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Our collection 'I Refuse to Condemn: Resisting Racism in Times of National Security' is available!
An honour for me to have edited this wonderful group of scholars and activists, who show intimately the racism of demands we condemn.
Purchase link: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526151476/
An honour for me to have edited this wonderful group of scholars and activists, who show intimately the racism of demands we condemn.
Purchase link: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526151476/
My introduction entitled 'You know nothing, Jon Snow', reflects on an interview with the well celebrated Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow in 2015. After all these years, I revisited the interview and reflect on the trauma left by his demand that I condemn a war criminal and murderer
I write for the first time about the psychological and physiological impact this interview left on me. Someone who I admired and respected, the last news anchor I expected this from, made me feel harm. Since the release of the book, I've heard from many expressing similar trauma
Irony is that a few months later Jon Snow would be criticised for continuing to refer to Tariq Aziz as being ‘a nice guy’ despite being involved in massacres in Iraq. A huge difference though in terms of our respective treatment though by the establishment https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/channel-4-s-jon-snow-attacked-calling-iraq-foreign-minister-tariq-aziz-nice-guy-10301432.html
I brought this collection together because I was interested in seeing if others who were representing their community were subjected to this demand, and what come out of the other end were examples far more complex than i could have imagined before I started the project
As the essays detail line by line, the demand we condemn is rooted in the idea that our lives and work are always under suspicion until we actively reassure the wider society that we pose no threat - that our humanity is conditional on us declaring ourselves.
This collection is not about us proving our case, it is very much about reflecting on the ways we are harmed in visceral ways, but ultimately, how we have all chosen to resist this demand. From setting out our resistance, we pray that we might lay a path for others to follow
