Upcoming Talks
I’ll be speaking about our book, The Crises of Multiculturalism: racism in a neoliberal age at two separate events at the University of Sussex over the next few weeks.
I will be speaking at the Social and Political Thought seminar series on Wednesday January 25 at 17h00 and at the Justice and Violence Research seminar series on Wednesday, February 15 at 15h00 (Room to be confirmed).
ALL WELCOME
The Alternative Leveson Enquiry
I was invited to a conference to launch the Alternative Leveson Inquiry into Islamophobia in the media on the 9th of January 2012.
An “alternative Leveson inquiry” is being set up by an Islamic TV channel in order to investigate the way in which British media report on Muslim and Islamic affairs.
The Islam Channel is planning to appoint a judge with an independent panel of assessors – just like Leveson – to carry out the inquiry. Read the rest of this entry »
Diane Abbott’s tweet and the red herring of anti-white racism
Gavan Titley and I wrote in The Guardian that Shortly after the end of the Stephen Lawrence trial, Abbott’s remarks are being used as a chance to restore white victimhood.
Stephen Lawrence killers found guilty
Finally, after 18 years two of the killers of Stephen Lawrence have been found guilty. Too little, too late perhaps but an important day for justice for the victims of racism.
Dale Farm Eviction
Travellers who have been living at the Dale farm site in Basildon in Essex (UK) are being forcibly evicted from their homes today, October 19 2011. Police, using bulldozers and tasers which have seriously injured two people are removing men, women and children because, as this cabbie filming himself on youtube puts it, they ‘don’t like Travellers’. The history of abuse against travellers, Roma and Gipsies in Europe is long and dark. The threat posed to the order of things by peoploe who refuse to conform to ‘modern’ ways of life seems to be so great that any measure can be used to coerce them into complying with the rules.
For more, visit the Dale Farm Solidarity Campaign
The Crises of Multiculturalism – Book Launches
Two book launches to celebrate the publication by Zed books of my latest book, co-written with gavan Titley, The Crises of Multiculturalism: racism in a Neoliberal Age, will be held in october. The first will be held in Dublin on October 12, the second in London on October 26 which will be opened by Guardian journalist Gary Younge. The Dublin event will also be raising funds for the Antiracism Network. ALL WELCOME!
How the Riots Are Being Made About Race
More than a week has now passed since areas of London, beginning with Tottenham, erupted in rioting and looting spreading to Birmingham and Manchester. Not much else is being discussed in the UK these days be it in the mainstream or through social media and the blogosphere. There hasn’t been much to add to the excellent analyses by Richard Seymour who has been providing us with daily takes on the riots from various perspectives. I am not the only one to have commented about the racial dynamics the riots are creating; Merlin Emanuel asks some crucial questions: Read the rest of this entry »
What Happens to Antiracism when we are Post-Race?
Universalist antiracist rhetoric
I have a new article our in Feminist Legal Studies, part of a Special Issue on ‘Queer Liabilities of Critique’ edited by Stacy Douglas, Suhraiya Jivraj and Sarah Lamble. You can read my article, ‘What Happens to Antiracism when we are Post-Race?’ on Scribd. Comments welcome as usual. Read the rest of this entry »
Anders Behring Breivik had no legitimate grievance
Gavan Titley and I have published an article on The Guardian’s Comment is Free today stating why we think that the political mainstream is far more involved than we would like to think in the development of Anders Behring Breivik’s idea on multiculturalism and immigration.
Despite the fact that Anders Behring Breivik was not permitted to publicly justify his actions in public on Monday, a scrambling defence of his repertoire of prejudice is already in full swing. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Bruce Bawer, who is quoted by Breivik in his manifesto 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, emphasises his repeated warnings that a rightwing extremist may use violence to address “legitimate concerns about genuine problems”. Bawer blames mainstream politics for failing to address the corrosion of Europe by Islamicisation and multiculturalism, meanwhile The Jerusalem Post cautions that “Oslo’s devastating tragedy should not be allowed to be manipulated by those who would cover up the abject failure of multiculturalism”. Read the rest of this entry »