Tag: racism

SPORT, POLITICS AND TAKING THE KNEE

June 16, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the debate over taking the knee, and the relationship between sport and politics, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 13 June 2021, under the headline “We need to separate sport and politics. But also recognise that they’re inseparable”. “Fans don’t want politics brought into football.” Many would agree with Tory MP Lee Anderson’s sentiment. And so, he carried on, in response to England footballers “taking the knee” before a match: “For the first time in […]

Categories: Politics, Sport • Tags: black lives matter, colin kaepernick, culture wars, englishness, football, lee anderson, muhammad ali, patriotism, racism, taking the knee, wilfried zaha

THE BIGOTRY OF RACE NORMING

June 6, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This is a (very) short piece on the practice of “race norming” that was published as part of my Observer column, 6 June 2021. It is an important issue, and I will hopefully write a longer article on this issue soon. The NFL, American football’s professional league, is to abandon the practice of “race norming” in assessing compensation for former players with brain injuries. It’s the assumption that black players have lower cognitive functioning than white ones, an assumption that made […]

Categories: Race & Immigration, Sport • Tags: affirmative action, american football, race norming, racism, usa

A SHARED FUTURE FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA

May 25, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on cancel culture and hypocrisy.) It was published on 23 May 2021, under the headline “From the river to the sea, Jews and Arabs must forge a shared future”. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, runs a Palestinian slogan. Originally a call for a secular state in historic Palestine between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean, it soon […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: anti-semitism, anti-zionism, benjamin netanyahu, bernard lazare, gaza, hamas, israel, jerusalem, likud, palestine, racism, sheikh jarrah, tony judt, west bank, zionism

POLICING INEQUALITIES OF RACE AND CLASS

April 27, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the nature of American policing, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on a breakthrough vaccine for malaria.) It was published on 25 April 2021, under the headline “US policing is far less about fighting crime than controlling the poor”. ‘Lower-class culture is pathological.” So claimed American political scientist Edward Banfield in his 1970 book The Unheavenly City. For Banfield, unlike the middle class, “the lower-class person lives from moment to moment… unable […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: 1033 programme, broken windows policy, derek chauvin, edward banfield, george floyd, james quinn wilson, mass incarceration, militarised policing, police killings, policing, poor, racism, thomas sowell, usa, william bratton

SO, WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE SEWELL REPORT?

April 6, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 4 April 2021, under the headline “Yes, we need a more nuanced debate about race. But this flawed report fails to deliver it”. Britain is less racist than it was 40 years ago. Many minority groups in Britain still face racism. Both those claims can be (and are) true. So are these two claims: racism exists in Britain; racism […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: anti-racism, race and class, racial disparities, racism, sewell report, tony sewell

TO LIVE IN A PLURAL SOCIETY

March 30, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the meaning of a plural society in the context of the furore surrounding Batley Grammar School, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the lessons of the Shrewsbury 24.) It was published on 28 March 2021, under the headline “To live in a diverse society means to live with debate. Bring it on”. No one has a right not to be offended. All of us have a duty to challenge bigotry. These […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain, Multiculturalism • Tags: batley grammar school, blasphemy, charlie hebdo, depicting muhammad, diversity, education, islam, islamophobia, muhammad, muslims, racism, samuel paty, sayeeda warsi

RACISM, PRIVILEGE AND ANTI-ASIAN HOSTILITY

March 23, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on anti-Asian racism in America, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on flag, queen and country.) It was published on 21 March 2021, under the headline “Myths of Asian privilege fuel a brutal and cartoonish bigotry”. Beyond the horror of the shooting in Atlanta of eight people, six of them Asian women, lies the fraught question “why?”. In all probability, a multitude of factors – racism, misogyny, religious belief, personal inadequacies – coalesced in suspect […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: affirmative action, anti-asian racism, anti-racism, asian privilege, atlanta shootings, harvard, identity politics, model community, privilege, racism, usa, yale, yellow peril

TRANSLATION AND IDENTITY

March 9, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the debate over the translation of Amanda Gorman’s poetry, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the Home Office’s inflexibility over British citizenship.) It was published on 7 March 2021, under the headline “Lost in translation: the dead end of dividing the world on identity lines”. In 1768, the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder paid a visit to the French city of Nantes. “I am getting to know the French language […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Language, Multiculturalism, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: amanda gorman, identity politics, invisible man, marieke lucas rijneveld, racism, ralph ellison, stay in your lane, translation

INEQUALITY AND POLITICAL DIVIDES

March 3, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on perceptions of inequality in Britain, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 28 February 2021, under the headline “The left/right divide still exists. But it’s struggling to escape the lure of identity politics”. First, the good news. Britons see inequality as a major problem and divide broadly along traditional political lines in their attitudes towards it. Then, the bad news. Britons are also inclined to see inequalities as driven by individual behaviour as much as […]

Categories: Britain, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: bobby duffy, brexit, british politics, conservative party, covid 19, identity politics, individualism, inequality, labour party, pandemic, racism, reluctant individualism

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

RESPECT AND TOLERANCE, PEOPLE AND IDEAS

December 15, 2020 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the changing meanings of respect and tolerance, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the revelations at the Grenfell inquiry.) It was published on 13 December 2020, under the headline “Ideas can be tolerated without being respected. The distinction is key”. Should Cambridge University academics and students “tolerate” or “respect” the views of others with which they might disagree? Should we tolerate Millwall fans booing players taking the knee? Should gender-critical feminists who argue for […]

Categories: Free Speech, Philosophy & Ethics, Women • Tags: cambridge university, censorship, football, free speech, les ferdinand, millwall, racism, respect, salil tripathi, taking the knee, tolerance, transgender, twitter

MARADONA, MUHAMMAD ALI AND ME

November 29, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This (very) short piece on Maradona was published aspart of my column in the Observer, 29 November 2020 I can still remember where I was when, in 1986, Diego Maradona scored with the “hand of God”. In a flat on the Coventry Cross estate, in east London. An Asian family lived there, one of a handful on the estate, who had faced vicious racist attacks. An England-Argentina game, just four years after the Falklands conflict, was a threatening proposition. I […]

Categories: Sport • Tags: argentina, football, hand of god, maradona, muhammad ali, racism

TERROR, HYPOCRISY AND ILLIBERALISM

November 10, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on responses to Islamist terrorism, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on Poland, abortion and the power of polar protest.) It was published on 8 November 2020, under the headline “Fanatics have no right to censor critics. But neither does Emmanuel Macron”. Letters complaining about newspaper articles are unexceptional. Not so letters from the Élysée Palace. Last week, the Financial Times published, after the killing of teacher Samuel Paty in Paris and of churchgoers in Nice, an article by its […]

Categories: Free Speech, International, War on terror • Tags: blasphemy, censorship, charlie hebdo, emmanuel macron, farhad khosrokhavar, financial rimes, france, islamism, jihadism, racism, samuel paty, secularism, terrorism, vienna attaack

ON BEING WHITE AND ON BEING WORKING CLASS

October 20, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate about the “white working class”, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 18 October 2020, under the headline “Being white won’t hold boys back. Being working class just might”. White, working-class boys fare badly at school. About that, almost everyone is agreed. More contested is the reason why. Last week, the first witnesses gave evidence to the commons select committee on education’s investigation into “Left Behind White Pupils From Disadvantaged Backgrounds”. The hearing made […]

Categories: Britain, Class, Race & Immigration • Tags: brexit, education, identity politics, inequality, left behind, racism, schools, white privilege, white working class, working class

FROM PETERLOO TO THE MANGROVE NINE

October 13, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on Steve McQueen’s new film Mangrove and “black history”, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the public being more liberal than the government on immigration.) It was published on 11 October 2020, under the headline “Mangrove isn’t simply a ‘black story’, but central to our country’s history”. “It’s quintessentially a piece of British history. It is about British citizens who dealt with injustice and triumph.” So says director Steve McQueen about his new film, Mangrove, which […]

Categories: Culture & Books, History, Race & Immigration • Tags: black history, black history month, bristol bus boycott, british history, clr james, ep thompson, haitian revolution, identity politics, mangrove, mangrove nine, paul stephenson, peterloo, police racism, racism, steve mcqueen, the black jacobins, the making of the english working class