Minority group members' understandings of inter-group contact encounters

1. Minority group members' understandings of inter-group contact encounters Nick Hopkins Psychology University of Dundee

2. Inter-group contact • Social Psychology: • Changing stereotypes • Some evidence of success • Issues • The problem of generalisation (individuals to be seen as group representatives) • Focus on majority (divergent experiences for minorities?) • Current interest • Minority group members’ experience of being viewed as group representative • Majority/minority power relations: being viewed as a group representative on terms that are not one’s own

3. Islamophobia • Runnymede Trust (1997): Contact • Muslim activists’ experiences of being seen as exemplar/representative of their group • Interviews (28) 1. understandings of issues 2. pleasures 3. burdens

4. Issues 1. On tolerance and recognition ‘But of course, tolerance is not enough. That’s the point. I don’t think Muslims or any ethnic minority group want tolerance. Tolerance is something, you know you tolerate a cold or a flu, or an itch, you know. You don’t tolerate people. What we want is respect and equal treatment, and recognition.’

5. Issues 2. On belonging Constantly being told: ‘You don’t belong and you should be grateful. Well I've put back more taxes than a lot of English people I know so don’t tell me to be grateful. I am very happy to put back into society but I don’t expect to be grateful for it. I don’t expect to be. I have had patients telling me that “I am paying your wages you so and so”. Unfortunately sometimes I lose my rag and I’ll turn around and say “no, actually I’m paying your unemployment benefit”.’

6. Pleasures of being a group representative • Q: ‘So, how do you feel when people quiz you about being an oppressed woman?’ • A: ‘My initial reaction? Fantastic! You’re looking at me shocked! I think it’s fantastic because I get the chance to put things right. I welcome those opportunities because a lot of people go back stunned. They go back, “my God, you can actually speak English!”

7. The burdens 1: humiliation ‘I make a conscious effort to, and this is going to sound silly, but I do make a conscious effort to look people in the eye and smile, you know, because these things they make a big difference. You make those special efforts to say “thank you”, or to make eye contact, or smile, you know, to make those kind of gestures, to make people feel – oh well actually, I’m not who you think.’ [You] constantly act in a way that you wouldn’t act normally, you know, it’s a most bizarre thing. [ ] At times, yes, it’s, most times, it’s humiliating, especially when it’s in a public space, things like that happen, it’s definitely humiliating.’

8. Themes • The same person as reported their pleasure in disconfirming stereotypes: ambivalences • Reports a sense of humiliation • Her actions confirm her own marginality • Hints at power relations and how these position her

9. The burdens 2: the relationship between national and religious identity • Own sense of Britishness rarely acknowledged: ‘it is a case of having to defend yourself constantly, you know, it’s not so much proving yourself, it’s more a case of, well, I have to defend you know, I am a Muslim and actually I am British, and I am loyal to you. As if I have to state it for someone to believe it!’. • Explained when expressed opposition to UK foreign policy would receive replies of form ‘Oh, because you’re a Muslim?’ to which would reply: ‘No, because I just don’t agree with, with, the policies’.

10. Themes • Whatever she said was viewed in terms of Muslim identity. • Experienced as unpleasant/oppressive because limited her ability to speak - and be heard to speak - in terms of other identities – e.g., as British citizen.

11. The burdens 3: The limited recognition of Muslim identity ‘I would like to be called for a discussion on the state of our education in our country, the health service, you know, equality of pay for men and women. You hardly hear a Muslim voice. It’s as if Muslims don’t have a view or don’t have an opinion on mainstream life of our country. The only time they have a view is when they have to come and say sorry for somebody else’s bombs, somebody else’s, or to come and face the music for something they’re not guilty of. We’re human beings like everybody else and we have kids and they have to go to school, and we have to go to work, and we have to pay the bills, and we are just like everybody else. I think the more that will happen the more people will see us as fellow human beings rather than pigeonholing us as Muslim and all that.

12. Themes • Frustration at being invited to speak as a Muslim on others’ terms • May allow opportunities to disconfirm the crudest of Islamophobic stereotypes (e.g., concerning the relationship between Islam and terrorism) • But a form of ‘pigeonholing’ that does not respect/recognise own sense of what community and faith can offer the wider community.

13. The burdens 4: The constraints of identity ‘Everything I do is defined by being a Muslim and I don’t think it should have to be. It should just be because I’m a British person, I’m a British woman, I’m a British daughter. Doctor. Whatever. I’m tired, it’s almost, I’m tired of being a Muslim sometimes. It’s almost for some people its life, a full time profession being a British Muslim or a British Moderate Muslim or non-moderate Muslim, well its not. I want live my life. Is that terrible? That’s how I feel.’

14. Themes • Visibility/prominence of religious identity in others’ eyes engulfs every aspect of life • Requirement to orient to others in terms of Muslim identity means that one’s self is uni-dimensional

15. Observations • Contact advertised as a panacea • Minorities may experience differently • Pleasures of being a representative / ambassador of one’s group • Burdens – bound up with being cast in role of group representative on terms that are not one’s own • Those with power rarely aware of their power