build credibility and trust TO ENABLE PEOPLE TO SPEAK FREELY ABOUT THESE ISSUES...

London has been described as THE ‘MOST DIVERSE CITY EVER’ ( Benedictus and Godwin, 2005) and as HAVING MORE IN COMMON WITH NEW YORK AND TOKYO THAN CITIES IN THE UK…

The report will contend that studies of the white working-class and its relationship to race and latterly community cohesion in the UK HAVE PALED INTO INSIGNIFICANCE COMPARED TO THOSE ON MINORITY GROUPS…

During the 1950s and 1960s, the leading publications on race during this phase suggested that CULTURAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN IMMIGRANT AND HOST COMMUNITIES LED TO CONFLICT… During the 1960s and 1970s the focus shifted towards understanding discrimination operating within the state and wider society. DEBATES WERE ANCHORED IN ADDRESSING RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND CHANGING POLICIES THAT PREVENTED MINORITY COMMUNITIES FROM GAINING ACCESS TO SERVICES, EMPLOYMENT AND PUBLIC GOODS SUCH AS HOUSING…

Academic literature has vicariously viewed immigrants as being problematic, victims and the most radical points of political organisation in society. In contrast, analysis of white communities has been very limited. THEY ARE VARIOUSLY VIEWED AS PERPETRATORS OF HARASSMENT OR SEEN AS HOSTILE TO IMMIGRATION BECAUSE OF A COMBINATION OF RACISM AND LABOUR PROTECTION…

Typically, WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES ARE VIEWED AS BEING PROBLEMATIC, DYSFUNCTIONAL… THERE IS A SENSE THAT THESE GROUPS ARE HOSTILE TO CHANGE AND IN THE VANGUARD OF SUPPORT FOR EXTREMIST PARTIES…

BEING WHITE AND WORKING-CLASS IS VIEWED AS BEING PROBLEMATIC… Charles Murray popularised the term ‘underclass’ in his polemical but influential article in the Sunday Times. He suggested that BRITAIN WAS EXPERIENCING A WHITE WORKING-CLASS PROBLEM THAT WAS GETTING WORSE. This was the result of an over generous welfare state, reduction in common norms and increasing crime...

The establishment of the Social Exclusion Unit was deemed in part a spatial and joined up response to the challenges in some white working-class neighbourhoods. Peter Mandelson was explicit in his analysis of the challenges in Britain. In the quote below he seems to be suggesting (using ‘we’ in a rather ironic way) that WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES ARE PROBLEMATIC AND A BARRIER AGAINST PROGRESS.

‘We are people who are used to being represented as problematic. We are the long term, benefit-claiming, working-class poor, living through another period of cultural contempt. WE ARE LOSERS, NO HOPERS, LOW LIFE SCROUNGERS. OUR CULTURE IS YOB CULTURE. The importance of welfare provisions to our lives has been denigrated and turned against us; we are welfare dependent and our problems won’t be solved by giving us higher benefits. WE ARE PERVERSE IN OUR FAILURE TO SUCCEED, DRAGGING OUR FEET OVER SOCIAL CHANGE, wanting the old jobs back, still having babies instead of careers, stuck in outdated class and gender moulds. WE ARE THE CHALLENGE THAT STANDS OUT ABOVE ALL OTHERS, THE GREATEST SOCIAL CRISIS OF OUR TIMES’…

MURRAY AND MANDELSON SEEM TO MAKE A DIRECT CORRELATION BETWEEN SOCIAL EXCLUSION, PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH WHITE WORKING-CLASS AND DEVIANT PLACES loaded within a problematic cultural construction. Recent interventions, such as the term ‘chav’6, has helped to shape the conventional view of white working-class communities through cultural concerns (normative) rather than social inequality (objective). These communities are thus located as being outside accepted norms within society…

The absence of a coherent academic literature on community cohesion and whiteness has created a vacuum that has been filled by stereotypes in popular culture. In the main THESE HAVE BEEN NEGATIVE WITH THE REPRESENTATION OF WHITENESS IN POPULAR CULTURE EITHER AS A LUMPEN PROLETARIAT, DYSFUNCTIONAL, OR DANGEROUS; OR A COMBINATION OF ALL THREE…

The Jeremy Kyle Show has been described as ‘proletarian porn’ and again emphasises a cultural gulf between NORMS OF BEHAVIOUR OF WHITE WORKING-CLASS AND THE REST OF SOCIETY. Taking this further, some theorists have suggested that that THE WHITE WORKING-CLASS HAS BECOME A DISTINCT ‘OTHER’ WITHIN BRITAIN… THE WHITE WORKING-CLASS CAN BE VIEWED AS DIFFERENT TO MAINSTREAM, COMMON AND SHARED NORMS... Mockery in popular culture is viewed as part of this ‘othering’…

CULTURE CAN BE USED TO EXCLUDE COMMUNITIES AND ENCOURAGE THE FORMATION OF HIERARCHIES OF DOMINANCE IN OWNERSHIP OF KNOWLEDGE, NETWORK AND ACCESS TO POWER…

THE CULTURAL CONFIGURATION OF WHITE WORKING-CLASS CULTURE AS BEING PROBLEMATIC HAS BEEN PROMINENT IN THE MEDIA… THE POPULAR PRESS LED TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF A DEVIANT GROUP WHICH WAS TAKEN UP BY COMMENTATORS IN BROADSHEETS AND THE POLITICAL CLASS…

The intervention of leading politicians such as Peter Mandelson, or more explicitly the writing of Murray is that SOCIETAL PROBLEMS CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES…

A Community Cohesion Unit was established in 2002 to co-ordinate national work and implement practice where necessary. This was supported by an independent panel of practitioners who helped to develop guidance and best practice on cohesion… Much of this thinking was brought together in the Home Office publication Improving Opportunity, Strengthening Society (2005)...

Building community cohesion was one of the four key themes alongside addressing inequality, promoting inclusiveness and tackling racism and extremism. There is also continuity, in that YET AGAIN, VERY LITTLE ATTENTION IS GIVEN TO WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES IN THESE POLICIES. In fact, there are fewer than five references to this group in the entire report. POLICY-LED COMMUNITY COHESION PERSISTS WITH THE FOCUS ON MINORITY COMMUNITIES…

The third phase of community cohesion has concentrated on the importance of integration and identity...

Again, THE CIC REPORT FOCUSED ON MINORITIES RATHER THAN THE ROLE OF WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES. There is discussion of poor educational performance of white working-class boys and of concerns about immigration being shared by most groups, but very little analysis is devoted to community cohesion and white communities…

Some CRITICS OF COMMUNITY COHESION VIEW IT AS A NEW MODEL OF FORCED ASSIMILATION… Despite the criticism levelled at community cohesion there is little doubt that it has been an important driver of policy and practice since the 2001 disturbances. However, IT IS NOT CLEAR THAT COMMUNITY COHESION HAS SPECIFICALLY SPOKEN ABOUT WHITE WORKING-CLASS PEOPLE SINCE THIS POINT…

THE DEBATE HAS BEEN VERY ONE-SIDED ON NORMS, BEHAVIOURS AND INTERACTION, AND FIXED ON MINORITY COMMUNITIES. The focus is on these groups WITH WHITE COMMUNITIES (AT BEST) BEING MENTIONED ON THE MARGINS…

The key focus was on culture rather than disadvantage. This emphasis deepened and largely fixed on Muslim Britons after the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York City and Washington DC and the 7 July 2005 bombings of the London transport system. THERE WAS NO POLITICAL INCLINATION TO DISCUSS THE ROLE OF WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES IN DELIVERING COMMUNITY COHESION when the focus was on Muslim communities…

In 2009 the terms of reference on white working-class communities changed with announcement of the Connecting Communities programme. This was a £12 million government initiative targeted at more than 160 neighbourhoods across the country that were badly hit by the 2007 recession…

At its core Connecting Communities focused attention on the needs of white working-class communities AND ON PREVENTING THE RISE OF SUPPORT FOR FAR RIGHT ORGANISATIONS SUCH AS THE BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY (BNP). In this way it was hoped that cohesion and resilience would be increased.

In part THIS SEEMED TO BE AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT THAT GOVERNMENT POLICIES ON RACE, COHESION AND RELATED AREAS HAD IGNORED THE WHITE WORKING-CLASS CONSTITUENCY…

The association of the white working-class with the Far Right follows an established (and false) narrative going back to the rise of Oswald Moseley in the East End of London. Since this point, THE WHITE WORKING-CLASS HAS BEEN LABELLED AS HOSTILE TO RACE AND IMMIGRATION (Teddy Boys in the 1950s; Dockers in the 1960s; Skinheads in the 1970s; and the rise of the BNP since 2000). As Goodwin points out, support for the Far Right covers a gamut of issues including social disadvantage, ineffective leadership and representation result which all lead to scepticism on the role of the state.

Connecting Communities arrived rather belatedly after 13 years of Labour government and now seems to have disappeared or be disappearing with the new Coalition administration. During this period we have noted how WHITE WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES HAVE BEEN SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED BY POLICY AND POPULAR CULTURE AS A PROBLEMATIC GROUP…

IN COMPARISON TO STUDIES ON MINORITY COMMUNITIES AND RACE, THERE HAS BEEN RELATIVELY LITTLE DISCUSSION ON THE TOPIC… PATHOLOGIES OF WHITE CULTURE ARE DEVELOPED WHICH EMPHASISE EXCLUSION FROM MAINSTREAM SOCIETY IN TERMS OF NORMS AND SPACE…

In conclusion… THERE IS A NEED TO CHALLENGE THE EVIDENCE GAP, MYTHS AND COLLECTIVISED PATHOLOGY THAT THESE COMMUNITIES HAVE HAD TO ENDURE FOR FAR TOO LONG.” MORE
To reiterate:

"In much of the literature, individuals belonging to white working-class communities are variously described as perpetrators of racial harassment, hostile to immigration and inflexible… Communities are viewed as being problematic, dysfunctional… Deviance and threat posed by white working-class communities pepper most academic and policy narratives...

Residents’ concerns were not being heard by policy-makers at local or national levels… In general residents felt that they were constrained and their views ignored."
This poses the question, why do the working-classes still tolerate an 'academic and policy'-making establishment that, so obviously, despises them?

Why do they still vote for those who hold them in such obvious contempt. Why have they done nothing to rid themselves of a governmental class that consistently ignores their 'views' and 'concerns?'

This is a rhetorical question to which there is a simple answer. Just as the wisdom and opinions of the Nationalist community are routinely censored by the mainstream media, almost none of those the above paper focuses upon will ever read it or be made aware of its contents.

Deprived of such accurate insight into the true feelings of those who rule their lives, the 'problematic' and 'dysfunctional' electorate can be manoeuvred into voting, come election time, as they always do. Despite being 'constrained and their views ignored', the disenfranchised will invariably settle for the politician they imagine will do them the least harm.

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