Skip to main content
The reactionary basis of identity politics
ALEX HALL is intrigued by a left-wing account of the cleavage between class-based politics and culture-based politics
CLEAR THINKING: International Red Aid propaganda poster in Russian and Uzbek language: "Wrest eight innocent young negroes out of the hands of the American bourgeoisie!" American policeman is depicted in front of the Nazi swastika with baton raised against food rioters

Not So Black and White: A History of Race from White Supremacy to Identity Politics
Kenan Malik, Hurst, £20

EVENTS have not gone as Kenan Malik would have liked since about the 1960s and definitely not since the late 1980s and the Salman Rushdie affair. As an anti-capitalist activist, journalist, academic and broadcaster, the disarray and ineffectiveness of the left has been a major concern. 

The problem has been the disappearance of class-based solidarity in favour of identity-based solidarity, and although he left the left (or perhaps, as he might put it, the left left him) he now explains the intellectual threads which brought the cleavage between class-based politics and culture-based politics.  

Today’s “culture wars” are the present tail-end of this phenomenon. This book is a remarkable help in untangling some present threads and themes, although it doesn’t quite give us Ariadne’s thread out of the Labyrinth. 

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
CONFRONTING HOMOPHOBIA: (L) FCB Cadell, The Boxer, c.1924; (
Exhibition review / 21 March 2025
21 March 2025
While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS: Xilun Sun as the mysterious interloper
Film of the Week: / 20 March 2025
20 March 2025
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
Short Story / 7 February 2025
7 February 2025
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
Frantz Fanon at a press conference during a writers' confere
BenchMarx / 28 January 2025
28 January 2025
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
Similar stories
NO INTERVENTION TOO SMALL: Taking the knee at Lewes FC Women
Culture / 13 April 2025
13 April 2025
ALEX HALL recommends a book that places empirical evidence at the heart of understanding racism
UNITED WE’LL NEVER BE DEFEATED: A lantern parade in Liverp
Books / 14 March 2025
14 March 2025
MARJORIE MAYO recommends a punchy demonstration of the the way class politics are being fragmented by the right
HEROINE: Veteran campaigner Sarah Hipperson, who spent much
Book Review / 18 September 2024
18 September 2024
HENRY BELL admires a bold exploration of the material reality and political representations of mothering in Britain
Civil Rights March on Washington, DC (L to R) Charlton Hesto
Opinion / 30 July 2024
30 July 2024
JENNY FARRELL traces the critical role that the CPUSA played in the education of Harlem’s greatest man of letters