Author Archives: Kenan Malik

ON THE LINE BETWEEN BIGOTRY AND CRITICISM

March 6, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the need to distinguish between criticism and bigotry, was published in the Observer on 3 March 2024, under the headline “Blurring the line between criticism and bigotry fuels hatred of Muslims and Jews”. Where do we draw the line between criticism and bigotry? From the uproar over Lee Anderson’s remarks about the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, being “controlled” by Islamists to the condemnation of slogans used on pro-Palestinian demonstrations, it is a question at the heart of current debates about […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Free Speech • Tags: anti-muslim hatred, anti-zionism, antisemitism, hate speech, ihra, islamism, islamophobia, jews, kenneth stern, muslims

THE DIFFERENCE OF SUNDERLAND

February 28, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on perceptions of Sunderland, was published in the Observer on 25 February 2024, under the headline “Sunderland may not be like London, Cynthia Erivo, but neither is it like the Britain of old”. “A day out of Sunderland is a day wasted.” So claimed Charlie Slater, council leader in the 1970s, and a man known as “Mr Sunderland” to generations of Mackems. Actor and singer Cynthia Erivo is unlikely to agree. On a social media clip taken from an appearance on […]

Categories: Britain, Class • Tags: cynthia eviro, david olusoga, far right, racism, sunderland, white identity, white working class, working class

RHAPSODY IN BLUE AND BLACK AND WHITE

February 21, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the centenary of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, was published in the Observer on 18 February 2024 under the headline “A century on from Rhapsody in Blue, debates about cultural ‘theft’ rage still”. “The future music of this country must be founded upon what are called negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States.” So wrote the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, in […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: albert murray, amiri baraka, black culture, black music, classical music, cultural appropriation, george gershwin, harlem renaissance, high art, james baldwin, jazz, leonard bernstein, music, racism, ralph ellison, rhapsody in blue

CASTING OUT THE UNJEWS

February 14, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the history of ostracism of Jewish supporters of the Palestinian people, was published in the Observer on 11 February 2024 under the headline “Denouncing critics of Israel as ‘un-Jews’ or antisemites is a perversion of history”. William Zuckerman was born in 1885 in the Pale of Settlement, that part of the Russian empire to which Jews were largely confined, a place of poverty and pogroms. His family managed to escape, emigrating to America in 1900. During the First World […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: 7 october attack, american jewish committee, antisemitism, claudine gay, derek penslar, don peretz, emily dische-becker, eyal weizman, free speech, geoffrey levin, germany, hamas, israel, palestinian solidarity, susan neiman, tablet, un-jews, usa, william zuckerman, zionism

WHY THE WORK OF A ROMANTIC MARXIST DISSENTER REMAINS ESSENTIAL

February 7, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the legacy of historian EP Thompson, was published in the Observer on 4 February 2024 under the headline “What a legendary historian tells us about the contempt for today’s working class”. It is not often that, as a teenager, you get captured by a 900-page tome (unless it has “Harry Potter” in the title). Even less when it is a dense book of history, telling in meticulous detail stories of 18th-century weavers and colliers, shoemakers and shipwrights. […]

Categories: Class, Culture & Books, History • Tags: class consciousness, ep thompson, left, marxism, romanticism, the making of the english working class, the new left, working class

WHY DON’T BRITISH WORKERS HAVE BRITISH HOMES?

January 25, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the cynical use of the slogan “British homes for British workers” was published in the Observer on 21 January 2024 under the headline “‘British homes for British workers’ is an empty, century-old, xenophobic slogan”. “Not a day passes but English families are ruthlessly turned out to make room for the foreign invaders.” “They can’t get a home for their children, they see black and ethnic minority communities moving in and they are angry.” “Millions of ordinary people up and down […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: antisemitism, housing, immigration, margaret hodge, matthew goodwin, racism, social housing, william evans-gordon, working class, xenophobia

A STORY OF MISOGYNY, CONTEMPT AND BETRAYAL

January 24, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the “grooming gangs” scandal, was published in the Observer on 21 January 2024 under the headline “Amid class prejudice and sensitivities over race, Rochdale’s abused girls were failed”. “Child 44” was raped by many men over a long period of time, eventually forced to have an abortion, aged 13. None of her abusers was charged with rape against her; many were not even interviewed. After the termination, the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) seized possession of the foetus […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Race & Immigration, Women • Tags: child abuse, child sexual exploitation, grooming gangs, misogyny, muslims, pakistanis, racism, rape, rochdale, telford, three girls, working class

WHO GETS LISTENED TO AND WHO GETS IGNORED

January 17, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on national scandals and the lack of public accountability was published in the Observer on 14 January 2024 under the headline “What makes a very British miscarriage of justice? Contempt for the ‘little people’”. “It was a scandal hiding in plain sight.” “The result of a series of choices, the sum of state neglect and corporate wrongdoing.” “Most assumed that they had been caught up in a bureaucratic tangle; few guessed that thousands of others were experiencing the […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Justice & Liberties • Tags: amelia gentleman, fujitsu, grenfell fire, kimia zabihyan, mr bates vs the post office, peter apps, post office scandal, theresa may, windrush generation

MAKING A MESS OF CLAUDINE GAY

January 10, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the Claudine Gay controversy, was published in the Observer on 7 January 2024 under the headline “Claudine Gay’s ousting reveals that the messenger is still an easier target than the message”. For some, she is the wretched epitome of the liberal elite; for others, the victim of a “racist mob”. She herself condemns her critics for having “recycled tired racial stereotypes”. As an illustration of the way that culture wars warp political judgment and push people into tribal corners, […]

Categories: Academia, International, Race & Immigration • Tags: antisemitism, claudine gay, dei, diversity, elise stefanik, elitte, equality, free speech, gaza war, genocide, harvard, intifadas, israel, palestine solidarity, plagiarism, racism

HISTORY, MEMORY AND ARNO MAYER

January 3, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay tribute to historian Arno Mayer was published in the Observer on 31 December 2023 under the headline “The conflict between history and memory lies at the heart of today’s cultural divides”. “The difference between the study of history and the construction of public memory, the American historian Arno Mayer observed, is that “whereas the voice of memory is univocal and uncontested, that of history is polyphonic and open to debate”. Memory, he added, “tends to rigidify over time, […]

Categories: Culture & Books, History • Tags: arno mayer, dd guttenplan, hannah arendt, holocaust denial, jewish thought, marxism, nazism, perry anderson, public memory, raul hillberg, the persistence of the old regime, tom nairn

HOBSON’S CHOICE IN FOOTBALL’S WARS

December 27, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the war to profit from football, was published in the Observer on 24 December 2023 under the headline “A culture of greed, riddled with inequality. Global football is a mirror of our age”. Nadine Dorries or Jacob Rees-Mogg? Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk? Uefa or the European Super League? Yes, sometimes life seems like a succession of Hobson’s choices. Last week the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Uefa, which oversees European football, and the game’s […]

Categories: Sport • Tags: corruption, david conn, david goldblatt, ecj, esl, fifa, football, horst dassler, joao havelenage, michel platini, qatar world cup, saudi arabia, sepp blatter, uefa

THE INVISIBILITY OF CLASS

December 20, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on solidarity and class, was published in the Observer on 17 December 2023 under the headline “The Reith lectures miss the point. Politics fails when it avoids the issue of class”. “Solidarity has to come through class.” So insisted Rollie, a member of the audience in the latest of the Reith lectures, given this year by political scientist Ben Ansell, professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford, His four Reith lectures, entitled “Our Democratic Future”, explore, respectively, issues of democracy, […]

Categories: Britain, Class • Tags: ben ansell, class solidarity, identity politics, national identity, nationalism, reith lectures, self-interest, selfishness, solidarity, working class

DUMPING THE UNWANTED

December 13, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the Rwanda deportation policy, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 10 December 2023, under the headline “The west’s dumping of migrants on poor countries is a grisly echo of penal transportation”. Imagine that Britain signs a treaty with France agreeing to take its unwanted migrants for cash payment; that France suggests sending lawyers to this country to ensure the British courts treat deportees properly; and that the French national assembly passes a law declaring Britain […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: afghan refugees, asylum seekers, immigration policy, performative policymaking, rwanda deportation scheme

25 THINKERS FOR A WORLD ON THE BRINK

December 13, 2023 by Kenan Malik

It was most unexpected, but most welcome. I’ve been nominated by Prospect magazine as one of “25 thinkers for a world on the brink”. “Kenan Malik… earns a spot on this year’s list because of his refreshing approach to culture war issues”, Prospect writes. “Where many writers fall into knee-jerk tribalism on modern questions of identity – or are afraid to engage with them at all – Malik marshals reason and nuance to make an argument that will challenge both […]

Categories: Kenan Malik, Philosophy & Ethics

CENSORSHIP CANNOT BE THE FOUNDATION OF JUSTICE

December 6, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the censorship of those expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 3 December 2023, under the headline “Solidarity with Palestinians is not hate speech, whatever would-be censors say”. An award ceremony for the Palestine-born novelist and essayist Adania Shibli is cancelled by the Frankfurt book fair because of “the war started by Hamas”. A cultural centre in Berlin has its funding cut and will be shut down after hosting an event from the organisation […]

Categories: Free Speech, International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: adania shibli, cansorship, david velasco, deborah feldman, free speech, genevieve lakier, germany, left, michael eisen, palestine, palestine solidarity, susan neiman