Black Male Representations in Non-Urban Settings in The UK

Abstract

Inspired by Frantz Fanon’s assertion ‘the Black man has no ontological resistance in the eyes of the White man’ (Fanon,1982:110) this research project analyses the ways in which representation has affected the performativity of Black masculinity in non-urban settings in the UK. Framed by a Practice as Research methodology, this project utilises auto-biographic as well as auto-ethnographic methods aiming to construct alternative Black masculinity narratives which can counter hegemonic approaches in both academic and digital platforms. This work examines my own lived experience in a city with a low ethnic diversity in order to explore the ways in which Black masculinity can be thought/lived/acted upon differently to other urban and more ethnically diverse locations. Finally, this work also discusses the role that education has had in the creation of “Blackness,” from colonialism to the representations that are currently present in popular culture, and question why those representations are not always interrogated/embraced in places of low ethnic diversity. Working within a Practice as Research framework this submission will include both a written thesis as well as digital performance.