Product Description

Is Britain becoming a more racist society? Arun Kundnani looks behind the media hysteria to show how multicultural Britain is under attack by government policies and vitriolic press campaigns that play upon fear and encourage racism. Exacerbated by the attacks of 9/11 and 7/7, Kundnani argues that a new form of racism is emerging that is based on a systematic failure to understand the causes of forced migration, global terrorism and social segregation. The result is a climate of hatred, especially against Muslims and asylum seekers, and the erosion of the human rights of those whose cultures and values are perceived as 'alien'. Communities are more divided than ever. Yet the government presses ahead with flawed immigration and 'integration' policies and anti-terrorist legislation that creates further resentment, alienation and criminalisation. Behind it all lies a refusal to grasp the ways in which the world has been changed by neoliberal globalisation. What can be done? This timely and precise analysis is a useful account of why racism is now thriving -- and what can be done to stop it. It will be of interest to anyone who is appalled by the current state of race relations in Britain and it should be required reading for all policy-makers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168590 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 221 pages

Review
Before you can solve a problem you have to understand it. Arun Kundnani not only understands the roots and ramifications of contemporary racism but explains it clearly, linking the local, the global, the political and the cultural. An incisive book at a decisive moment. --Gary Younge

Kundnani guides us through the history and origins of the nebulous forms of today's new racism, placing economic and political exploitation back at the heart of the issue. An invaluable book for confusing times. --John Pandit, member of Asian Dub Foundation

An illuminating analysis of the historic development of British racism, and how this has evolved into the current debates about the demonisation of immigrants, asylum-seekers, Muslims, the war on terror, segration, assimilation, multi-culturalism and Britishness. --Herman Ouseley, former Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality

Gary Younge
'Before you can solve a problem you have to understand it. Arun
Kundnani not only understands the roots and ramifications of contemporary
racism but explains it clearly. An incisive book at a decisive moment.'

Herman Ouseley, former Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality
'An illuminating analysis of the historic development of British
racism, and how this has evolved into the current debates about the
demonisation of immigrants, asylum-seekers, Muslims and Britishness.'

Customer Reviews

The Most Important Book on British Politics in 2007.
This is certainly the most important book on British politics in 2007 and possibly so for this century so far. Anyone concerned about the rise of racism in Britain will want to read this book.

Kundnani starts with understanding why multiculturalism is under attack in Britain. This is largely to do with the ways in which racism has remodelled itself in recent years, with talk of `Western values', the invention of bogus `British values' and `national interests' and notions of `community cohesion' where the `alien' is seen as the threat to such cohesion. Kundnani labels this racism as `integrationist' and aptly so. It underpins much of the Islamophobia or, more accurately, anti-Muslim racism that is prevalent today.

Kundnani links this with the hysteria about migrant workers and asylum seekers and shows how a globalised market and a domestic `market state' have measured an individual based on their economic worth, making gradations of migrant worker, although all are seen as, ultimately, expendable.

Since 9/11 and 7/7, this type of racism has mushroomed and Kundnani weaves in an account of how the War on Terror has been used to reinforce this racism and how this racism has, in turn, reinforced the repressive state measures of the War on Terror.

Most importantly, Kundnani points out that this new racism has emerged from the Liberal Left and not from the far-Right as one would normally expect.

My only quibble is that a longer term historical perspective on anti-Muslim racism is lacking and one is left with the impression that this racism is entirely modern rather than a modern reworking of older themes. But this is minor.

A rivetting, upsetting book detailing racism in Britain today.
If you think Britain is, on the whole, a tolerant society, if you think "institutional racism" is an invention of the politically correct "loony left" then read this book and have your eyes opened. Kundnani details how, under Blair's leadership, the British Government has adopted and implemented harsh laws against illegal immigrants, despite knowing that our economy depends on their labour. Our whole economy, in fact, would collapse without the "illegals" working long hours, for little pay and none of the protection afforded to those lucky enough to be granted citizen status. And yet, the right-wing press would have it that all immigrants are here to a) sponge off our welfare system and / or b) destroy our way of life.

This book made we want to weep with anger and rage at what this Government does to people whose only crime was to try and find a better life. There are the children locked up in detention centres, the asylum seekers left in poverty as they are neither allowed to work nor claim benefits, the casual racism and brutality of the private security firms employed to guard the "illegals" and remove them from the country. Anyone fleeing a despotic regime on a false passport automatically has his/her asylum claim rejected (and risks being jailed for having fake papers), whereas anyone who does have legitimate papers is also rejected - on the grounds that they can't have been that discriminated against if they were able to obtain the proper papers...a hellish Catch-22 indeed.

If you want to know the truth behind the lurid, xenophobic headlines of the popular British press, read this book. And be prepared to feel very very angry.

a very different look
Angry indeed, dont buy this book, like I myself did, if you want to get to the bottom of the real issues of prejudice and racism. Its a differently but ultimatly unhelpfull approach.