"Bending it like Beckham" in the Global Popular: Stylish Hybridity, Performativity, and the Politics of Representation (original) (raw)
During the summer of 2001, the cities of Oldham, Bradford, and Burnley in northwest England experienced Britain's worst racially charged uprisings in the past 20 years. 1 This time, however, the aggrieved communities were Asian, not Black, and shattered the myth that a prevailing multiculturalism had displaced Britain's historical racial tensions. The most violent incident occurred when a peaceful anti-Nazi League protest meeting held in Bradford's Centenary Square was interrupted by far-right National Front supporters . Allegedly, National Front supporters, many of whom had gathered at a local pub, incited the uprising by confronting and then shouting racial slurs at the 500 (mainly Asian) protesters-the youth's response was "instant and violent" . Bradford was set alight as Asians, Whites, and police engaged in contentious struggles, many turning violent and out of control. According to published reports, nearly 1,000 police officers were deployed to "restore order"-an irony not lost on local residents. Although a multicultural city, the relationship between police and Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh communities has grown increasingly worse over the past few years, mainly because of the perception that the (primarily White) police force is out of touch with the needs and concerns of Bradford's some 100,000 minority residents (one fifth of Bradford's total population). In the months following the uprisings, British newspaper columns, editorials, and investigative reports endeavored to "get to the heart of the matter"-to try and understand the plight of Britain's British Asian population. 2 Most narrative accounts detailed the uprisings in one of three ways. The most prevailing commentary was presented in terms of social binaries (e.g., Asian/White, Muslim/Hindu, and/or upper-class/working-class). Significantly, disillusionment and class differences among minority groups became a focal point for blame as attention was directed away from both the constabulary and New Labour's policies on race and ethnicity. Relatedly, the so-called reality of self-segregational minority communities was blamed for