Pressure.

Pressure was released in the midst of black exploitation cinema in the mid 1970s. Pressure portrays the situation of Britain's demographic change. It was shown in a 'back-seat' kind of way so we, as an audience could see the kinds of things that were going on in the 1970s-1980s. Pressure can be seen as a coming-of-age film showing the social revelations of young black men and women. Equally it focuses upon how the social, political and cultural climate change throughout the 70s and 80s.


I believe Pressure was made to highlight that at the time Black Britain was seen to be a completely separate indication to the white British culture. Pressure covers many different ways of the cultural boundaries and how they are different from personal views, some more obvious and consequential than others. Pressure shows many different perspectives on culture and the types of responses to Black people and Black Britain especially at the time that the film was made.


Also, Pressure emphasizes the fact that people used to tar black people with the same brush. As Tony, the main character had been brought up in England since he was born so he hangs around and acts in a similar way to his friends who are all white. Yet his brother is totally different as he originally was brought up in Trinidad so he has different characteristics. This is how the directors chose to put across the differences of everyone of the black culture. It highlighted many differences between the two brothers no matter how close they were they would be different because of how they have been brought up. 


There are many forms of racism brought up in the film but in different ways. Pressure has put across and shown well how people acted and treated each other back in the era that it focuses on. For example, when Tony went back to his friends flat, the landlord decided she didn't want tony to be in her household. Yet his friend was defending him saying that he had as much right as anybody else to be there. This particular situation highlighted two different perspectives of black people and made a realistic argument. Some people had a strong hatred against black people and clearly wouldnt like to change their mind, this would usually be the older generation whereas the younger generation, teenagers, would have a mutual respect for black people as much as anybody else because they had grown up with them and didnt see any problem.


Another situation that arose was that when the Black people decided to have a meeting about certain problems that arose and just to have a general party, the police turned up and began to arrest people without any particular reasoning. This proved that people especially policemen wanted any excuse to get black people into trouble. This portrayed the brutality of the situation within the era.


I believe that Pressure can be seen as different from mainstream representations of Black Britons because it portrays so many perspectives of black britain and captures a realistic view of how  the lifestyles of britons in the 1970s-80s was.

Windrush - Part 11

- Michael X was the most recognised and most controversial black figure in British Politics


- He wanted people to believe he wanted to speak only the truth towards matters that he believed in


- The media portrayed Michael X to be a leader of the ‘Black Power’ but he wasn’t 

Windrush - Part 10

- Visitors to Britain had began permanent roots

- These people were good at taking risks and thinking in the future always thinking of how their children would get a better living

- Martin Luther King talking about equality made a big difference to a lot of people

- 1963 - Black Political Action. Discrimination, things were breaking out in America 

- The Boycot took four months to achieve victory

- Malcom X of West Indian background himself visited Britian before he died

Windrush - Part 9

- Sex played a great part in the stamina as to why women were choosing more black men


- A white model began to see two West Indian men at the same time which began an uproar in the media


- West Indians had a tradition of going to church and wearing their best clothes on a sunday. However, the white people didn't want blakc people in their churches as they were afraid of losing their community

Windrush - Part 8

- A lot of white people were shocked and it was a multi racial funeral - Turning point where people agreed the violence should stop


- General election 1959 - 'Down with Mosley'


- Mosley only gained 2000 votes and retired from politics


- Being able to speak your mind - Behaviour was different


- New social scene 'Blues Party'


- A new music genre came about 'Ska'


- 'My boy lollipop' was a core song from the West Indian market to the West end


- A different and exciting culture


- 60s began to swing but to Caribbean flavour


- 'Jamaicanisation' of white culture


- Caribbean music stapled the thriving night scene

Windrush - Part 7

- Following six weeks after the riots - Black peoples homes were targeted night after night


- Youngsters were running around with petrol can setting fire to black peoples homes


- Mosley's anti immigrant movement campaigned in Notting Hill since 1956 and he was known as Britain's facist leader


- Mosley supported Hitler


- Everyone had to support Mosley otherwise they would be turned against


- 1958 - Notting Hill was a dangerous place for West Indians to be The white people would walk around with all sorts of weapons 'They had chains' knives etc


- The advise given to Black people from the police would be to go back to where they came from 


- 1st September Balck people fought back with petrol bombs and thier own weapons


- This sent shockwaves over Britain


- 9 months after the riots Notting Hill hit the news as a West Indian carpenter was stabbed to death by three teddy boys this was Britains first acknoledged race killing. 


- No-one was ever arrested for that killing which made Black people aware of their vunerability and lack of protection they had from the Police

Windrush -Part 6

- Growing numbers of black people becoming home owners, bringing over methods from the Caribbean


- Resentment against West Indians was reaching boiling point - Racial hostility soon accompanied by violence


- 'Teddy Boys' fought black people on the street they also beat up women who fell in love with black men


- 'Age of tremendous cruelty to Black people'


- Black women out early in the morning 'doing the dirty jobs' cleaning in the hospitals


- Nottingham summer of 1958 West Indians decided they wanted to fight back at the violence towards them


- After two weeks the violence subsided but violence then broke out in Notting Hill, London but this was the white people


- Nottingham Hill riots shook Britain


- 'Turning their own people against them' as a white woman started to fight against other white people offering help

Windrush - Part 5

- Romance across the colour line. A lot of the blakc men that were coming over from the Caribbean were single - causing hostility from the white men. 'No decent girl would go out with a black man'


- Lloyd and Margaret were forced to move away as her family disowned her for seeing a black man.


- Huge conflict over housing


- BBC made a programme following a black man trying to find acommodation and showed how black people would be turned away and the reasons they were given.

Windrush - Part 4

- England was a different country to the one that Caribbean's may have read about 'colonial dream


- Much more prosperous and better looking


- 'Diamond Pavement' was infact broken glass glittering in the light


- Surprised at peoples ignorance 'Nobody spoke to you' which the West Indians found strange as they were so used to talking to anyone.


- Black people were outgoing and wanted to integrate 


- Resentment


- Slogan appeared 'Keep Britain White'


- 'Don't want the darkies working here'


- Don't trust 'the darkies' showing they were treated like they weren't real people


- As the numbers of Black people grew so did the hostility


- 'Taking my job, driving my bus' White people had to realise there was a black population that was going to stay.


- People didn't question during the war as the Black people were dressed in uniform, there for a purpose but as soon as the war was over, white people wanted the black people to move back to the Caribbean


- Growing sense of isolation ('Intruder,foreigner')


-Black people missed the freedom and companionship from back home - felt lost.

Windrush - Part 3

- June 21st 1948 - Essex


-Lord Kitchener made a song upon arrival back in Britain 'London is the place for me''This lovely city' showing he had a respect for Britain as a place


- Excitement was tinged with uncertainty, fear of what was going to happen to them. No home or job security.


- Upon arrival finding white engine drivers or porters (luggage carriers)was new as caribbean's had never experienced white people in these kinds of jobs.


- Brixton, the nearest Labour exchange and none of the new arrivals found it hard to find work after suffering half a million casualties in the war. Britain was desperate for labour.


- Apparently there were young West Indians looking totally bewildered everywhere


- People would be insulting towards the West Indians - Rubbing black people's skin to see if it would come off.


- A second wave of immigration.

Windrush - Part 2

- Most of the Caribbean men has died fighting in the war 'We fought as men'


- West indians became well known as musicians and singers.


- Although the war had ended, people's reactions of the West indians had changed abruptly.


-'Isn't it about time they went back to their own country' as if british people were putting up with them living in Britain.


- A boat trip going off- route, one way ticket to Britain only costing £28 and 10 shillings - West Indians searching for a better life in Britain.


- Economic concerns were harsh in the Caribbean, a hurricane had made a wasteland of the sugar fields which the Caribbean were well known for.


-30,000 men were thrown back into the Caribbean with no plan so people came back to Britain as the Caribbean didn't give the opportunities people were expecting. After fighting in Britain for the war, the Caribbean seemed so small.


- 24th May 1948 Windrush set sail from a harbour in Kingston, Jamaica.


- 'Voyage into uncertainty'

Windrush - Part 1

- Moving on in Britain, 'Trevor Mcdonald isn't seen as a Black news reporter anymore but as ' the news reporter' which shows how we've moved on'.


- 1948 - Britain was almost exclusively white, but Britain was about to experience the biggest wave of non- white immigration in its history.


- Rooms being put up for rent 'No niggas need apply' - black people were made to feel like they weren't welcome.


- Black people said they'd been brought up to respect their royal family so they wouldn't dare to speak a word against them. 'The flag was our flag' Black people weren't ready to be pushed aside.


- During the war the Caribbean helped to pay for the planes etc. But the Caribbean  made more of an impact with their man power rathe than money efforts. Lots of men from the caribbean were eager to help out.


- The clip shows how the West Indians had a great impact helping in the war.

Research of Black Britain.

In 1958 West indians had been invited to England to help rebuild the country. Given a frosty welcome by locals they were forced to live in the bombed out and rundown inner city areas in over-crowded conditions and suffered constant racist discrimination. Groups of young white men, commonly known as 'Teddy boys' would randomly attack black people because of their colour In August 1958 the black community fought back under the leadership of Baron Baker. This was the first incident of black people fighting back literally and symbolically which lead to a significant event - The Notting Hill Riots.


It was made sure by the white people that the Black community was not welcome. A black person who witnessed the riots said it was made to feel like 'a home away from home' this shows that white people felt strongly about this. White people felt like the Black community was invading their space as it was more popular that black people would be living in the same area and getting jobs which clearly enraged the white people and gave an incentive leading to the riots. This dilemma was put across in the film 'Flame in the Streets' as in the film there are quite a few scenes where the employees of a company have a meeting and on the agenda is deciding whether a black man should be put in charge. He is obviously as capable as anyone else to work in that position but because of the colour of his skin, it has to be debated and obviously is brought across as an issue because many people have different views on the situation. I think in those days white men felt they were more superior then black men so for a black man to be in charge irritated them. 




Other problems arose due to these race issues. It was hard for a black person to find somewhere to live in cities as they were over-crowded and everyone had a different view on black people so if the homeowner was a white person there may of been a hiccup with trying to stay there. 'Sapphire' a film made in 1959 by Basil Dearden about the social landscape of that era and a murder case of a woman who looked white but was of a black background and it follows the investigation the police go through to find the murderer of the case. It is very interesting to see the different views that people had of black people around that time. It is evident in this film of people of the black community finding it hard getting a place to stay as the police ask a lady if the murdered woman 'Sapphire' had ever stayed in her house that she rents out, the woman said no and that she would never let a black person stay with her. 




Both 'Sapphire' and 'Flame in the Streets' were very interesting to watch as they opened my eyes as to how hard it was as a black person in those days. Especially as Sapphire looked like a white person, as her boyfriend's family didn't know she was of a black ethnic background they treated her like any other person but she was murdered shortly after they found out she was actually black. I think it portrays how people were treated and how people reacted to black people. It shows a wide variety of peoples perspective on the matter. Some people didn't care and looked past the colour of the skin and cared for the persons feelings like any other.


In 1968, over 12,000 Kenyan-asian refugees arrived in the UK fleeing vicious persecution from the Black african majority after Kenya had become an independent country. This resulted in Kenyan- african  living in parts of Britain as the British government had told the newly arrived people that as commonwealth citizens they were always legally entitled to live in Britain.


The National Labour Party, one of the British political groups had a big impact on the social landscape at the time. The National Labour Party was part of the BNP causing an uproar over the matter. This lead to campaigns held in Trafalgar Square leading to thousands of people hearing racist speeches held about how to keep Britain white. This included slogans like ' Stop the coloured invasion' 

Britain 1948-1962

1948The Commonwealth Heads of Government decided in 1948 to embark on a major change in the law of nationality throughout the Commonwealth, following Canada's decision to enact its own citizenship in 1946. Until then all Commonwealth countries, with the exception of the Irish Free State had a single nationality status: British subject status. It was decided at that conference that the United Kingdom and the self-governing dominions would each adopt separate national citizenships, but retain the common status of British subject.Thus the British Nationality Law provided for a new status of Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies, consisting of all those British subjects who had a close relationship (either through birth or descent) with the United Kingdom and its remaining colonies. Each other Commonwealth country did likewise, and also established its own citizenship 

The Act also provided that British subjects could be known by the alternative title Commonwealth citizen.

1950 Clement Attlee wins the general election, giving Labour a second term in government after their election triumph in 1945. However, he retains power with a majority of just five seats, a stark contrast to the 146-seat majority that he gained when he came to power five years ago. Among the lost Labour seats is Bexley in Kent, which 33-year-old Conservative Party candidate Edward Heath seizes from Ashley Bramall. This affected the general society that people lived in as they were under new power.

1958 Riots in Notting Hill between black people and white peopleThe riot is thought to have started on Friday 29 August when a gang of white youths attacked a Swedish woman, Majbritt Morrison. The youths had seen her the previous night arguing with her Jamaican husband at Latimer Road Tube Station. They had apparently shouted racial insults at him. Seeing her the next night, the same youths threw bottles, stones and wood at her and struck her in the back with an iron bar, until the police intervened and she was taken home. She later wrote an autobiographical book, Jungle West 11, which included details of her experience.

Later that night a mob of 300 to 400 white people, many of them "Teddy Boys" (young men who liked to differentiate themselves from teenagers), were seen attacking the houses of West Indian residents.

The disturbances, rioting and attacks continued every night until they slowly fizzled out by 5 September.

The Police arrested over 140 people during the two weeks of disturbances, mostly white youths but also many black people were found to be carrying weapons. A report stated that of the 108 people charged with crimes such as grievous bodily harm, riot and possessing offensive weapons, 72 were white and 36 were black.