Gavin Schaffer’s article ‘Fighting Racism: Black Soldiers and Workers in Britain during the Second World” examines the changing climate of racial views of the public, the government and the military in Britain. Schaffer looks at the perceptions they had and the extent to which they were welcomed into British society, which reveals the magnitude of the racism and treatment of Black people. His overall argument is that, although Black contribution to the war effort, Hitler and nazism, and the US army’s racial extremism pushed Britons to reconsider their views on racism, it could not have reshaped Britain’s fundamental racist views and their White superiority complex. Therefore, Schaffer argues, that underlying racist concerns, such as intelligence, affected the reception of Black workers in Britain, this was further fuelled by the fears over ‘miscegenation’, which exposed British people for their racist views.
Schaffer highlights the treatment of Black volunteers within the army. The War Office decided they could not employ Black volunteers, the Royal Navy refused Honduran volunteers, both of these instances covered up their racism with excuses, such as they were poor workers. The Royal Air Force did employ Black people, however, even after one incident of an individual problem, they labelled Indian volunteers as predatory towards White women, this could be compared to Muslims in this century who are automatically labelled as terrorists by the British media. These examples are given by Schaffer highlight how much the Black workers were under a microscope working within Britain.
The evidence used in this article is useful to an extent. Schaffer uses sources such as government papers but he mainly uses evidence from Mass Observation (MO) reports. The MO reports mainly received mixed reviews from the public when asked questions about how they felt about Black people in Britain over many different topics. Many of the answers given in these reports were either referring to Black people as a pet or comparing them to animals, or even White children. Even the reports that stated they accept Black people into their society would still be disgusted by ‘miscegenation’, in other words, inter-racial intercourse, or marriage. White Britons main concern over this was it was ‘naturally abhorrent to a healthy, moral citizen’. It could be argued that this proved British society was still inherently racist. Although the MO reports are a compelling insight into citizens’ views, this was not completely effective as it was mainly middle-class, left-wing that were partaking in this, therefore, it was not a complete representation of how the public felt as a whole.
This fits into this week’s sessions as it examines Black volunteers during the second world war and the significance of their presence.
This article was convincing as it used many primary examples to convey what was happening to Black people in Britain, specifically workers, during the second world war. I thought the article was structured well and managed to back up its points. The sources he used were very helpful as they successfully showed the views White Britons had, although it was not everyone’s voice. Overall, the outcome was ambience to the Black workers, however, it can be concluded that they were not fully welcomed by Britain, as Britain as a whole was still innately racist.
Dear Morag, This is a thorough evaluation of Schaffer’s article. You consider how wartime views on black people among white Britons may have been more favourable in light of national socialist policies and atrocities in Germany in the name of white ‘racial’ superiority. As you point out this did not seem to make much impact on the white general public’s view of black people in the war years, in particular regarding relationships between black and white people. You also point out that the M.O. diary reports Schaffer used as his evidence base are not necessarily representative of general white public opinion. You could mention that this view had been present in British writing and among sections of the public since the slave era. Your post is well written and nicely structured. You also briefly mention how this article fits in with this week’s topic.