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Not So Black and White: A History of Race from White Supremacy to Identity Politics
Is white privilege real? How racist is the working class? Why has left-wing antisemitism grown? Who benefits most when anti-racists speak in racial terms?
The ‘culture wars’ have generated ferocious argument, but little clarity. This book takes the long view, explaining the real origins of ‘race’ in Western thought, and tracing its path from those beginnings in the Enlightenment all the way to our own fractious world. In doing so, leading thinker Kenan Malik upends many assumptions underpinning today’s heated debates around race, culture, whiteness and privilege.
Malik interweaves this history of ideas with a parallel the story of the modern West’s long, failed struggle to escape ideas of race, leaving us with a world riven by identity politics. Through these accounts, he challenges received wisdom, revealing the forgotten history of a racialised working class, and questioning fashionable concepts like cultural appropriation.
Not So Black and White is both a lucid history rewriting the story of race, and an elegant polemic making an anti-racist case against the politics of identity.
The ‘culture wars’ have generated ferocious argument, but little clarity. This book takes the long view, explaining the real origins of ‘race’ in Western thought, and tracing its path from those beginnings in the Enlightenment all the way to our own fractious world. In doing so, leading thinker Kenan Malik upends many assumptions underpinning today’s heated debates around race, culture, whiteness and privilege.
Malik interweaves this history of ideas with a parallel the story of the modern West’s long, failed struggle to escape ideas of race, leaving us with a world riven by identity politics. Through these accounts, he challenges received wisdom, revealing the forgotten history of a racialised working class, and questioning fashionable concepts like cultural appropriation.
Not So Black and White is both a lucid history rewriting the story of race, and an elegant polemic making an anti-racist case against the politics of identity.
486 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 5, 2023
21 people are currently reading
843 people want to read
About the author
Kenan Malik
13 books63 followersIndian-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
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
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December 24, 2023
Let's be honest here, I think I picked up the book 'Not so black and white' (2023) by Kenan Malik primarily because my long term crush Olufemi Taiwo recommended it. Or because it's been a while since I've obsessed over Marxist critiques of identity politics (primarily tied to US election cycles, 2016, 2020) and my sheer, sheer agony about the so-called woke left supporting progressive neoliberalism (these days also wars) rather than a truly progressive political project. Oh shit, it's almost 2024 and election year, so I guess my subconscious is already getting ready for another round of liberals explaining that the lesser evil is the best path forward. Lord, help me.
So, bigger picture, the book takes a long view, explaining the real origins of race and why culture war anti-racism is, essentially, philosophically and politically, flawed (as much as liberal feminism and other identity politics offshoots).
I've read several good books on this, to mind coming 'Mistaken Identity' (2018) by Asad Haider and of course 'Elite Capture' (2022) by Olufemi Taiwo but there are tons of books ripping through the identity politics understanding of anti-racism and the whole white privilege shebang (of course all building in one way or another also on black radical thinkers such as WEB Du Bois, CLR James, Fanon, Aimé Cesaire, etc - btw 'Black Marxism' (1983) by Cedric Robinson is a must read too).
Anyway, what's new here? A few take-aways:
#1 - Main starting point of the book: Enlightenment is the age that invented the concepts of both equality and race. Racial ideology was the inevitable production of the persistence of differences of rank, class and people in a society that had accepted the concept of equality.
#2 - colonialism/ slavery and the invention of blackness : this is also consensus I guess: slavery was not invented by European colonists (it existed in antiquity, albeit without racial connotations) but New World Slavery was distinct in two ways: geographically distinct; less restrained by the moral norms and social customs of the Old World societies and racialized in a way unseen before: racial ideas did not lead to the use of African slaves. But as black slaves became the predominant labour force in the new world plantations, it helped establish the categories of racial divisions.
#3 Early 17th century colonial life was structured by class distinctions not racial divisions (having both black and white slaves/ indentured servants. There was no white identity across class lines. European elites would have developed a slave system utilizing poor whites had it been practically possible. Transatlantic slavery did not develop for racial reasons. Over time, slavery became racialized, it was necessary to justify the acceptance of servitude in a society that proclaimed its fidelity to freedom and liberty. Racialization of slavery became a means of doing so as.
For Victorian elites the working class was as racially distinct from the middle class - the kind of view Americans imposed on European migrants, European elites imposed on their working class and poor.
#4 - Race was then ideologically consolidated by 19th century new science of human nature and 19th century biological pessimism (unlike 18th century optimism about about man). While 18th century philosophy explained diversity, for 19th century philosophy diversity was the explanation. This was a change that prepared the the ground for modern racial thinking.
#5 - By the dawn of the 20th century, social developments coalesced to consolidate whiteness as an identity, most important the extension of democracy at home and of imperialism abroad - both helped transform the way that people understood race and class, giving rise to the kind of racial thinking that still persists today.
WEB Du Bois: The problem of the 20th century became the problem of the colour line, strengthened by New Imperialism, racial thinking became a mass phenomenon (and still drives western support or ignorance vis-a-vis wars and exploitation in the global south).
#6 - How does anti-semitism fit into this given that anti-semitism is older than modernity. Anti-semitism transformed from a hatred on religious grounds in pre-modern times to a racial ideology in the 19th century. Antisemitism is rooted in ideas of global conspiracy and in hostiluty to modernity and cosmopolitanism.
#7Side note: I always realize how much colonialism wasn't taught at school (maybe this changed by now). Nazism was taught as coming out of nowhere (Wall Street crash lol) rather than how much the nazis drew upon pre-existing cultural attitudes and practices; ideas about extermination and about 'who should and should not inhabit the world were common place in 19th and 20th century discussions of colonialism and "primitive peoples" (Hannah Arendt etc) - the new thing was that it was applied to non-European peoples (and the 'industrial scale'). We also never learned about the third great Enlightenment revolution, following the American and French, the Haitian Revolution - it just didn't matter enough it seems ('Black Jacobins' by CLR James blew my mind as I was totally unaware. Liberal imperialist consensus - brown folks lives don't matter; look at the 20,0000 Palestinians killed in broad daylight. Imagine these were white folks.
#8 Origin of 21st century identity politics: 20th century New Left disaffection with both the Enlightenment and working class (new social movements as surrogate proletariats). Class turned to culture also turning culture into surrogate for race.
#9- Identity politics (coined in 1977 by the American Combahee River Collective). As for many identity movements in the 1960s and 1970s, their specific struggle was inextricably attached to broader campaigns for change. As labour movement organizations and radical struggles disintegrated through the 1980s and beyond, so the recognition of identity became not a means to and end (radical change) but an end in itself (progressive neoliberalism).
#10 Left wing identity politics, post-liberal 'white working class' populism, as well as
far right identitarians reject universalist claims and are suspicious of the very notion of equality (their hostilities to universalism and Enlightenment ideals emerged from different places, ideologically speaking). However, universalist lens is needed to unite and build solidarity across struggles to advance progressive social transformation. Much has been written on this elsewhere and how the unstitching of the economic and the political is both cause and consequence of this. It encourages an identitarian view of social problems by delinking race and class and obscuring the social and political roots of both working class inequalities and racial justice.
#11 Political implications: need to resurrect radical universalism not as an idea but a social movement; racism not a singular problem but other forms of inequities. I do see this in the US left, bringing together struggles over migration, abortion, worker's right, health care, criminal justice - let's not forget it was mostly young brown folks who made Biden win over the orange guy (closing the loop again to US election cycles :-/).
#12 Overall great read, also good summary of the many books already written on this (excellent bibliography for those looking for a major rabbit hole to disappear in for the next few years 🤓)
So, bigger picture, the book takes a long view, explaining the real origins of race and why culture war anti-racism is, essentially, philosophically and politically, flawed (as much as liberal feminism and other identity politics offshoots).
I've read several good books on this, to mind coming 'Mistaken Identity' (2018) by Asad Haider and of course 'Elite Capture' (2022) by Olufemi Taiwo but there are tons of books ripping through the identity politics understanding of anti-racism and the whole white privilege shebang (of course all building in one way or another also on black radical thinkers such as WEB Du Bois, CLR James, Fanon, Aimé Cesaire, etc - btw 'Black Marxism' (1983) by Cedric Robinson is a must read too).
Anyway, what's new here? A few take-aways:
#1 - Main starting point of the book: Enlightenment is the age that invented the concepts of both equality and race. Racial ideology was the inevitable production of the persistence of differences of rank, class and people in a society that had accepted the concept of equality.
#2 - colonialism/ slavery and the invention of blackness : this is also consensus I guess: slavery was not invented by European colonists (it existed in antiquity, albeit without racial connotations) but New World Slavery was distinct in two ways: geographically distinct; less restrained by the moral norms and social customs of the Old World societies and racialized in a way unseen before: racial ideas did not lead to the use of African slaves. But as black slaves became the predominant labour force in the new world plantations, it helped establish the categories of racial divisions.
#3 Early 17th century colonial life was structured by class distinctions not racial divisions (having both black and white slaves/ indentured servants. There was no white identity across class lines. European elites would have developed a slave system utilizing poor whites had it been practically possible. Transatlantic slavery did not develop for racial reasons. Over time, slavery became racialized, it was necessary to justify the acceptance of servitude in a society that proclaimed its fidelity to freedom and liberty. Racialization of slavery became a means of doing so as.
For Victorian elites the working class was as racially distinct from the middle class - the kind of view Americans imposed on European migrants, European elites imposed on their working class and poor.
#4 - Race was then ideologically consolidated by 19th century new science of human nature and 19th century biological pessimism (unlike 18th century optimism about about man). While 18th century philosophy explained diversity, for 19th century philosophy diversity was the explanation. This was a change that prepared the the ground for modern racial thinking.
#5 - By the dawn of the 20th century, social developments coalesced to consolidate whiteness as an identity, most important the extension of democracy at home and of imperialism abroad - both helped transform the way that people understood race and class, giving rise to the kind of racial thinking that still persists today.
WEB Du Bois: The problem of the 20th century became the problem of the colour line, strengthened by New Imperialism, racial thinking became a mass phenomenon (and still drives western support or ignorance vis-a-vis wars and exploitation in the global south).
#6 - How does anti-semitism fit into this given that anti-semitism is older than modernity. Anti-semitism transformed from a hatred on religious grounds in pre-modern times to a racial ideology in the 19th century. Antisemitism is rooted in ideas of global conspiracy and in hostiluty to modernity and cosmopolitanism.
#7Side note: I always realize how much colonialism wasn't taught at school (maybe this changed by now). Nazism was taught as coming out of nowhere (Wall Street crash lol) rather than how much the nazis drew upon pre-existing cultural attitudes and practices; ideas about extermination and about 'who should and should not inhabit the world were common place in 19th and 20th century discussions of colonialism and "primitive peoples" (Hannah Arendt etc) - the new thing was that it was applied to non-European peoples (and the 'industrial scale'). We also never learned about the third great Enlightenment revolution, following the American and French, the Haitian Revolution - it just didn't matter enough it seems ('Black Jacobins' by CLR James blew my mind as I was totally unaware. Liberal imperialist consensus - brown folks lives don't matter; look at the 20,0000 Palestinians killed in broad daylight. Imagine these were white folks.
#8 Origin of 21st century identity politics: 20th century New Left disaffection with both the Enlightenment and working class (new social movements as surrogate proletariats). Class turned to culture also turning culture into surrogate for race.
#9- Identity politics (coined in 1977 by the American Combahee River Collective). As for many identity movements in the 1960s and 1970s, their specific struggle was inextricably attached to broader campaigns for change. As labour movement organizations and radical struggles disintegrated through the 1980s and beyond, so the recognition of identity became not a means to and end (radical change) but an end in itself (progressive neoliberalism).
#10 Left wing identity politics, post-liberal 'white working class' populism, as well as
far right identitarians reject universalist claims and are suspicious of the very notion of equality (their hostilities to universalism and Enlightenment ideals emerged from different places, ideologically speaking). However, universalist lens is needed to unite and build solidarity across struggles to advance progressive social transformation. Much has been written on this elsewhere and how the unstitching of the economic and the political is both cause and consequence of this. It encourages an identitarian view of social problems by delinking race and class and obscuring the social and political roots of both working class inequalities and racial justice.
#11 Political implications: need to resurrect radical universalism not as an idea but a social movement; racism not a singular problem but other forms of inequities. I do see this in the US left, bringing together struggles over migration, abortion, worker's right, health care, criminal justice - let's not forget it was mostly young brown folks who made Biden win over the orange guy (closing the loop again to US election cycles :-/).
#12 Overall great read, also good summary of the many books already written on this (excellent bibliography for those looking for a major rabbit hole to disappear in for the next few years 🤓)
September 5, 2025
Three books in one. Or better, two books and an essay. And the last two essayistic chapters deal with what I expected from this publication, a analysis of current debates on identity politics in the UK.
The first part deals with the emergence of racialist and culturalist thought in the West which is unseparable from slavery in the Americas and the transatlantic slave trade. He sketches the emergence of racism as well as it's critique during the Enlightenment, and as in the case of Kant, how thinkers occasionally shifted from one position to the other. He pays particular attention to Herder to whom he - not as the first one - an ambiguous influence on later discussions on race as he emphasizes the equality of humans but asserts that cultures are incompatible. When it comes to Britain in the 19th/ early 20th centuries he differentiates between liberal universalists arguing that liberties are first supposed to be granted to non-Europeans after they have been educated, and radicals who regarded the Liberation of the colonized as part of the social struggles in Britain herself.
What he writes on Germany is rather flawed and not based on knowledge of relevant research literature, in particular the evaluation of the Holocaust as "colonial racism come home" although that fits very well the treatment of Slavs under German occupation. For the extermination of a group considered as bloodsuckers other events served as models, not least the Armenian genocide. Moreover the path to Nazi eugenics was rather paved by the Left than by traditional conservatives.
The first part concerns a number of faults concerning general history. The most prominent one is the assertion that apart from the UK all Europe was absolutist in the 18th century. The Dutch Republic? The Swiss Confederacy? The "republic of nobles" in Poland-Lithuania etc. etc.?
The second part starts with the Haitian revolution which Malik places in the universalist tradition, but continues with an account of Afro-Americans struggles for liberation. He contrasts universalists (MLK) and Herderian essentialists (as for example Malcolm X). Furthermore he stresses how strongly these struggles where - unlike contemporary identity politics - aiming at a general improvement of social conditions. These chapters improved my general understanding of American politics considerable, and I rate them the best part of the book.
In the last two chapters Malik expresses his dissatisfaction at how commitment to anti-racism as part of a general struggle to improve the conditions of the lower classes has been by essentialist identity politics which is often class blind and which in some respects argues similar to right wing "ethnopluralists". The arguments resemble those of Yascha Mounk's Identity Trap, but Maliks discussion is brief and superficial.
3/4/2 makes 3.
The first part deals with the emergence of racialist and culturalist thought in the West which is unseparable from slavery in the Americas and the transatlantic slave trade. He sketches the emergence of racism as well as it's critique during the Enlightenment, and as in the case of Kant, how thinkers occasionally shifted from one position to the other. He pays particular attention to Herder to whom he - not as the first one - an ambiguous influence on later discussions on race as he emphasizes the equality of humans but asserts that cultures are incompatible. When it comes to Britain in the 19th/ early 20th centuries he differentiates between liberal universalists arguing that liberties are first supposed to be granted to non-Europeans after they have been educated, and radicals who regarded the Liberation of the colonized as part of the social struggles in Britain herself.
What he writes on Germany is rather flawed and not based on knowledge of relevant research literature, in particular the evaluation of the Holocaust as "colonial racism come home" although that fits very well the treatment of Slavs under German occupation. For the extermination of a group considered as bloodsuckers other events served as models, not least the Armenian genocide. Moreover the path to Nazi eugenics was rather paved by the Left than by traditional conservatives.
The first part concerns a number of faults concerning general history. The most prominent one is the assertion that apart from the UK all Europe was absolutist in the 18th century. The Dutch Republic? The Swiss Confederacy? The "republic of nobles" in Poland-Lithuania etc. etc.?
The second part starts with the Haitian revolution which Malik places in the universalist tradition, but continues with an account of Afro-Americans struggles for liberation. He contrasts universalists (MLK) and Herderian essentialists (as for example Malcolm X). Furthermore he stresses how strongly these struggles where - unlike contemporary identity politics - aiming at a general improvement of social conditions. These chapters improved my general understanding of American politics considerable, and I rate them the best part of the book.
In the last two chapters Malik expresses his dissatisfaction at how commitment to anti-racism as part of a general struggle to improve the conditions of the lower classes has been by essentialist identity politics which is often class blind and which in some respects argues similar to right wing "ethnopluralists". The arguments resemble those of Yascha Mounk's Identity Trap, but Maliks discussion is brief and superficial.
3/4/2 makes 3.
March 18, 2024
Livro argumenta que as ideias emancipatórias e universalistas do Iluminismo teriam, com o tempo, sendo corrompidas tanto pela esquerda quanto pela direita. Conservadores, adaptando o universalismo iluminista às práticas do colonialismo e escravidão, apegaram-se ao conceito de raça, forçando a leitura condicional de direitos naturais e igualdade entre homens. À esquerda, a supressão do legado iluminista foi resultado de um movimento ideológico anti-iluminista que tem como seu ponto de partida na Escola de Frankfurt. As visões de Adorno e cia sobre o Iluminismo que levaram a uma relativização do legado intelectual Europeu, encontrou farto terreno em movimentos políticos que encontravam-se em uma posição de resignação diante da aparente impossibilidade de emancipação humana. Adotando postura mais pessimista, esses movimentos acabam por firmar bases para uma reconstrução do discurso racial de práticas valorativas. Ocorre que racismo valorativo também é racismo.
Dessa forma, formou-se tanto na esquerda, quanto na direita, visões ideoloógicas sobre a questão racial de corte essencialmente anti-iluminista. O autor conclui o livro chamando atenção para a necessidade de se construir movimentos sociais à esquerda que recuperem a tradição iluminista recusando o pessimismo anti-emancipatório da esquerda moderna.
É um bom livro, objetivo e com argumentos bem articulados. É o principal livro que conheço na temática "identitary politics is anti-working class bullshit".
Dessa forma, formou-se tanto na esquerda, quanto na direita, visões ideoloógicas sobre a questão racial de corte essencialmente anti-iluminista. O autor conclui o livro chamando atenção para a necessidade de se construir movimentos sociais à esquerda que recuperem a tradição iluminista recusando o pessimismo anti-emancipatório da esquerda moderna.
É um bom livro, objetivo e com argumentos bem articulados. É o principal livro que conheço na temática "identitary politics is anti-working class bullshit".
May 18, 2023
From the Scottsboro Boys in 1931, Tennessee, to the mass shootings in two mosques in 2019, New Zealand, this is a call to decolonise history, link back class with antiracism and a claim for social transformation.
«Neither the Nazi nor the Holocaust, emerged out of nothing. They were made possible by the ideas of race that had become deeply rooted in Western societies and by the practices of colonialism. When a 'moderate' American politician, Theodore Roosevelt, a decade before he became President, could talk of the extermination of Native Americans as 'moral' because their lives were 'but a few degress less meaningless, squalid, and ferocious than that of the wild beasts' (...) when, in 1933, the Nazis could borrow the American Model Eugenical Sterilization law almost in total for their own eugenic law».
«The term 'concentration camp' was first used to describe Britain's policy in the Boer War of creating large encampments to detain some 30,000 Boer women and children and more than 100,000 African and "coloured" people. Britain had drawn on the experience of Spanish colonial forces in Cuba where, in 1896, General Valeriano Weyler imposed a policy of 'reconcentración' - relocationg hundreds of thousands of Cubans into barbed-wire camps in an effort to isolate rebel fighters».
«Neither the Nazi nor the Holocaust, emerged out of nothing. They were made possible by the ideas of race that had become deeply rooted in Western societies and by the practices of colonialism. When a 'moderate' American politician, Theodore Roosevelt, a decade before he became President, could talk of the extermination of Native Americans as 'moral' because their lives were 'but a few degress less meaningless, squalid, and ferocious than that of the wild beasts' (...) when, in 1933, the Nazis could borrow the American Model Eugenical Sterilization law almost in total for their own eugenic law».
«The term 'concentration camp' was first used to describe Britain's policy in the Boer War of creating large encampments to detain some 30,000 Boer women and children and more than 100,000 African and "coloured" people. Britain had drawn on the experience of Spanish colonial forces in Cuba where, in 1896, General Valeriano Weyler imposed a policy of 'reconcentración' - relocationg hundreds of thousands of Cubans into barbed-wire camps in an effort to isolate rebel fighters».
June 3, 2025
Not bad, but around 15-20% of the book is questionable.
Read
November 2, 2024Ch. 6-10
Interessant ma moeilijk zonder achtergrond :/
Interessant ma moeilijk zonder achtergrond :/
June 16, 2024
Very thought provoking and the best book on race, identity politics and related issues that I have read. It’s too subtle a book to try to summarise in a few words but it challenges thoughts about how we see ourselves as human beings and relate to others. The historical context to race is fascinating as are the historical examples. A book I will go back to and read again, slowly and carefully.
June 13, 2023
An interesting and educating book. Makes a compeling case for the race vs class identity and how identity politics are a smoke screen for the failure to address economic inequality.
November 2, 2023
An immensely impressive achievement. The reach of Malik's scholarship across the history of the idea of racism is quite astonishing. To simplify a sophisticated and subtle book, I would say its heart is that economic oppression is permanent and pervasive and it has often been convenient to use race as a justification. But is has also been the case that many White English people, Irish, Jews across Europe have all been under the heel of this discrimination too. But you really do need to read the book.
And I found the way in which both the extreme right and extreme left can find common cause through identity politics especially persuasive and profoundly disheartening.
Please read this thought provoking call to sanity.
And I found the way in which both the extreme right and extreme left can find common cause through identity politics especially persuasive and profoundly disheartening.
Please read this thought provoking call to sanity.
July 10, 2024
I found this a very interesting and informative read. As you'd expect from Kenan Malik, it recognises contradictions and complications and eschews simplistic and one-sided conclusions. It is mainly a historical exploration, with some analysis of current political trends. I'd have really liked more of the latter, but the historical context is really useful. It is building a different framework of thinking around race.
October 14, 2023
A very interesting analysis of race and racial identity, but I felt it got a bit bogged down towards the end. Certainly I struggled with the final chapter - very dense, almost impenetrable. But the earlier chapters on the history of race and the developments of the concept of race as a construct were very illuminating
October 11, 2024
An expansive and ambitious (at times overly so) analysis of the origins and history of race and racism from a western perspective. I especially appreciated the description of the tension between universalism and identitarianism and the robust takedown of the current obsession with identity politics. 8/10
April 23, 2024
A very interesting read about the development of the idea of race and how that intersects with class, and one I hadn’t given a super lot of thought to, probably because as the last 2 chapters make apparent, the two ideas have become largely divorced from each other in the model world.
October 15, 2024
I cannot emphasise enough how important I believe it is that you reading this review, whoever you are, read and engage with the ideas in this book. We'll pull each other and then ourselves apart if we don't.
December 26, 2023
How in the Nine do I review this?!
*Something* coming (maybe not so) soon. Generally books don't take me eight months to read.
*Something* coming (maybe not so) soon. Generally books don't take me eight months to read.
December 9, 2024
Best book I have read all year.
January 15, 2025
Really fascinating book
Read
March 1, 2025A seriously excellent book that explores the flaws of identity politics and how its ideology can be so easily co-opted by the far right. Time to do some reading on universalism!
May 25, 2025
Masterful.
Kenan Malik is one of the best writers in Britain today.
Kenan Malik is one of the best writers in Britain today.
March 22, 2024
A little scattered in terms of the overall theme of the book. But some interesting history and a good read.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews