Essai

The entitled nation

How people make themselves white in contemporary England

Steve Garner

The way ‘race’ shapes the lives of the ethnic majority (i.e. white Europeans) has not been a major focus of sociological research. Our findings, drawn from extensive interviews are that middle and working-class white Britons share concerns about resource allocation and perceived cultural threats, which express themselves in racialised discourse. However, the concerns are often articulated through classed experiences, and revolve around feelings of entitlement. These feelings link people who are socially and economically under-privileged to those who are much...