Porn: Our colour blind spot when it comes to racism

by Yomi Adegoke  The general consensus among left-leaning thinkers is that stereotypes, especially harmful, racist ones, are never a good thing. Especially if those stereotypes are being peddled in part for the purposes of sexual gratification and fetishisation. The exception, of course, is when they are solely for sexual gratification and fetishisation. Then, apparently, it’s ‘complicated’.… Read More

‘Her nose was straight with a soft tip at the end’ — Writing Race at School

by Clare Warner  The set texts for GCSE English literature still strongly favour the works of Anglo-British novelists, poets and playwrights above all others. Although many educators and academics have rightly critiqued the Eurocentrism of the National Curriculum, few studies have attempted to demonstrate and quantify the impact on students of a Eurocentric curriculum, which… Read More

Among A Race Of Others: An Overview Of Western Racial Classification And Colourism

by Anthony Anaxagorou Recently, a friend asked what makes someone a ‘person of colour’. For many White people and for many people of colour too, the term can seem strangely ambiguous. The ongoing refugee crisis has seen thousands of displaced people trying to enter Europe from the Middle East or East Africa adding yet another dimension… Read More

Visible Ordinariness: the journey towards protection, acceptance and equality for trans people

Or: Clear and Present Transgender by Suzy Wrong Visibility for many trans people is a conundrum. Unlike our genderqueer compatriots, we often work for ideas of gender that seem to be about, above all, conformity and normality, which in turn implies a certain ordinariness and social invisibility. In early stages of our individual transitions, we… Read More

Radical Love Comes With Rage

by Alexandra Wanjiku Kelbert   ‘Why do you hate white people?’ is a non-question, an accusatory statement we as black and brown activists have had to learn to address. Everyday we are told by strangers, by our housemates, our parents that we hate. Many of us are shamed and publicly mocked for the safe spaces we… Read More

Diversity is Dead, and Whiteness Killed It

As “Diversity” reaches its final commodified form, with panel events, multiple op-eds and speeches by politicans that ring hollow, Shane Thomas argues that the focus should not be on the lack of people of colour, but rather on interrogating whiteness “People like the idea of diversity. They just don’t like being around different people” Diversity. One… Read More

Why Won’t Hipsters Integrate?

by Raf   While I was listening to Eminem, the story of a struggling white man trying to eke out a living within a reverse-racist black dominated rap industry, with nothing but a handful of witticisms about how craps his mum was I stumbled across the biggest cultural appropriation heist since Europeans started doing Yoga… Read More

‘Integration’ or ‘Assimilation’ is a Two-sided Negotiation

A much older cousin lived in London’s Turkish neighbourhood of Green Lanes for forty years, and never learnt to speak English. She earned money tailoring clothes from a sewing machine in her living room. She shopped in local stores owned and frequented by other Turks. She socialised with her family. There was —as she saw… Read More

Too Black to be Arab, too Arab to be Black

by Leena Habiballa Within every Sudanese diasporan is an unceasing internal dialogue about where we fit in the dominant racial order. Sudan is one of the most ethnically, culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse places on the African continent. It was also home to some of the most ancient civilisations in African memory. But today it… Read More

Why Do We Need Activism?

by Shane Thomas “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” – Dr. Cornel West I think of myself as a hopeful pessimist. I don’t think things will turn out alright. I don’t believe in the milk of human kindness. I don’t think we collectively learn from history. But I always hope… Read More