Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in a Changing World by Anoop Nayak

Abstract

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 14 No. 1 (2004) ISSN: 1546-2250 Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in a Changing World Nayak, Anoop (2003). Oxford and New York: Berg; 208 pages. $25.95. ISBN 1859736092. Is there any color in white Anglo culture? One would think, from the extant literature in racial, ethnic, and cultural studies, that all racially white youth have a similar cultural identity, or none at all. Nayak identifies a white gap in cultural discourse and addresses it through a qualitative study of English youth. Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in a Changing World provides a multidisciplinary, academic audience much needed insight into the intersections of local and global processes, and their competing influence on white youth cultures in post-colonial England. This ethnographic project highlights three types of youth culture among the racially white, characterized by their response to the social and economic impacts of globalization on the small town of Tyneside, in the area known to many as the “white Highlands” of England. The book is organized to present three representative white youth cultures, sequentially increasing in scope from local to global attachments. The first group, the Real Geordies, identify with the masculinity of their fathers’ working class status and, despite times of uncertain employment, recreate it for themselves through their consumptive behaviors – namely, drinking beer at the local pub, attending football matches and womanizing. This group takes pride in their local identity, and finds justification through a historically defined strong work ethic. As illustrated by their title, they consider themselves to be the most authentic, legitimate, or “real” white cultural group in Tyneside. The second group, the Charver Kids, is both internally and externally defined by its notoriety as a group of street-wise survivors, adapting to shifting economic conditions by “working the 258 system,” primarily through illegal activities. This urban group takes on a “not-quite-white” status among school peers and in the larger community, and may be distinguished by their public housing addresses, their dress, music, dialect, and physical hygiene. The Real Geordies define themselves, in part, by their contrast with this undesirable, welfare-dependent and criminal Other, despite a similar, precarious economic situation in post-industrial England. The third group, the Wiggers (white Negroes), or Wannabes embrace certain material elements of African American culture, including Rap, R&B, Hip Hop or Reggae music, braids or dreadlocks, athletic wear, and playing basketball. In many cases, the Black identities of these racially white youth do not extend to include interaction with people of color. However, some embrace the identity more completely, and define their own identity in part by comparison with the less authentic and the less socially conscious of the group. While the three exemplary cultural “groups” appear rigid at times throughout the text, the author makes an important point in Chapter Seven regarding the fluidity of youth cultures. Cultural fluidity allows the nature of group membership and identity to vary by context and over time. This is partially illustrated by the influence of music on some young peoples’ “temporary” Charver identity. However, the overall depictions of Charver Kids in particular seem to reflect more static identities than the Real Geordies or Wiggers in the sense that the members are likely to maintain their group status even as young parents and pass it on to subsequent generations. The presentation of these white youth cultures corresponds to the author’s identification of three cultural responses to globalization – localist, survivalist, and globalist. Surely this represents only three of many potential responses, and not a comprehensive set of possibilities. However, these responses provide sufficient evidence to contradict the image of a “shrinking world” conveyed by the concept of globalization, and illustrate the continuing importance of local territory in the development of cultural identity. 259 In Chapter Seven, Nayak introduces the problematic “binary” nature of racial discourse. Post-colonial England struggles with ethnic tension, in part due to an enormous influx of Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants over the past few decades, and also due to a recent economic downturn which has limited the state “dole” support for the unemployed. The state responded to a problem of racist verbal and physical attacks in the schools...