Rationalising racial inequality: ideology, hegemony and post-racialism among the Black and South Asian middle classes
Meghji, Ali and Saini, Rima ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2115-1206
(2018)
Rationalising racial inequality: ideology, hegemony and post-racialism among the Black and South Asian middle classes.
Sociology, 52
(4)
.
pp. 671-687.
ISSN 0038-0385
[Article]
(doi:10.1177/0038038517726645)
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Abstract
Drawing upon 38 qualitative interviews with Black and South Asian middle-class individuals we theorise post-racialism as a hegemonic ideology. While research tends to focus on how racialised people experience racial inequality, some of our participants rationalised such inequality through a post-racial understanding. This post-racial understanding involves commitments to racial progress and transcendence, the view that racism is no longer a societal issue; race-neutral universalism, the belief that we live in a colourblind meritocracy; and a moral equivalence between anti-racism and anti-racialism, allowing for forms of ‘cultural’ racial prejudice. We examine how these components of post-racialism travel from the political macro-ideological level, to the micro-phenomenological level. Through this analysis we argue that these post-racial rationalisations are not the result of false consciousness, but reflect how post-racialism, as a hegemonic ideology, can manifest itself as common-sense and consistent with particular individuals’ histories of mobility and success.
Item Type: | Article |
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Research Areas: | A. > School of Law > Criminology and Sociology |
Item ID: | 27606 |
Notes on copyright: | Meghji, Ali and Saini, Rima, Rationalising racial inequality: ideology, hegemony and post-racialism among the Black and South Asian middle classes. Sociology, 52 (4). pp. 671-687. Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038517726645. |
Useful Links: | |
Depositing User: | Rima Saini |
Date Deposited: | 20 Sep 2019 15:26 |
Last Modified: | 29 Nov 2022 19:43 |
URI: | https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/id/eprint/27606 |
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