GUILLERMO THOMAS recommends an important, if dispiriting book about the neo-colonial culture of Uganda under Yoweri Museveni
Latest editorial
‘Challenges posed by a world in which race matters’
GORDON PARSONS recommends a book that will keep the reader, black or white, fully engaged and, as importantly, self-questioning
THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES: 'Being black connotes a lack of a right to anything'
SUSAN DARLINGTON applauds the sensuality and strong characterisation of an unconventional ballet about an unconventional woman
BRENT CUTLER admires the plotting but takes issue with the politics of a new Scottish crime thriller
Tyrannosaurs in Thailand, colonialism as videogame, and a feminist gem from 1936
PAUL FOLEY steps gingerly through an exhibition that purports to show east and south-east Asian culture, and questions its intentions
New releases from Alex Wilson and Omar Rios Melendez, Hello Cosmos, and Harry Christelis
Fear of Black Consciousness
Lewis R Gordon
Allen Lane, £20
“I CAN’T breathe.” George Floyd’s dying words have established an iconic meme resounding throughout the world.
Just as the asphyxiating coronavirus “sees” no boundaries, responding most effectively to pre-existing conditions, Lewis Gordon, a leading Afro-Jewish existentialist philosopher, recognises that “our pre-existing pandemics of neoliberalism, neoconservatism, fascism, and their accompanying racism” provided vulnerable social sites for the virus to spread more efficiently.
Gordon quotes WEB Du Bois, the famous social scientist, educationist and socialist, founder of the NAACP: “Being born black does not entail in social scientific terms what it means to be black.”
Similar stories
GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a biography of the Marxist intellectual and author, made from the point of view of his son
GORDON PARSONS is enthralled by an erudite and entertaining account of where the language we speak came from
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes challenging insights and thought-provoking criticisms of a number of widely accepted assumptions on the left
SARAH TROTT explores short fictional slices of life in the American midwest from a middle-aged and mostly female perspective