As you know, unless you have been living under a rock (!), a war on something being named ‘critical race theory’ has been waged since the end of 2020. There are many explanations for the meaning of this, some of which I hope to be able…
Author: Alana Lentin
Against Representation
I reviewed How To Lose Friends and Influence White People, a book being marketed as an antiracist manual, by Media Diversity Australia founder, Antoinette Lattouf. There is a concerning trend of so-called trade books referencing the brutal state murder of George Floyd as a vehicle for…
On Race and Racial Literacy with Surviving Society
I recently had a wonderful trip to Europe after not leaving ‘Australia’ for two and a half years. During the protracted covid-induced border closures I brought out my last book Why Race Still Matters. This gave me the opportunity to connect with a lot of wonderful…
Week 11: The Punishing State
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that the lecture slides I provide below contain images and names of people who have died. This week we are looking at the role of punishment in modern society, predominantly the exponential growth of prisons. What role do…
Race as a technology
As well as adding to Understanding Race, this post responds and adds to two recent conversations I had, one with Khadijah Diskin and Josh Briond on the Return to the Source podcast and the other with Momodou Taal on The Malcolm Effect podcast. In my book…
Week 9: Gender & Power
After mid-semester break, this week we looked at gender and power mainly through the lens of social reproduction and the colonialist of gender. The main readings for the week were by Silvia Federici and the Combahee River Collective Statement. This week I invited Professor Alison Phipps,…
What is Race? An interview with Momodou Taal
People who know me know I love podcasts and one of those I love and listen to every episode of is The Malcolm Effect with Momodu Taal, who is a brilliant young thinker. Therefore, I was so honoured to have been invited to speak to him…
Week 7: Anti-Poverty Activism
This week we were joined by Kristin O’Connell of the Antipoverty Centre. Kristin gave us an extremely informative and searing lecture about the corruption of the government’s work for the dole – which especially affects Aboriginal communities – and mutual obligations schemes. She also paid attention…
Week 6: Stigma Power
This week we have been reading segments from Imogen Tyler‘s fantastic book, Stigma: The Machinery of Inequality. I invite you to explore Imogen’s website for plenty of excellent resources on the book, especially the excellent graphic essay, From Stigma Power to Black Power. This connects really…
Week 5: Indigenous Resistance
This week is our second ‘perspective’ (or case study) week, bringing together some of the themes discussed in weeks 1-4 by zoning in on Indigenous Resistance in ‘Australia’, and specifically the Aboriginal Black Power Movement and the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. The purpose of perspective weeks (like…