Sideways Sociology: UK Anti-Racism

Over Sideways Sociology: UK Anti-Racism

Three activists. Their ideas, their work, their lasting importance.In this special short series of audio essays from the Sociological Review Foundation, three expert guests introduce us to key figures in the story of UK anti-racism, illuminating how they show us what that term really means – and what it takes – but also how their work and ideas speak to sociology, too, and deserve to be better known.Starting the series, John Narayan – Chair of the Council of the Institute of Race Relations – explains Ambalavaner Sivanandan’s take on global technology, exploitation and anti-racist resistance. In the second episode, A.S. Francis celebrates Gerlin Bean as the “mother of the Black women’s movement” in the UK, whose life of committed activism exemplified theory in action – and whose story leads us to ask how we represent individual activists who so passionately valued the collective. And in the third episode, Hannah Ishmael – former archivist at Black Cultural Archives – describes the importance of the determined archivist and educational activist Len Garrison, whose work raises crucial questions about history and identity, self-esteem and self-recognition.

Gerlin Bean and Black British Feminist Socialism – by A.S. Francis

What did Black radical politics look like in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s? What was its relation to the Black women’s movement, which urgently highlighted the multiple oppressions faced by Black women? How, in studying such movements, can we celebrate brilliant activists, without erasing the importance of whole movements and collectives? Here, A.S. Francis – author of Gerlin Bean: Mother of the Movement – introduces us to Gerlin Bean, the Jamaican-born activist who came to the UK as a student nurse and became central to Black British Feminist Socialism. They describe Bean, who passed away in early 2025, as a radical listener and mediator who applied to her entire way of living an acute awareness of how race and gender intersect to create particular types of disadvantage – and spoke to those she helped, on the ground, with a skillset that sociologists and others could learn a lot from. Through Bean’s determined activism and networking, argues A. S. Francis, we see concepts like intersectionality come alive and be used to inform action. And in studying her life, we also confront urgent questions about why some figures from history are canonised, while others risk obscurity. Find out more at thesociologicalreview.org [https://thesociologicalreview.org/] Episode Readings * Gerlin Bean: Mother of the Movement [https://lwbooks.co.uk/product/gerlin-bean] – by A. S. Francis (2023) * The History Matters [https://www.historymatters.online/journal] journal * UK Parliament information on The Race Relations Act of 1965 [https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections1/race-relations-act-1965/race-relations-act-1965/] * The Young Historians [https://www.younghistoriansproject.org/projects-all] and their film “We Are Our Own Liberators” [https://www.younghistoriansproject.org/black-liberation-front/film-we-are-our-own-lib] * The Black Liberation Front [https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/listings/region/online-event/the-black-liberation-front-qa/] in the UK, the Black Unity and Freedom Party [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Unity_and_Freedom_Party] and the Black Panther Party [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Panther-Party] * Kimberlé Crenshaw on Intersectionality, More than Two Decades Later [https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality-more-two-decades-later] (Law School, Columbia University, 2017) * Introductory notes on the concept of Triple Oppression Analysis [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_oppression] * In the Shadow of Enoch Powell: Race, Locality and Resistance [https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526155184] – by Shirin Hirsch (2020) * The archival records for “Black Women Speak Out” [https://catalogue.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/records/JLR/3/1/9/2] (1971) at the George Padmore Institute * Towards Black Unity [https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/content/towards-black-unity-on-the-rights-of-black-people-in-britain/] – Black Panther Newsletter about the National Conference on the Rights of Black People in Britain (1971) * The Brixton Black Women’s Group [https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/authors/group-brixton-black-womens] and the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_of_Women_of_African_and_Asian_Descent] (OWAAD) Episode Credits * Author: A.S. Francis * Producer: Alice Bloch * Sound: Emma Houlton * Music: Joe Gardiner * Artwork: Kieran Cairns-Lowe

30 mei 2025 - 24 min