This text explores the history and forms of working class racism in Britain since the beginning of the Industrial revolution up to the present. It examines the way the English working class was positioned as a both a ‘backbone of the nation’ and a ‘race apart’ in the dominant discourse and how this shaped the internal development of its culture and politics, especially within the labour movement.
It was written for a collection edited by Ruth Frankenberg Dislocating Whiteness published in 2002 and can be viewed here: White Labour