Whatbis antiracism?: And why it means anticapitalism
- London Verso 2023
- 298 p. ill. Includes notes and index
ABOUT WHAT IS ANTIRACISM? This scintillating intellectual and political history provides a new understanding of racism, and a better way to fight it
Liberals have been arguing for nearly a century that racism is fundamentally an individual problem of extremist beliefs. Responding to Nazism, thinkers like gay rights pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld and anthropologist Ruth Benedict called for teaching people, especially poor people, to be less prejudiced. Here lies the origin of today’s liberal antiracism, from diversity training to Hollywood activism. Meanwhile, a more radical antiracism flowered in the Third World.