Customer Reviews

'There Ain't no Black in the Union Jack': The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation (Black Literature and Culture)

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Paul Gilroy's 'There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack' offers an intriguing examination of race relations in Britain in the 1980s. Gilroy, unlike numerous other theorists, sees the interconnectedness between those discourses around race, class, and gender, and its impact on the black British community. Furthermore, Gilory advances the notion that "materialist theory of culture has much to contribute to 'race relations' analysis" (16). I highly recommend Gilroy's other works in addition to this one. His writing is clear and his dexterity with the topic of race in Britain is unsurpassed.

Gilroy's Black Atlantic is a much stronger piece. In many ways, this title ('Ain't No Black') seems to be working up to the conclusions he draws in Black Atlantic. Also, his writing in this work is not as strong as Black Atlantic. He could definitely use a decent editor who could take out all those extraneous prepositional phrases that he seems to LOVE. He could be a good deal more concise and coherent.