Deceptive diplomacy and racism in post-war Black British immigration: hallmarks of the legacies of slave trade and colonisation

The article emerges from broader Black British migration historiography by answering the question: “Why was Black British immigration in the immediate years following the end of World War Two dominated by immigrants from the West Indies with Africans at the periphery? In answering the question, the article draws its arguments from racial prejudices and stereotypes that evolved during the slaving era in the Caribbean Islands and the nineteenth century colonisation of Africa. Consulting primary and historiography, it will establish how these prejudices and stereotypes allowed the creation of a comparative framework complemented by deceptive diplomacy by the British that inadvertently created an environment in which West Indian and not African immigrants dominated in Britain’s post-war labour recruitment. The article will make key connections between the themes of anti-Black immigrant rhetoric, deceptive diplomacy and the profiling of Blacks in understanding racial prejudices that would inform post-war Black British migration.