The Meaning of Race: Race, History, and Culture in Western Society

by Kenan Malik

Argues that the social meaning of race emerges from a contradiction between the ideology of equality and the reality of inequality

Today, race seems to be both everywhere and nowhere. There still exists a general abhorrence about discriminating between people according to their race. And yet, people are continually categorized according to their race―Afro- Caribbean, white, Jewish―though we often have difficulty in defining just what race is. Everything from criminality to the entrepreneurial spirit is given a racial connotation―witness stereotypes of black muggers or Asian shopkeepers.The Meaning of Race argues that the social meaning of race in modern society emerges from the contradiction between an ideological commitment to equality and the persistence of inequality as a practical reality. Kenan Malik here follows the development of racial ideology over the past two hundred years, tracing the different forms it has taken, from biological theories of race to the relationship between race and culture. Specific attention is focused on the impact of the break up of the postwar order and the end of the Cold War and the concomitant repoliticization of the notion of racial difference. Malik goes on to critique the poststructuralist and postmodern theories of difference which have become the backbone of contemporary antiracist discourse, and to examine the possibility of transcending the discourse of race.

Genres: History, Politics, Race, Nonfiction, Social Science, Sociology

323 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1996

About the author

Indian-born British writer, lecturer and broadcaster, trained in neurobiology and the history of science. As an academic author, his focus is on the philosophy of biology, and contemporary theories of multiculturalism, pluralism and race. These topics are core concerns in The Meaning of Race (1996), Man, Beast and Zombie (2000) and Strange Fruit: Why Both Sides Are Wrong in the Race Debate (2008).

Malik's work contains a forthright defence of the values of the 18th-century Enlightenment, which he sees as having been distorted and misunderstood in more recent political and scientific thought. He was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2010

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapters two and three really helped my understanding of the 18th and 19th century. Malik has a great writing style and makes the history of the discourse of race actually tolerable!

[Daniel Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six stars. This is the best, clearest, most important book I've read in 5 years.