Colonized by Humanity : Caribbean London and the Politics of Integration at the End of Empire

'Colonization through a process of affection', wrote the London-based Barbadian novelist George Lamming in 1960, was 'the worst form of colonization'. Lamming's London was marked by the violent currents of racism―some seen, many disavowed. But the operations of race, the putting-in-place of its hierarchies, the destructions of the self that its logics entailed, exceeded only expressions of violence and hatred. It was in 'affection', too, that colonialism's racial visions operated. It was not only among the illiberals, but among the liberals, that colonization continued its hold on metropolitan culture. This was colonization, as Lamming would also put it, by humanity. Colonized by Humanity is a study of racial liberalism at the end of empire. It uncovers the projects to cultivate racial integration developed in the two decades between the arrival of the Empire Windrush and the passage of the first Race Relations Act. These were the years that integrationism took hold as a social phenomenon, its reflexes lodged deep in an English culture that took the idea of 'tolerance' as its watchword. It was a culture that re-inscribed race even as it aimed at overcoming its discriminations. Caribbean London is at the heart of this story. It was in the capital that integration projects multiplied fastest, and it was the multicultural capital that provided integrationism's imaginative geographies. Viewing integrationism through the eyes of Caribbean Londoners, Colonized by Humanity allows us to see it as they did, with its colonial and racial dynamics up close. Cover Colonized by Humanity: Caribbean London and the Politics of Integration at the End of Empire Copyright Dedication Epigraph Acknowledgements Contents List of acronyms and initialisms Introduction From racism to race The local politics of race Integration as a project Chapter plan 1: Precarious lives Coming and leaving Streets that went black Dispatches from the frontline Conclusion 2: The colour bar Colour bars Shutdowns Bulldozers for Stepney Conclusion 3: Bad citizens The hooligan age The civilizing mission Meeting the Teds halfway: Integrating a youth culture From the colour-baitersto the culture vultures Conclusion: Rough racism 4: Good citizens Unobtrusive persons Civics Good neighbours Clubbability The beat of the bongo Conclusion: Good citizenship’s limits 5: Friends Spare-timesocial workers Home hospitality The Victoria League The East and West Friendship Council The International Friendship League Racial Unity In the friendly home Conclusion 6: Uplifters The generation of 1938 An excess of organization Teamwork Respectability without guarantees Conclusion 7: Subalterns Bringing the peasants into politics The subaltern challenge Witch doctors Garrison men Hyde Parkers Conclusion 8: Erotics Crowds City after dark Lovers Conclusion Bibliography Archival collections Newspapers, magazines, and journals Television, film, and music Printed primary sources Secondary sources Index ## Abstract Colonized by Humanity is a study of racial liberalism in London at the end of empire. It explores the projects to cultivate racial integration developed in the two decades between the arrival of the Empire Windrush and the passage of the first Race Relations Act. These were the years that integrationism took hold as a social phenomenon, its reflexes lodged deep in an English culture that took the idea of ‘tolerance’ as its watchword. It was, as this book describes it, an ambivalent culture, which sought to do away with the discriminations of race but operated through a racial vision: the white English were to lead the way in integration, reforming away the problems of racial otherness that marked their darker-skinned neighbours. Viewing integrationism through the eyes of Caribbean Londoners, Colonized by Humanity allows us to see it, as they did, with its colonial and racial dynamics up close.