For the first time in British political history, a far-right political movement, fuelled by Islamophobia and nativism, has won in a national poll. Yet more than a week after the Brexit vote, Britain’s mainstream political commentators have been unable to state that simple fact. Instead, they see the vote as either a legitimate protest against…
In this draft academic paper, Islamophobia is analyzed as a “lay ideology” that offers an everyday “common sense” explanatory framework for making sense of mediated crisis events (such as terrorist attacks) in ways that disavow those events’ political meanings (rooted in empire, racism, and resistance) and instead explain them as products of a reified “Muslimness.”…
On his “Real Time” show on HBO recently, host Bill Maher told his audience: “Liberals need to stand up for liberal principles” and that “in the Muslim world, this is what’s lacking”. His guest, atheist writer Sam Harris, went on to state that “Islam is the mother-lode of bad ideas” and that “we are misled to think…
Homeland’s key accomplishment is to naturalize the workings of the national security state in the Obama era. The show Homeland began its third season with record-breaking ratings. The show’s creators Alex Ganza and Howard Gordon, who previously collaborated on the wildly popular series 24, seem to have worked out a successful narrative for the War on Terror during the Obama era. If 24 reflected the…
Policy Exchange, the Social Affairs Unit and the Centre for Social Cohesion are driving the political agenda on Muslims in Britain while thinktanks on the left are largely silent. Over the last two months, a number of writers, journalists and policymakers associated with the Policy Exchange (PX) thinktank have taken up key positions on Boris…
It has long been the contention of those on the right of British politics that cultural diversity is a threat to national cohesion and security. However, cultural diversity has been attacked equally vigorously by liberals and by those on the centre left, especially since 2001. The new conventional wisdom is that a national story of…
Published in October 2001, this paper explores the new common sense racism emerging through media and political discourses of asylum, particularly linked to the policy of dispersing asylum seekers out of London to other parts of England. Focusing on the ways in which an attitude of multicultural tolerance towards some racialised groups, seen as ‘settled’, appeared to…
Published in April 2000, this paper examines press coverage of the publication of the Macpherson inquiry report into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, particularly focusing on the articulation of shifting ideologies of ‘race’, class, and nation. The report was represented in much of the press as an attack on Englishness and as a capitulation…
This paper explores the role of information in processes of globalisation. It is argued the Left should address new political economies in which information is commodified, and the ways in which such trends provide opportunities for imperialism. Available to subscribers on the Race & Class website.