(en) Irish Anarchist Review 5 - The Crises of Multi-culturalism: Racism in a Neoliberal Age - review by Aidan Rowe

In November 2011, the Fine Gael mayor of Naas, Darren Scully sparked controversy when he
announced on national radio that he would no longer represent ?Black Africans?, due to
their ?aggressiveness and bad manners? and their tendency to ?play the race card?.
Ultimately, the controversy caused by Scully?s blatant and unambiguous racism forced his
resignation as mayor. ---- However, as Crises? co-author Gavan Titley pointed out, the
mistake, from Scully?s point of view, was not in being racist per se, but rather that he
?played the wrong race card?(1). While overt racism is still experienced by people of
colour both on the streets and within institutions, in public discourse the language and
tactics of racism have become more subtle (to some extent, in response to significant
victories by anti-racist, anti-apartheid and post-colonial movements worldwide, and the
demise of scientific racism as an ideology).

Racist speech is no longer concerned (explicitly at least) with racial superiority and
inferiority, or even with race per se, but rather with the supposed impossibility of the
harmonious co-existence of different cultures within a single society. Scully?s blunder
was his lack of political sophistication, not his racist intent.

Multiculturalism in crisis

In Crises?, Lentin and Titley discuss similar themes, exploring the dynamics of racism in
contemporary public discourse in the era of neoliberalism. Specifically, they discuss
various narratives around ?the failed experiment of multiculturalism?, which function as a
means of ?laundering? racist ideas and policies. These narratives have a fairly familiar
form: For the past number of years we have been living in the era of multiculturalism,
whose noble aspirations were pursued by state institutions across the Western world.
However, despite the good intentions of its left and liberal proponents, multiculturalism
has proved to be an utter failure and must be abandoned.

These narratives, while often presented by their narrators as someone finally speaking up
on behalf of the silent majority in the face of repressive political correctness, in fact
crop up regularly in public discourse, with everyone from newspaper columnists to
mainstream political figures such as David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, to
far-right figures such as Nick Griffin or Geert Wilders clamouring to sound the death
knell for multiculturalism.

Crises? challenges those narratives, by questioning whether a coherent multicultural era
ever existed. They argue that multiculturalism was never seriously embraced by the
establishment beyond the rhetorical, nor by left anti-racists, who saw it as a liberal
retreat into culture (but who have been forced somewhat reluctantly into the position of
defending multiculturalism against attacks from the right). Instead, the spectre of
multiculturalism is erected as a target for the racial anxieties of everyone from liberals
to the far-right.

This thesis is elucidated by combining theoretical analysis with discussion of various
recent controversies: moves to ban or regulate the wearing of Islamic headscarves or
burkas by Muslim women, the Swiss ban on minarets, the ?free speech? controversy around
the Jyllands Posten cartoons, the 2004 Citizenship Referendum in Ireland, and others.

Free speech and white privilege

Of particular practical significance for the Irish left, specifically those involved in
anti-fascist organising, is the discussion of the Jyllands Posten cartoon controversy,
which has a number of parallels with the free speech debates that regularly result when
fascist leaders are invited to speak on university campuses.(2) In such controversies, the
substantive issue at stake (in this case the racist content of cartoons of Muhammed in a
newspaper with a right-wing anti-Islamic agenda and historical links to fascism) is
subsumed into a meta-debate about the principle of free-speech and its limits. This
reflexive reframing of the issue serves a particular political function: to apparently
invert the power structures of a white-privileged society so that the white racist becomes
the victim of oppressive multiculturalism ? an ontological inversion that functions to
delegitimate the complaints of the oppressed and cast the oppressor as a symbol of Western
liberal values.

?Organised around this abstraction is a ?threefold cast of characters? beginning with the
protagonist who breaks a taboo in pursuit of freedom, who is subsequently supported by
principled defenders of the open society, and both of whom triangulate with the subject
who has taken offence... Muslims are cast as this intolerant apex, and thus positioned,
?end up being treated as deficient in comparison with the evident open-mindedness of those
who tolerate transgression??.(3)

A similar dynamic exists in the case of fascist speakers on university campuses, with
anti-fascists being drawn into a liberal-idealist discussion about what rights exist, how
far they extend, and which rights take precedence when they conflict ? a discussion which
ultimately benefits fascists and racists. The more materialist analysis found here of how
such events and the controversy surrounding them actually impacts the subjects of racism
is perhaps a more useful way to frame discussions around applying a No Platform For
Fascists policy.

Liberal racism, feminism vs. Islam, homonationalism

Also of interest is the authors? exposition of the various forms of racism embedded in
liberal approaches to understanding race and to governance, which are significantly more
subtle than those of the right and far-right. Multiculturalism itself is exposed as an
effort to depoliticise racism, rendering invisible structures of racialised power through
constructing an imagined post-racial landscape, and in doing so functioning both as an
adjunct to the post-politicism of neoliberalism generally and as a liberal mirror to the
far-right?s shift in focus from race to culture. This post-racialism deprives racialised
groups of the right to challenge discrimination as they experience it. Multicultural
diversity is exposed as a coded language for certain acceptable ways of performing
minority cultures ? good diversity - which is counterposed with kinds of cultural
performance less palatable to the white majority ? bad diversity.

The co-optation of feminist and queer struggles by racist agendas is also discussed
in-depth. Contemporary racism often employs the language and concerns of feminist and
queer struggles in order to position Muslims and other racialised groups as a threat to
the gains made by these movements, even though many of these gains are recent and heavily
contested within even the most progressive of Western societies. This was a particularly
significant dynamic in debates about Islamic headscarves and veils across Europe, where
veiled Muslim women were presented as a threat to the position of all women within
European societies. The actual views and experiences of veiled women were in practice
excluded from these debates, which were more concerned with white people?s particular
racialised vision of what a free woman looks like.

The authors draw from Jasbir Puar?s work on ?homonationalism? in discussing the use of
queer issues towards racist agendas. Queers, particularly those who fall into the category
of ?homonormative? (those that closely mirror heteronormative sexuality and heterosexual
identity: upholding monogamy, binary gender etc.), are able to ?enact [previously barred]
forms of national, racial or other belongings by contributing to a collective vilification
of Muslims?.(4) This dynamic is particularly significant in relation to the struggle for
Palestinian national liberation, as Israel uses its relatively progressive position on
LGBT rights to project itself as the ally of Western queer people in a region dominated by
homophobic Muslim states and thus help to justify (pinkwash) its continued oppression of
Palestine.

Conclusion

As an academic text, rather than an anti-racist handbook for activists, Crises? is
somewhat lacking in direct practical insights for anti-racist activists, and often
requires significant effort to parse the analyses presented into a useful form (a problem
that is compounded by the dense writing style of the authors). However, a sophisticated
understanding of how racism works under neoliberal governance is key if we are to win the
?battle of ideas? against those who would use racism to divide and control us in the
interests of the ruling class. As such, the depth and incisiveness of analysis in
Crises?make it an important text both for those seeking a better theoretical understanding
of race, and those who work to combat racism in society.

WORDS: Aidan Rowe

[1]http://www.multiculturecrisis.com/2011/11/28/it-aint-easy-being-blue/

[2] This is discussed explicitly by Titley in relation to the recent invites of Nick
Griffin to speak at UCC and TrinityCollegehere:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/17/nick-griffin-trinity...

[3] pp. 138

[4] Puar, Jasbir (2007) Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times, Durham, NC:
Duke University Press pp 2

Bron : a-infos-en@ainfos.ca