by Kenan Malik
Last year, I gave an interview to the philosopher Stine Jensen, for a series she was making for the Dutch TV company Human on the politics of identity called Dus Ik Volg (‘So I Follow’). The programme in which I appear is broadcast this Sunday, and here’s a video of the whole of my interview uncut (including the coughing fit…).
Categories: Human, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: identity politics
by Kenan Malik
This essay, on why fascism failed in Britain, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on working class writers and publishing.) It was published on 3 May 2020, under the headline‘British fascism has never thrived but its failure has been useful for the mainstream’. The history of British fascism is a history of failure. In a new book, Failed Führers, the historian Graham Macklin retells that story through biographies of six fascist leaders, from Arnold […]
Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: alain benoist, british fascism, british nationalism, conservative party, failed fuhrers, far right, fascism, graham macklin, identity politics, john tyndall, margaret thatcher, nationalism, nazism, nick griffin, nouvelle droite, oswald mosley
by Kenan Malik
I gave a talk last year on ‘The history and politics of white identity’ to the Literarisches Colloqium Berlin. This is a video of the talk and the discussion afterwards.
Categories: Kenan Malik, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: democracy, enlightenment, haitian revolution, herder, identity politics, immigration, nouvelle droite, racial science, racism, talks, universalism, white identity, working cla
by Kenan Malik
This essay, on how mainstream politics helps nurture far-right beliefs, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the costs of Jeff Bezos’ philanthropy) It was published on 23 February 2020, under the headline ‘Beware the politics of identity. They help legitimise the toxic far right’. ‘Hate is a poison that… is responsible for far too many crimes’, said the German chancellor Angela Merkel after the killing of nine people in a far-right terror attack […]
Categories: International, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: afd, christopher caldwell, douglas murray, far right, germany, hanau, identity politics, racism, sam harris, terrorism, white identity
by Kenan Malik
I have been involved in a long debate on Twitter with the writer and activist Thomas Fazi, which began with his critique of my article on social conservatism and the working class and ended as a debate about immigration and the left. The debate consisted of very long threads from both of us (the four threads amount to more than 5000 words!), and inevitably was Twitterish in form and tone, peevish and crabby at times, but it got to the […]
Categories: Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: blue labour, identity politics, immigration, labour party, left, national identity, nationalism, racism, social conservatism, thomas fazi, working class
by Kenan Malik
This essay, on the debate about social conservatism and the working class, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 152December 2019, under the headline ‘The idea that the British working class is socially conservative is a nonsense’. ‘It is easier for the right to move left on economics than it is for the left to move right on identity & culture.’ So tweeted politics professor and TV pundit Matthew Goodwin on the morning of the Tory election victory as […]
Categories: Britain, Class, Politics • Tags: british politics, conservatives, grunwick strike, identity politics, immigration, labour party, left, liberalism, matthew goodwin, metropolitan liberals, social conservatism, trust, working class
by Kenan Malik
This essay, on the legacy of Harold Bloom, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on techno-utopia and techno-dystopia.) It was published on 20 October 2019, under the headline ‘Harold Bloom was right to extol great literature, but was often blind to who was neglected’. There are good ways of being old-fashioned and there are bad. One may seek to preserve important practices or ways of thinking in the face of fashion. One may also […]
Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: dante, harold bloom, identity politics, the canon, the western canon, toni morrison
by Kenan Malik
This essay was published in the Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten on 21 July 2019. The shift has been dramatic. Even a decade ago, discussion of ‘white rights’ and ‘white identity’ belonged to the fringes of politics. It was Nazi-speak. Today it has become a major political issue on both sides of the Atlantic. Not just the far-right but many mainstream commentators now argue that whites should be able to assert what the political scientist Eric Kaufmann calls their ‘racial self-interest’. Why […]
Categories: Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: alain benoist, Class, eric kaufmann, identity politics, nouvelle droite, race, racism, white identity, working class
by Kenan Malik
This essay, on race and class in contemporary Britain, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the politics of human fossil finds.) It was published on 7 July 2019, under the headline ‘Working class versus minorities? That’s looking at it the wrong way’. Officials eyeing you with contempt. Police treating you as scum. A sense of being constantly watched and judged by professionals. Living in fear of benefit sanctions. A lack of community facilities. […]
Categories: Britain, Class, Philosophy & Ethics, Race & Immigration • Tags: britain, ethnic pay gap, hostile environment, identity politics, migrants, minorities, precariat, race and class, runnymede trust, white working class, working class
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
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
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
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
by Kenan Malik
This essay, on politics and demography, was my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 27 January 2019, under the headline ‘Demography is not destiny. Politics should be about winning minds’. Peter Kellner’s ‘crossover day’ has caused some commotion. Last Saturday, according to the veteran pollster, Britain became a majority Remain nation through demographic changes alone. Kellner’s calculations suggested that in the period since the 2016 referendum, sufficient old folk (who largely voted Leave) had died and enough teenagers, overwhelmingly Remain, had reached […]
Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: brexit, british politics, crossover day, democracy, demography, identity politics, peter kellner, political demography, youth
by Kenan Malik
This essay, on Eric Kaufmann’s book Whitehift, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on Turkish repression). It was published in the Observer, 21 October 2018, under the headline ‘White identity is meaningless. Real dignity is found in shared hopes’. ‘It’s dignity, stupid.’ Where once economic wellbeing was seen as key to winning electoral support, there is now recognition that more intangible qualities matter too – the ability to be heard, to live […]
Categories: Class, Race & Immigration • Tags: anti-catholicism, demography, eric kaufmann, ethnic identity, ethnicity, identity politics, immigration, racism, white identity, white interests, whiteshift, working class
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