Author Archives: Kenan Malik

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND HUMAN EXPLOITATION

November 29, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the dangers of AI, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 26 November 2023, under the headline “AI doesn’t cause harm by itself. We should worry about the people who control it“. At times it felt less like Succession than Fawlty Towers, not so much Shakespearean tragedy as Laurel and Hardy farce. OpenAI is the hottest tech company today thanks to the success of its most famous product, the chatbot ChatGPT. It was inevitable that the mayhem surrounding the sacking, and […]

Categories: Science & Technology • Tags: ai, algorithmic bias, chatgpt, elon musk, grady booch, microsoft, openai, sam altman

BUT WHAT IS YOUR ALTERNATIVE?

November 22, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the need to challenge immoral policies and actions, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 19 November 2023, under the headline “‘There is no alternative’ is the last resort of those defending morally wrong acts”. “But what is your alternative?” It’s an important question in political debates when a particular policy or action is being challenged. It can also be a way of deflecting from the flimsiness, both moral and practical, of the plan facing scrutiny. […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: ceasefire, gaza, israel, palestinian rights, plaestine, rwanda scheme

IMMIGRATION AND PERFORMATIVE POLICYMAKING

November 15, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the performative character of immigration policymaking, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 12 November 2023, under the headline “Across the globe, compassion for migrants has given way to cruel, performative politics“. On Wednesday, the UK supreme court will give its verdict on the Rwanda deportation scheme. The decision will clearly have a major impact on those who face deportation. It will have an impact, too, on the political debate about immigration, with government supporters either hailing a […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: afghan refugees, asylum seekers, giorgia meloni, hein de haas, hungary, italy, offshoring, pakistan, performative policymaking, refugees, rwanda deportation scheme

AESCHYLUS IN GAZA

November 8, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on what Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy can tell us about the Gaza conflict, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 5 November 2023, under the headline “In the Middle East, as in Greek tragedy, justice must prevail over moral absolutism”. Watching the tragedy unfold in Israel and Palestine has sometimes felt like reading the Oresteia backwards. A trilogy of plays by Aeschylus, written in the fifth century BC, the Oresteia tells of the transformation of ancient Greece from a society rooted in blood […]

Categories: Culture & Books, International, Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: aeschylus, benjamin netanyahu, censorship, dehumanisation, gaza war, hamas, israel, oresteia, palestine, palestinian solidarity, vengeance

THE CITY OF ARCHITECTURE

November 1, 2023 by Kenan Malik

I went to Chicago to speak about my book Not So Black and White at Evanston University and at the University of Illinois, both events leading to fascinating discussions about race and the politics of identity. It was my first time in the city, and I managed to squeeze in a day wandering around Chicago’s wondrous buildings. The architecture is every bit as striking as its reputation, from the earliest skyscrapers to art deco to brutalism to postmodernism. A day […]

Categories: Photos • Tags: 360 chicago, architecture, art deco, brutalism, chicago, chicago architecture, chicago river, john hancock center, lincoln park, modernism, north avneu beach, postmodernism, skyscrapers, willis tower

NOT SO BLACK AND WHITE -THE TALK

October 25, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This is a transcript of the talk I gave about my book Not So Black and White at New York University on 16 October 2023. I have not had time to put the links in, but I will do so. And here are details of the book, reviews and bookshops. Let me begin with quote from Frantz Fanon, the Martinique-born revolutionary and intellectual, from his 1952 masterpiece Black Skins, White Masks. “The Negro is not. Any more than the white […]

Categories: Kenan Malik, Not so Black and White • Tags: kenan malik's books, talks

THE BUTCHERY AND THE BOMBING

October 18, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on why Hamas’ barbarism does not justify the collective punishment of Palestine, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 15 October 2023, under the headline “Hamas’s barbarism does not justify the collective punishment of Palestinians”. “They too have casualties, they too have captives and they have mothers who weep… Let’s make real peace”. Not a liberal peacenik speaking from the safety of London or Washington but Yaakov Argamani, whose daughter Noa was taken hostage by Hamas at a music […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: 7 october attack, antisemitism, benjamin netanyahu, gaza war, hamas, israel, nakba, noa argamani, palestine, yaakov argamani

INEFFECTIVE ALTRUISM

October 11, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the problems with the effective altruism movement, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 8 October 2023, under the headline “Getting rich in order to give to the poor? The jury’s out, but it seems morally shaky”. Few people think of finance as an ethical career choice”, William MacAskill observes. But they should. “By making as much money as we can and donating to the best causes,” he argues, “we can each save hundreds of lives.” MacAskill […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: consequentialism, effective altruism, ethics, ftx, peter singer, sam bankman-fried, william macaskill

SUELLA BRAVERMAN AND THE PROBLEMS OF MULTICULTURALISM

October 4, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the real problems with multicultuiralism, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 1 October 2023, under the headline “Suella Braverman’s bigoted attack on multiculturalism shouldn’t blind us to its problems”. “Has multiculturalism failed?” It is a debate that raged a decade ago but had seemed to have faded into the political background in recent years. Until, that is, the home secretary, Suella Braverman, attempted to light the fires again, in a speech she gave last week to the […]

Categories: Britain, Multiculturalism, Race & Immigration • Tags: diversity, free speech, identity politics, multiculturalism, racism, suella braverman, white identity

CLASS IDENTITY AND CLASS AWARENESS

September 27, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the changing attitudes of the working class, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 24 September 2023, under the headline “Forty years ago, class defined us in Britain. Now it’s we who define our class”. A liberal elite out of touch with the conservative instincts of the British people. A political realignment defined by an electorate more culturally conservative but economically leftwing. A working class hostile to liberal norms, especially on immigration. It is a picture […]

Categories: Britain, Class • Tags: british social attitudes, class boundaries, immigration, inequality, social conservatism, social liberalism, working class

EXPLOITERS DON’T CARE ABOUT RACE OR CULTURE

September 20, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on what a protest at a Peckham shop tells us about race and class in contemporary Britain, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 17 September 2023, under the headline “What a brawl in a Peckham shop tells us about race and class in Britain today”. A customer demands a refund on goods she bought but no longer wants. The shop owner refuses, offering a credit note instead. The customer grabs other goods, apparently in recompense. The […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Race & Immigration • Tags: blacks and asians, ethnic divisions, peckham, peckham shop protest, race and class

MORALITY AND THE DECLINE OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

September 13, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the relationship between Christianity and morality, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 10 September 2023, under the headline “Our retreat from Christianity doesn’t mean we’ve lost our sense of morality“. A shape less recognisable each week,A purpose more obscure. I wonder whoWill be the last, the very last, to seekThis place for what it was… So mused Philip Larkin in his 1954 poem “Church Going”, about a visit to an empty church, to take its […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: anglicanism, christianiaty, churches, immigration, linda woodhead, moral decline, philip larkin

TO OPPOSE BIGOTRY, OPPOSE BLASPHEMY LAWS

September 6, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the need to oppose blasphemy laws, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 3 September 2023, under the headline “Blasphemy law is no answer to bigotry in the wake of Denmark’s Qur’an burnings“. Should governments ban the “improper treatment of objects of significant religious importance to a religious community”? That is what the Danish government is suggesting in a new law it announced last week that could see offenders imprisoned for two years. The proposed ban comes after […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Free Speech, International, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: anti-muslim hatred, blasphemy, blasphemy laws, bookburning, censorship, denmark, far right, islam, qur'an, qur'an descration

ALL WORKERS SHOULD POSSESS EQUAL EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS

August 30, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the need for “single status” for workers, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 27 August 2023, under the headline “Labour’s backtracking on casual workers will weaken the rights of all employees”. If you have a job, are you a worker or an employee? In everyday conversation, it is a distinction without meaning, and the two are usually taken to be synonymous and used interchangeably. In British law, though, workers and employees form discrete categories. Legally, […]

Categories: Britain, Class • Tags: angela rayner, employment rights, gig economy, labour party, minimum wage, single status, workers rights

WORKING CLASS SONG

August 23, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on Oliver Anthony and the decayed tradition of working class protest song, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 20 August 2023, under the headline “The protest song that’s taken America by storm hits too many false notes”. There is mean things happening in this landOh the rich man boasts and bragsWhile the poor man goes in ragsThere is mean things happening in this land So runs the opening verse of John Handcox’s classic 1930s song “There […]

Categories: Class, Culture & Books • Tags: john handcox, liberal elite, oliver anthony, protest songs, rich men north of richmond, trade unions, working class, working class song