Author Archives: Kenan Malik

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

THE NOBLE SAVAGES OF THE WORKING CLASS

January 26, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on contradictory perceptions of the working class, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the scandal of the global distribution of Covid vaccines.) It was published on 24 January 2021, under the headline “Age-old notions of the noble savage haunt views of working-class life”. There are few things more fractured and muddled than contemporary attitudes towards working-class people. On the one hand, too many people ignore, even deny, the grim realities of […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Politics • Tags: austerity, left behind, magic money tree, meritocracy, morality, noble savages, passing, poor, poverty, resolution foundation, rishi sunak, sam friedman, torsten bell, working class, working poor

SNOW AND ICE (WITH A DASH OF COLOUR)

January 24, 2021 by Kenan Malik

Yes, it snowed in London today, albeit briefly. So, some snow photos (not all from today, but all from south-east London). Snow and ice with a dash of colour (apart from the final black and white at night image). And if you are interested, there are more photos on my photography site, Light Infusion.

Categories: Photos • Tags: photography, snow

FREE SPEECH, BIG TECH AND BROKEN POLITICS

January 19, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the fallout from Donald Trump’s banishment from social media, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on ingrained prejudices about migrants and the poor.) It was published on 17 January 2021, under the headline “Control Facebook and mend broken societies… If only it were that simple”. London is full of “Pops”. From the area around City Hall to parts of the Olympic Park, there are dozens of “privately owned public spaces”. Places that […]

Categories: Free Speech, Politics, Science & Technology • Tags: alexei navalny, big tech, censorship, donald trump, facebook, free speech, parler, poland, social media, twitter

NOT CREATED TO DECORATE A ROOM

January 17, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. His paintings, John Berger wrote, “deserve to hang among the best English paintings of our time”. Yet Theodore Major is barely known. (I only stumbled across his work recently, via Berger). Why? Partly because he was working class, and from unfashionable Wigan. Partly, too, because he detested the art world and refused to sell his paintings “to the people who want them, the rich people”. My paintings, he said “are not created to decorate a room.” He had “no […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: art, lowry, theodore major, wigan, working class artists

LESS ABOUT MONEY THAN ABOUT PRIORITIES

January 12, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the failure to tackle inequality, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 10 January 2020, under the headline “Lives are falling apart. Enough talk about inequality, it’s now time to act”. Inequality. Everyone agrees it’s bad. Everyone agrees that the pandemic and lockdowns have exacerbated inequality. And everyone agrees that something must be done to reduce it. So, what has been done? Nearly a year into the pandemic, and at the start of the third national lockdown […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics

THE RED WALL TRAPS TO AVOID (AND NOT AVOID)

January 5, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate about “Red Wall” seats in England, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on India, Argentina and the potency of mass mobilisation.) It was published on 3 January 2021, under the headline “It’s too easy to lapse into stereotypes when we talk about ‘red wall’ seats”. “What will the ‘Red Wall’ think?” As Boris Johnson pivots from Covid-19 and Brexit towards his “levelling up” agenda, that is likely to be a […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Politics • Tags: boris johnson, conservative party, labour party, lynsey hanley, red wall, social conservatism, social liberalism, tories

SONGS OF DESPAIR AND HOPE

January 1, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. It seems appropriate to see off 2020, and welcome in 2021, with songs of despair and hope. There are, of course, a hundred songs I could have included in either list. To choose just five in each category was an almost impossible task, and the selections are rather arbitrary. To pare it down a bit, I excluded songs primarily of heartbreak and love ache and straightforward protest songs too, though some here (Lauryn Hill’s “Black Rage”, for instance) may […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: bob dylan, bob marley, bruce springsteen, despair, gill scott-heron, hope, jeff buckley, lauryn hill, music, nina simone, rl burnside, sam cooke, tracy chapman

CYNICISM, TRUST AND A BROKEN PUBLIC SPHERE

December 29, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the need to rebuild the public sphere, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on TS Eliot’s “Four Quartets”.) It was published on 20 December 2020, under the headline “We want to trust in each other. But it’d be easier if we weren’t so isolated”. Volunteers from Sikh communities – some from as far away as Coventry – provide food for stranded lorry drivers in Kent. Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, apologises for breaching Covid rules after a […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: call-out culture, community, coronavirus pandemic, covid 19, cynicism, human nature, humankind, lockdown, nicola sturgeon, public sphere, rutger bregman, trust

A YEAR OF PANDAEMONIUM

December 27, 2020 by Kenan Malik

. From Covid to Black Lives Matter, 2020 was a year like few others in recent times. Here’s a rundown of the year through the posts on Pandaemonium. . Covid Covid-19 was, of course, the issue that dominated the year. My first essay on the subject was a reflection on how new diseases seem to expose the existential fragility of human societies and how responses to epidemics are often attempts by the authorities to show that they are in control, […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

INEQUALITY, CLASS AND THE CULTURE WARS

December 22, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on inequality, “conservative values” and the “postmodern left”, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 20 December 2020, under the headline “The Tory ‘class agenda’ is a culture war stunt that will leave inequality untouched”. ‘Woke orthodoxy abolished”; “a landmark speech”; “a counter-revolution”. One couldn’t miss the fawning from certain sections of the media. Whoever is responsible for equalities minister Liz Truss’s spin definitely deserves their Christmas bonus. Truss, who doubles up as the international trade secretary, gave a […]

Categories: Britain, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: conservatism, equality, food banks, inequality, jacob rees-mogg, left, liz truss, marcus rashford, white working class, working class