British racism forecloses full naturalization even for assimilated nonwhite writers

Evidence

‘The East’ would, of course, continue to haunt Rushdie for many years after the writing of Shame, right up to the present and most probably into the indefinite future. For one thing, self-exile rarely becomes a full naturalization even when class and culture can be fully shared, as even Henry James was to find out. British racism forecloses the option for people of colour in any case, even for a man of Naipaul’s longings and identifications, let alone for Rushdie, with his monumental ambivalences about the culture of his origins as well as his activist and oppositional relationship with the culture of official Britain. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 540

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the material-over-discourse priority in this reader’s research; also speaks to whether ironic identity performance is available only to whites positioned as unmarked. — connects to: Racialized exclusion blocks everyone from defining a more inclusive Britishness — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 378; Naturalizing racial categories reproduces the racism it aims to escape. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 290; Britain deliberately pursued cultural conversion while excluding colonial subjects by race — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 363

Broader Connections

• Racialized exclusion blocks everyone from defining a more inclusive Britishness #exemplifies (0.85) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 378
• Naturalizing racial categories reproduces the racism it aims to escape. #expands (0.80) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 290
• Britain deliberately pursued cultural conversion while excluding colonial subjects by race #qualifies (0.80) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 363