This session will examine racism in British ‘imperialist’ codes and sports in the context of post/neo-colonialism/ imperialism and globalization.
Professor Johnes paper explores how anti-Englishness in Welsh soccer fan culture is ritualized, normalized and actively celebrated. Although not uncontested and sometimes labelled 'racist', such manifestations are not directly politicized but do draw upon forms of cultural nationalism. Such apparently hostile attitudes towards England are rarely expressed in other parts of Welsh culture and the paper considers their implication for recent cross-disciplinary debates on whether Wales is a postcolonial nation. It argues that anti-Englishness should not be regarded as an example of the oppressed striking back at the oppressor or as evidence that the post-imperial United Kingdom is disintegrating. Instead, anti-Englishness in Welsh football represents an attempt to voice less overt Welsh patriotisms within the context of a crude, humorous and oppositional fan culture.
Professor Odendaal’s paper is an overview of the scholarship on race and sport studies in South Africa, which pays particular attention to the way in which research is being influenced by the theories and political dynamics of post/neo-colonialism and imperialism.
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