Black Atlantic 2

The first part of the course focused on the history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the legacies of systematically introduced skin-based racism to the western world and beyond. Students learnt that these legacies are ubiquitous and complex. They have created deep inequality, injustice, and division that have ramifications beyond national borders. They have also provided Western culture with some of its most creative, rich and enduring content and ideas.

In the second part of this course, we are addressing the modern consequences of this history. In addition to an analysis of Civil Rights activism of the 1960s, we learn the modern theorisations of racialised hierarchies and intersectional discrimination. Through an objective, academic investigation of culture and scholarship we better understand the complexity of modern racial debates and can begin to usefully unpick damaging, racist positions and to challenge inherited ‘truths’.

The Black Atlantic perspective begins with the African diaspora (African American, Caribbean and Black British) but its lens is equally helpful in understanding identity construction in other societies. For most of the world ethnicity, nationality and definitions of belonging continue to be the most problematic area of modern societies, leading to inequality, exclusion and violence.