Author Archives: Kenan Malik

SO, WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE SEWELL REPORT?

April 6, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 4 April 2021, under the headline “Yes, we need a more nuanced debate about race. But this flawed report fails to deliver it”. Britain is less racist than it was 40 years ago. Many minority groups in Britain still face racism. Both those claims can be (and are) true. So are these two claims: racism exists in Britain; racism […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: anti-racism, race and class, racial disparities, racism, sewell report, tony sewell

PAINTING SPRINGTIME

April 4, 2021 by Kenan Malik

It’s spring, the sun is out (at least as I am writing this), there is blossom on the trees, and the end of lockdown is visible. And I was thinking of paintings of springtime. So, here is a selection, from Japanese and Western traditions, and more contemporary works. . Taikan Yokoyama, Spring Morning . Vincent van Gogh, Almond Blossom . Phil Greenwood, Blossom . Reiji Hiramatsu, Cherry Blossoms . Georgia O’Keefe, Cottonwood tree in spring . Ton Dubbeldam, Ocean Spring […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: art, david hockney, georgia o'keefe, hokusai, phil greenwood, picasso, reiji hiramatsu, springtime taikan yokoyama, ton dubbeldam, van gogh

TO LIVE IN A PLURAL SOCIETY

March 30, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the meaning of a plural society in the context of the furore surrounding Batley Grammar School, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the lessons of the Shrewsbury 24.) It was published on 28 March 2021, under the headline “To live in a diverse society means to live with debate. Bring it on”. No one has a right not to be offended. All of us have a duty to challenge bigotry. These […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain, Multiculturalism • Tags: batley grammar school, blasphemy, charlie hebdo, depicting muhammad, diversity, education, islam, islamophobia, muhammad, muslims, racism, samuel paty, sayeeda warsi

“CREATIVITY IS NOT FEARING THE UNKNOWN”

March 28, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. Nawal El Saadawi was a doctor, writer, feminist, and activist, usually controversial, often contrarian, always challenging. Her death last week robbed us of one of the most important voices of the past half century. I had the pleasure and honour of being in conversation with her on stage at the first Fuuse World Woman conference in Oslo in 2015. She could not understand my British accent, but we just about managed, and she was in very good form. So, […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties, Women • Tags: nawal el saadawi, women's rights

RACISM, PRIVILEGE AND ANTI-ASIAN HOSTILITY

March 23, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on anti-Asian racism in America, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on flag, queen and country.) It was published on 21 March 2021, under the headline “Myths of Asian privilege fuel a brutal and cartoonish bigotry”. Beyond the horror of the shooting in Atlanta of eight people, six of them Asian women, lies the fraught question “why?”. In all probability, a multitude of factors – racism, misogyny, religious belief, personal inadequacies – coalesced in suspect […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: affirmative action, anti-asian racism, anti-racism, asian privilege, atlanta shootings, harvard, identity politics, model community, privilege, racism, usa, yale, yellow peril

START THE WEEK TALKING IDENTITY

March 20, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. I was a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week last week discussing with Matthew D’Ancona and Minouche Shafik questions about identity politics, race, class and the social contract. Here’s a link to the programme. For more on identity politics, a few of my essays, talks and interviews on the subject: The rise of white identity politics Identity politics – the interview The history and politics of white identity Not all politics is identity politics On cultural appropriation […]

Categories: Kenan Malik, Politics • Tags: andrew marr, bbc, broadcasts, identity politics, matthew d'ancona, minouche sfafik, radio 4, start the week

PROTESTS & POLICING AFTER THE PANDEMIC

March 16, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the government’s new policing bill, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the new government policy of “unlevelling down”.) It was published on 14 March 2021, under the headline “If you thought the right to protest was inalienable, then think again”. The next time you take part in a protest, don’t shout too loudly, don’t get in anybody’s way and don’t cause a commotion. Best to sit quietly in a corner […]

Categories: Britain, Justice & Liberties, Politics • Tags: cressida dick, free speech, police, priti patel, protests, reclaim these streets, right to protest, rights, sarah everard

TRANSLATION AND IDENTITY

March 9, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the debate over the translation of Amanda Gorman’s poetry, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the Home Office’s inflexibility over British citizenship.) It was published on 7 March 2021, under the headline “Lost in translation: the dead end of dividing the world on identity lines”. In 1768, the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder paid a visit to the French city of Nantes. “I am getting to know the French language […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Language, Multiculturalism, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: amanda gorman, identity politics, invisible man, marieke lucas rijneveld, racism, ralph ellison, stay in your lane, translation

THE WAILERS ON THE OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST

March 7, 2021 by Kenan Malik

Bunny Wailer, founding member with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh of the Wailers, and the last surviving member of the original trio, died last week. The importance of the Wailers to the development of reggae was immense. So, in tribute, two tracks from the Old Grey Whistle Test from May 1973, just before the original Wailers broke up. There are too few videos with Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer all together.

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: bob marley, bunny wailer, music, peter tosh, reggae, the wailers

INEQUALITY AND POLITICAL DIVIDES

March 3, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on perceptions of inequality in Britain, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 28 February 2021, under the headline “The left/right divide still exists. But it’s struggling to escape the lure of identity politics”. First, the good news. Britons see inequality as a major problem and divide broadly along traditional political lines in their attitudes towards it. Then, the bad news. Britons are also inclined to see inequalities as driven by individual behaviour as much as […]

Categories: Britain, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: bobby duffy, brexit, british politics, conservative party, covid 19, identity politics, individualism, inequality, labour party, pandemic, racism, reluctant individualism

LOS TRES GRANDES

February 28, 2021 by Kenan Malik

There are many things we’ve missed over the past year. One of the art exhibitions that I would have most liked to have seen was the Los Tres Grandes at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, a show that has just finished. It told of the work of the three great Mexican muralists of the early twentieth century, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, and their influence on American art, including that of Jackson Pollock […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: art, david alfaro siqueiros, detroit industry murals, diego rivera, jose clemente orozco, the epic of american civilization, whitney museum

DEMOCRACY AND THE ROHINGYA

February 24, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on how the failure to defend the Rohingya has undermined the democracy movement in Myanmar, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the controversy over the interview of Zara Muhammad on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.) It was published on 21 February 2021, under the headline “Where were the protesters when the Rohingya were being murdered?” For almost three weeks there have been mass protests on the streets of Myanmar. On 1 February, the […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: aung sang suu kyi, democracy, ethnic cleansing, genocide, myanmar, myanmar coup, rohingya

THE WOKE AND THE UNWOKE

February 16, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the polarisation between “woke” and “anti-woke” arguments, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 14 February 2021, under the headline “Woke warriors on the march? Don’t forget the bigotry of the ‘unwoke’”. Want to rid an Oxford college of a statue of an imperialist? That’s “wokery”. Too many immigrants? Blame the woke. Insufficiently appreciative of the British empire? You’re in the “Woke Orthodoxy”. Want to strangle Andrew Neil’s new radio station even before it airs? That’s the “woke warriors”. Joe […]

Categories: Britain, Justice & Liberties, Politics • Tags: anti-semitism, anti-woke, anti-zionism, brian eno, british empire, cecil rhodes, cynical theories, david baddiel, frankfurt school, free speech, james lindsay, ken loach, nigel biggar, racism, unwoke, white privilege, whiteness, winston churchill, woke, wokeness

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB #79

February 15, 2021 by Kenan Malik

The latest (somewhat random) collection of essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Coronavirus and the withering of the public spherePhilip Alcabes, American Scholar, 19 September 2020 In lieu of a proper public response to coronavirus, the United States was the scene of a heated and unbridled reaction that is, as anyone who pays attention knows, still smoldering. National health officials shifted blame; state governors offered […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

IRRATIONAL MARKETS AND CORPORATE POWER

February 3, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on what the GameStop affair tells us about stock markets and corporate power, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 31 January 2021, under the headline “An uprising against Wall Street? Hardly. GameStop was about the absurdity of the stock market”. For those of us who are as intimate with the inner workings of the stock market as we are with the circuitry of the Large Hadron Collider, the brouhaha over GameStop has been illuminating. While the story may […]

Categories: Economy, International • Tags: corporate censorship, corporate power, discord, gamestop, hate speech, misinformation, reddit, robinhood, shorting, stock buyback, stock market, wall street, wallstreetbets