Author Archives: Kenan Malik

DANNY BAKER, RACISM AND PUNISHMENT

May 13, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate around Danny Baker’s racist tweet, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on why we need poetry.) It was published on 12 May 2019, under the headline ‘We thrive on provocation. But are we too quick to punish those who stray?’. There was something shocking and absurd about Danny Baker’s tweet of a photograph of a posh couple with a costumed monkey in response to the arrival of the royal baby. You […]

Categories: Free Speech, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: bbc, danny baker, punishment, racism, social media

TALKING IDENTITY IN AUSTRALIA

May 10, 2019 by Kenan Malik

These are audios of two events from my recent trip to Australia in which I discuss the politics of identity. The first is a talk I gave at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. The second is a discussion on Melbourne’s community radio RRR. . What’s wrong with identity politics? A talk at the Wheeler Centre, Melbourne . Talking identity on RRR

Categories: Justice & Liberties, Kenan Malik, Politics • Tags: australia, herder, identity politics, immigration, immigration controls, left, racism, universalism, white identity, working class

IN DEFENCE OF UNIVERSALISM

May 3, 2019 by Kenan Malik

. . This is an interview with Alex Hochuli, George Hoare and Ben Fogle for the podcast Aufhebunga Bunga, mainly on questions of immigration, identity, class and the left (though it opens with a discussion of the aftermath of the Notre Dame fire). . The image is Untitled by Hans Hartung.

Categories: Class, Kenan Malik, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: culture, europe, identity politics, immigration, left, notre dame, populism, white identity, white working class, working class

IMMIGRATION, INTEGRATION AND SOCIAL FRACTURE

April 29, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on whether the failure to integrate is responsible for social fracturing in European societies, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the Roger Scruton debate.) It was published on 28 April 2019, under the headline ‘Talk of integration is a sideshow in a society where many feel unheard’. Uncontrolled migrant flows have made many in Europe more hostile to immigration. The failure of migrants to integrate has helped create more fractured societies and exacerbated […]

Categories: Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: bene sagvari, britishness, distrust, europe, european social survey, fear, immigration, integration, migration crisis, populism, social fragmentation, tony blair, trust, vera messing

CIVILIZED DISCOURSE AND THE OUTRAGE MACHINE

April 22, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on how the demand for a more civilised discourse has itself become a weapon in a polarised debate, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 21 April 2019, under the headline ‘From David Lammy to Roger Scruton, we rush to damn our opponents’. ‘We can’t carry on like this, where disagreements over political issues become so visceral that those on the other side of a debate aren’t only mistaken but are evil, pernicious and wicked.’ So wrote Labour […]

Categories: Politics • Tags: david lammy, george eaton, new statesman, public discourse, roger scruton

WHEN THE RIGHT KIND OF MIGRANT IS STILL WRONG

April 15, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the reality of Australia’s points-based immigration system, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on cultural appropriation and cultural gatekeeping.) It was published on 14 April 2019, under the headline ‘A points-based system doesn’t end naked prejudice against migrants’. ‘How long have you been living in Australia?’ I asked the cabbie in Melbourne. Three years, he said. He’d come from India. ‘Do you like it here?’ I asked. No, he said. Why […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: australia, immigration, immigration policy, points based immigration system, racism

THE GREAT OCEAN DRIVE VS THE GREAT NORTH ROAD

April 13, 2019 by Kenan Malik

While in Australia, I spent a couple of days on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. It’s a beautiful coastline, with some spectacular geological features. The first part up to Apollo Bay hugs the coastline and makes for an exhilarating drive. But beyond Apollo Bay, you can barely see the ocean from the Great Ocean Road. This is where many of the geological features are – The Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, etc – and you nip off […]

Categories: Photos • Tags: australia, great ocean drive, photography, scotland

THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY, LEFT AND RIGHT

April 8, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the relationship between white nationalism and the politics of identity, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on ‘offshoring’ migration policies in Europe and Australia.) It was published on 7 April 2019, under the headline ‘If identity politics is a force for good, how does white nationalism fit in?’ ‘You turned the issue on its head’, someone said to me after I gave a talk on identity politics in Melbourne last week. […]

Categories: Justice & Liberties, Politics • Tags: brenton tarrant, christchurch, counter enlightenment, enlightenment, far right, identity politics, left, racism, right, white identity, white nationalism

INTO THE SUNSET DOWN UNDER

April 7, 2019 by Kenan Malik

I’m in Australia at the moment, giving a series of talks in Brisbane, Melbourne and Bendigo. The events have been terrific, with outstanding audiences and discussions. My Observer column this week (published on Sunday, and on Pandaemonium next week) will reflect some of the discussion. So, this week these is no usual Friday/Saturday post. Instead, a couple of photos taken on a flight between Brisbane and Melbourne at sunset. Back to normal (I hope) next week.

Categories: Photos

HOW NOT TO REGULATE BIG TECH

April 1, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the regulation of tech companies, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece reflecting on the debate about ‘cultural Marxism’.) It was published on 24 March 2019, under the headline ‘Europe’s efforts to curb the internet giants only make them stronger’. While all eyes were on Westminster, and on the inability of MPs to pass even a poop, the European parliament got on with its job and passed some new legislation. Soon, most […]

Categories: Politics, Science & Technology • Tags: article 11, article 13, big tech, copyright, dcms report, eu copyright directive, european union, facebook, google, link tax, online regulation, technology, twitter

ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOTRY AND FAR-RIGHT TERROR

March 25, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the relationship between anti-Muslim bigotry and far-right terror, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 24 March 2019, under the headline ‘Silencing Islamophobes is as futile a response as banning the Qur’an’. What drove Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch gunman, to commit his heinous acts? It’s a question that has, understandably, occupied much media space . A key debate has been over the role of anti-Muslim hatred and its entrenchment in mainstream society. In an open […]

Categories: Free Speech, International, Politics • Tags: anti-muslim hatred, brenton tarrant, christchurch, douglas murray, far right, far-right terror, free speech, hate speech, immigration, islamism, jihadism, melanie phillips, muslims, terrorism, white nationalism

REMEMBERING THE HOLOCAUST IN BERLIN

March 22, 2019 by Kenan Malik

The museum seeks to engage visitors without sentimentality and ready-made answers by creating spaces of encounter, memory and hope. So said architect Daniel Libeskind about his design for the Jewish Museum in Berlin. It’s a remarkable place, moving and haunting in a way I’ve never known a museum to be, succeeding in giving form to Libeskind’s vision. It does so not through its exhibits, though there are some, and very moving ones, but through its use of space and form […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Photos • Tags: architecture, berlin, daniel libeskind, gedenkstätte grosse hamburger strasse, germany, holocaust, holocaust memorial berlin, jewish museum berlin, jews, memorial to the murdered jews of europe, museums, nazis, peter eisenman

THE FAILING GRAYLING MODEL FOR BRITAIN

March 18, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the scandal of public sector outsourcing in Britain, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece reflecting on the debate about the Christchurch terror attacks.) It was published in the Observer, 17 March 2019, under the headline ‘We scoffed at Grayling’s ‘ferries’ but his way is now a public service norm’. Oh, how we laughed. Failing Grayling, the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, the Mr Bean of contemporary politics, had awarded a cross-Channel ferry […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: austerity, british politics, chris grayling, conservatives, new labour, outsourcing, privatisation, public sector

THE HISTORY AND POLITICS OF WHITE IDENTITY

March 16, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This is a transcript of a talk I gave to the Literarisches Colloqium Berlin on 5 March 2019. Identity politics is one of the defining – and one of the most divisive – issues of our age. And no identity is more contested or fought over than white identity. For some it is a means of giving voice to a group whose identity has previously been denied. For others it is simply as an expression of racism. The political context […]

Categories: Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: black identity, blumenbach, democracy, enlightenment, governor eyre, haitian revolution, herder, identity politics, immigration, immigration controls, imperialism, nouvelle droite, racial science, racism, universalism, white identity, working class

ON THE RIGHT TO HAVE RIGHTS

March 11, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the contemporary significance of Hannah Arendt’s concept of ‘the right to have rights’, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the dispute at Parkfield Community School over teaching about gays.) It was published in the Observer, 10 March 2019, under the headline ‘Human rights mean nothing unless we defend real, threatened people’. ‘The right to have rights.’ It’s 70 years since the philosopher Hannah Arendt coined that luminous phrase in an essay in […]

Categories: Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: citizenship, discrimination, hannah arendt, human agency, human rights, immigration, lida maxwell, refugees, right to have rights, rights, struggling