Down and Out in Paris and London 2018

Arooj Khan and Yacine Gherouat unpack the similarities in the lived experiences of Paris-based and London-based Muslims Read More

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Theresa May’s real Easter message: colonial nostalgia and hypocrisy

  By Ali Meghji  Easter celebrates the resurrection of Christ. But Theresa May’s Easter message displayed another type of resurrection, that of a nationalism which reeks of Empire, colonialism, and religious superiority. The Prime Minister spoke of the role that Christian values have to play in British society. Yet, Christian values, just like any other… Read More

Theo and the distinctly sexual flavour of French racism

by Guilaine Kinouani  Content warning: contains detailed descriptions of sexual abuse On 2 February, a 22-year-old black French man named Theo was allegedly violently raped with a police truncheon, gang assaulted and racially abused by four French police officers in the Parisian suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois. So severe were the anal injuries sustained by Theo that… Read More

Invasion and Resistance: Aboriginal and Maori fighters take up arms against the British

by Karen Williams While little attention is paid to black and Asian prisoners transported during the colonisation of Australia, there is even less information about local Aboriginal people and the neighbouring Maori fighters who were exiled to or within Australia. Their exile happened as part of their wider experiences of organised resistance against colonisation and… Read More

The new Jungle Book tries to bypass racism by erasing identities altogether

by Rajeev Balasubramanyam  George Orwell called Rudyard Kipling ‘the prophet of British imperialism… morally insensitive and aesthetically disgusting.’ And yet eighty years after Kipling’s death, Disney’s adaption of his Jungle Books (itself a remake of the 1967 original) has become a global success and the second highest grossing film of this month. Have we really progressed… Read More

Zac Goldsmith embraces racial stereotypes and colonial tactics in a bid for the minority vote

by Danika Parikh  By now you’ve probably seen Zac Goldsmith’s election material aimed specifically at various South Asian communities in London. The fliers, delivered last week to people’s homes and aimed at British Indians, Tamils, and Sikhs list Goldsmith’s support for controversial Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his “record of engagement with the… Read More

France, Terrorism and the Dual Nationality Drama

by Iman Amrani This week the French National Assembly voted to back Hollande’s proposal to strip convicted binational terrorists of their French nationality. The debate has become so divisive that two weeks ago, French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira resigned after publicly disagreeing with the President and it continues to dominate the French headlines as it looks… Read More

ART AND EMPIRE @ TATE BRITAIN

by Zarina Muhammad   Institutions can never satisfactorily deal with confronting colonialism’s past and present. That is a fact. They never go far enough. There is never any real denouncement, never any sincere apology, or rather, confrontation of the subject. I went to see Artist and Empire with some brown friends and we were loud and… Read More