ABSTRACT
The theoretical lynch pin is the notion of ‘acculturation’, which refers to the ‘culture-stripping’ or ‘cultural castration’ of Africans during slavery. Opposed to the idea of weak Afro-Caribbean cultures is the equally misleading notion of strong Asian cultures. The chapter looks at the dynamics of policy-oriented race research and situated them within the shifting framework of the social democratic race relations problematic which stretches from Dark Strangers up to Colonial Immigrants in a British City. It examines the conceptual limits and methodology of some influential contemporary theorists and demonstrated the relation of their work to popular common-sense racist ideologies and assumptions about the black people who comprise their object of study. The chapter explores the connections between their work - which comprises a coherent unity - and key areas of state policy and practice. The chapter presents a picture of sociology as newly relevant to the social control of crisis conditions and sketched the distinct way.
