Multiculturalism and the multicultural representation
of London in Zadie Smith’s ′White Teeth′

von: Thorsten Brato

9. Fachsemester

Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Multiculturalism in Britain and its capital  3

2.1 Multiculturalism in Britain 3
2.2 Multiculturalism in London  6

3. Multiculturalism and multicultural London in White Teeth 6

3.1 Willesden Green, NW2  6
3.2 The characters  8

3.2.1 The Joneses  9
3.2.2 Samad and Alsana Iqbal 10
3.2.3 Magid and Millat Iqbal  11
3.2.4 The Chalfens  14

4. The downsides of a multicultural society 15

4.1 The quest for identity – The problems of a second-generation immigrant 15
4.2 Racism and Nationalism  16

5. Conclusion 18

6. References  19

1. Introduction

Which side do they cheer for? It’s an interesting test. Are you still looking back to where you came from or where you are? Well, you can’t have two homes. Where you have a clash of history, a clash of religion, a clash of race, then it’s all too easy for there to be an actual clash of violence1 Taken from a speech that Norman Tebbit, former Chairman of the British Conservative Party, gave on the subject of immigration in April 1990 this excerpt fits well to what I am going to discuss in this paper on Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth. Zadie Smith was born in the north-west London borough of Brent in 1975. Being the daughter of a black Jamaican mother and a white English father, she grew up in Willesden – where her novel is mostly set – and continues to live in this area2, which will be described in more detail in chapter 3.1 below. White Teeth is her first novel and has been widely praised for its presentation of multicultural London by readers and critics alike. In this paper I will focus mainly on two aspects. Firstly, I will try to show how the setting and the protagonists contribute to White Teeth as a multicultural novel. In the second part I will discuss two important themes of the book, the problems of the second-generation immigrants and the way in which Smith handles racism and nationalism.

2. Multiculturalism in Britain and its capital

White Teeth has been praised for its portrayal of multicultural London. In this chapter I will try to define the term ‘multiculturalism’ and make clear why London , as we know it today, can be said to be a multicultural city.

2.1 Multiculturalism in Britain

Multiculturalism is a term most of us these days are familiar with. For the discussion of White Teeth under a multicultural heading, however, it is important that we define the term more precisely.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines multiculturalism as [t]he characteristics of a multicultural society; (also) the policy or process whereby the distinctive identities of the cultural groups within such a society are maintained or supported3. This is a not only a rather general, but also a rather positive definition of the term, especially compared to Rushdie’s definition below. In a UNESCO paper4 from 1995 we find a more precise and detailed explanation of the term. Here, multiculturalism is said to be a relatively new term, being first used in 1965. It can be split up in three further sub-divisions: the demographic-descriptive, the ideological-normative and programmatic-political. The usage of the first “refers to the existence of linguistically, culturally and ethnically diverse segments in the population of a society or state.”5 This distinctiveness has social significance. The ideological-normative use of the ‘multiculturalism’ puts the focus on “governmental responses to ethnic diversity”6. Ideally, governments should make sure that members of all ethnic and cultural groups have equal access to society and so make sure that “multiculturalism is an enrichment for the society as a whole.”7 The third usage of the term is about “the specific policies developed to respond to, and manage ethnic diversity.”8 Here the text refers to Australia and Canada, who both have started programmes making sure that all ethnic groups have equal chances in society. Quadflieg puts the term in the context of Britain as a multicultural society9. In the early 1990s there were about three million people in Britain who could be described to be members of ethnic communities, about five per cent of the population. The four major groups are from India, Pakistan, the West Indies and Guyana. Most immigrated during the late 1950s and 1960s when the British industry was in need of additional (and cheap) workforce. Despite the rather neutral term immigrants it soon had the connotation of ‘otherness’, not only in the sense that they came from a geographically different area but much more so as in “ ‘they’ [are] different from ‘us’.”10

2. Multiculturalism in Britain and its capital 5

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s various race relations acts were passed aiming at both the control of the immigration flow and putting an end to racial discrimination. This led to the desired effect of bringing immigration almost to a standstill, however, the number of non-white Britons did not decline due to the fact that about half of them were children and grandchildren of first-generation immigrants born in Britain. One of the key terms during the 1970s was integration, describing a sort of middle course between segregation on the one hand and assimilation on the other. From a liberal viewpoint this concept implied a certain openness towards the cultural differences, “however, doing away with the notion or utopia of the ‘one’ (national) culture which existed beyond all differences of class, gender or race.”11 It was only in the 1980s that views changed drastically, so that multiracialism and multiculturalism no longer meant that cultural diversity and national unity were mutually exclusive.

[...]

1 quoted after: Lanchester, 2001, p. 29.

2 Squires , 2002, p. 7.

3 Oxford English Dictionary

4 UNESCO

5 UNESCO

6 UNESCO

7 UNESCO

8 UNESCO

9 cf. Quadflieg, 1994, p. 150ff.

10 Quadflieg, 1994, p. 152

11 Quadflieg, 1994, p. 154