The Body, Authenticity and Racism

The modern world may believe that authenticity empowers us to be our true selves. However, is this really true for all people? Would authenticity be accepted by others if it does not fit within the conceptions of those who embody "nationally authorised" attributes?

Drawing upon an in-depth study of young children in Dublin’s North inner city, The Body, Authenticity and Racism offers detailed insight into how racism is created and perpetuated within 7–9-year-old boys’ interactions with one another. Indeed, through unique empirical data, this enlightening title demonstrates the importance of discussing the body when examining racism – not only in how the body is judged and racialised by other people, but how it is an apparent medium through which racism operates and disappears into. Garratt also explores how masculinity, belonging to a local area and being accepted as ‘Irish’ is intricately interwoven within gendered and racist assumptions; which comes not only from wider discourses but are actively constructed and reconstructed by children themselves.

Using a Bourdieusian method of analysis and phenomenological philosophy, this book ultimately highlights the role of authenticity in hiding racism amongst children. A timely volume, it will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as postdoctoral researchers interested in fields such as Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Irish Studies and Masculinities Studies.

Lindsey Garratt is a Research Associate in the University of Manchester in the Department of Sociology