I'm not sure whether this should be here, or maybe in the Education forum? Sorry if it has to be moved

I was after some of your considered inputs!

Ever since the whole Celebrity Big Brother/racism row, I've really fancied looking into the whole issue of racism in working class culture.

Now I can do this module next year which is all about your own research project. But I'm just not sure if I'd be able to do this, and if not I'll stick with the 'theoretical ideas' module!

What I say is that the whole row highlighted that the (understandable) indignation about Jade Goody et al's behaviour towards Shilpa is a middle class thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not being sneery, I was as sickened as everybody else. But I think I was guilty of applying my middle class values to working class people.

What I would want to show is (maybe..) that racist language is inherant in working class culture, but that this often does not correspond to a racist outlook. People use words like "paki", it doesn't mean they vote for their local, friendly BNP candidate.

But how on earth would I go about this research?!! I mean, fine, I could do some covert observation - this would prove that racist language is used. But what methods could I use to investigate my hypothesis - that such language often doesn't really indicate that the person using it is a racist?

I thought the pub would be a good place for some observation, but nobody in a pub would ever agree to talk to a researcher about racism?! And even if anybody did, I don't think I'd get any valid data. What about going into a school? Is that ethical? Wouldn't I still have the same problem with validity? And what sort of things would be useful to ask to investigate this hypothesis?

Maybe I should just stick to the theory module!

I think this is a good idea but will be very hard to pull off. For one thing, how will you measure whether someone is racist or not?

I bet you'd find it easier to get people to talk to you than you'd think it would be. Most people won't admit to being racist, except the most hardcore racists. So I think the only way you'd be able to do this is maybe not take an objective approach as to whether the person is actually racist or not, but maybe whether they perceive themselves as being racist & whether there is a correlation between that and their use of racist terms.

I hope you figure something out though, because if you're anything like me, I won't put much effort into something that doesn't truly inspire me. (in terms of coursework.)

I like your thinking here. Because the way I was going at it sort-of assumed there is some kind of definitive Racist Scale that you can check people against. And there obv isn't! But investigating how these people see themselves - rather than how I see them - is a far better approach.

Totally. This is why I'm sounding flappy about it now when the module doesn't start until Sep. Cos I don't wanna sign up to it, find I can't do what I really want to, and end up fucking...I don't know, doing my eighty millionth repeat of Sue Sharpe's Just Like A Girl!!!

Thanks for your thoughts, you are definitely right about changing the approach. It was silly to think I could measure people's language against their attitudes by doing anything other than ASKING about their attitudes!

I'm still worried about access, though. Most people just do something where their sample can be their uni friends. But the obvious problem is that uni students are sooo middle class! HMMMMMMMMMMM