The unbearable whiteness of class: towards an intersectional reading of poverty discourses in Brexit Britain

2012年，以海外人道主义工作闻名的救助儿童会在国内发起了第一次呼吁。这项呼吁打出了“不应该发生在这里”的口号，旨在为生活在贫困中的英国家庭筹集资金。这一呼吁引发了强烈的反弹。许多人表示，真正的贫困只发生在像非洲大陆这样的地方，亨利·杰克逊协会的副主任说：“在英国，没有一个孩子可能生活在那种贫困中(……)除非他们的父母严重滥用施舍“(2012--译注)。在这个特殊的时刻，许多英国人同时否认自己国家的贫困经历，并宣称”真正的“贫困只发生在遥远的地方，这引发了几个问题：1.这种强烈的反弹告诉我们对当今英国人对贫困的理解是什么？2.这个特殊的时刻告诉我们今天英国的种族问题是什么？3.这与种族主义的贫困话语有什么联系？快进到2016年，脱欧决定已经启动了努力，以理解出人意料的脱欧公投背后的动态。值得注意的是，关于“白人工人阶级”的讨论被政界人士、学者和媒体专家推到了政治话语的前沿。鉴于人们对英国贫困的了解，包括贫困与种族之间的关系，约瑟夫·朗特里基金会(JRF)和Runnymede Trust等组织的大量报告证明了这一点(见Catney and Sabater2015；Khan and Shaheen 2017；在种族关系研究所2017)上，我们还必须问：4.我们如何解释对谁是穷人和/或工人阶级，以及谁被代表为穷人和/或工人阶级之间的理解之间的差距？5.当少数族裔被从关于英国合法政治声音的叙述中抹去时会发生什么？这两个例子，对救助儿童会国内运动的强烈反对，以及‘白人工人阶级’的话语，都向我们提出了一个挑战，要理解社会福利、社会团结和白人政治之间的关系。尽管英国黑人女权主义者的学术成就为我们提供了理解包括性别在内的各种从属制度相互交错的工具(布莱恩，Dadzie和Scafe，1985；米孜·艾兹。尽管如此(见1997年)，以及研究战后多民族英国社会形态的文化理论家的批判性工作(见Gilroy 1987；Hall 1980；当代文化研究中心1982)，但对当今英国种族和阶级之间的关系缺乏一致和细微的分析。这也意味着，民众和政治人士对谁是穷人，以及谁被描绘成穷人的看法之间存在差距。有鉴于此，拟议的研究项目认为，有必要研究当今英国贫困叙事和话语的结构以及与种族的交集。

In 2012 Save The Children, an organisation known for its humanitarian work overseas,launched its first domestic appeal. Using the slogan 'It Shouldn't Happen Here', the appealaimed at raising money for British families living in poverty.The response was a ferociousbacklash. Many expressed the view that real poverty only happened in places like the Africancontinent, and the associate Director of the Henry Jackson Society stated that "no child inBritain can possibly be said to be living in that kind of poverty (...) unless their parents aregrossly misusing their handouts" (Murray 2012).This particular moment, when many Britons simultaneously denied the experience of poverty intheir country, and proclaimed that "real" poverty only happens far away, raises severalquestions:1. What does this backlash tell us about understandings of poverty in Britain today?2. What does this particular moment tell us about race in Britain today?3. How does this tie with racialized discourses of poverty?Fast forward to 2016, the decision to leave the European Union has set in motion efforts tounderstand the dynamics at play behind the surprise Brexit vote. Notably, discussions about the'white working class' were propelled to the forefront of political discourse by politicians,academics and media pundits. Given what is known about poverty in Britain, including therelation between poverty and race as evidenced by numerous reports by organisations such asthe Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the Runnymede Trust (see Catney and Sabater2015; Khan and Shaheen 2017; Institute of Race Relations 2017), we must also ask:4. How can we explain the gaps between understandings of who is poor and/or workingclass, and who is represented as poor and/or working class?5. What happens when ethnic minorities are erased out of narratives about legitimatepolitical voices in Britain?Both these examples, the backlash against Save the Children's domestic campaign and thediscourse of the 'white working class' present us with a challenge to understand the relationbetween social welfare, social solidarity and the politics of whiteness.Despite the scholarship of Black British feminists who provided us with tools with which tounderstand the intersections of various systems of subordination including gender (Bryan,Dadzie and Scafe 1985; Mirza eds. 1997), and the critical work of cultural theorists who lookedat the social formation of multi-ethnic postwar Britain (see Gilroy 1987; Hall 1980; Centre forContemporary Cultural Studies 1982), there is a lack of consistent and nuanced analysis aboutthe relationship between race and class in Britain today. This also means that there is a gapbetween popular and political perceptions of who is actually poor, and who is represented aspoor. In light of this, the proposed research project contends that there is a need to look into theconstructions of narratives and discourses of poverty and the intersections with race in Britaintoday.