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Catching History on the Wing: Race, Culture and Globalisation
A. Sivanandan is a highly influential thinker on race, racism, globalisation and resistance. Since 1972, he has been the director of the Institute of Race Relations and the editor of Race & Class, which set the policy agenda on ethnicity and race in the UK and worldwide. Sivanandan has been writing for over forty years and this is the definitive collection of his work.
The articles selected span his entire career and are chosen for their relevance to today's most pressing issues. Included is a complete bibliography of Sivanandan’s writings, and an introduction by Colin Prescod (chair of the IRR), which sets the writings in context.
This book is highly relevant to undergraduate politics students and anyone reading or writing on race, ethnicity and immigration.
The articles selected span his entire career and are chosen for their relevance to today's most pressing issues. Included is a complete bibliography of Sivanandan’s writings, and an introduction by Colin Prescod (chair of the IRR), which sets the writings in context.
This book is highly relevant to undergraduate politics students and anyone reading or writing on race, ethnicity and immigration.
272 pages, Paperback
First published September 20, 2008
About the author
Ambalavaner Sivanandan
17 books27 followersAmbalavaner Sivanandan is director of the Institute of Race Relations and editor of Race & Class. His fiction includes When Memory Dies, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and winner of the Sagittarius Prize, and Where the Dance Is, both published by Arcadia Books.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 18, 2020
This book came highly recommended given my interest in race and imperialism, but I was left disappointed by the majority of the book, which I felt rambled for the most part
However the essays on state racism and resistance stood out and were illuminating, in particular the criticism of racial awareness training, which were the norm in the UK during the 80s, that believed racism is a white problem, as opposed to a problem of an exploitative white power structure. The author superbly demonstrates that white people are not born into power, rather they derive power from their position in a complex race/sex/class hierarchy, thus changing racist beliefs/attitudes will not deter racism, only a change in laws and institutions will do so e.g. housing officials who have undergone RAT cannot change housing conditions for the black working class, as long as the housing stock is limited/redlining exists etc.
However the essays on state racism and resistance stood out and were illuminating, in particular the criticism of racial awareness training, which were the norm in the UK during the 80s, that believed racism is a white problem, as opposed to a problem of an exploitative white power structure. The author superbly demonstrates that white people are not born into power, rather they derive power from their position in a complex race/sex/class hierarchy, thus changing racist beliefs/attitudes will not deter racism, only a change in laws and institutions will do so e.g. housing officials who have undergone RAT cannot change housing conditions for the black working class, as long as the housing stock is limited/redlining exists etc.
November 28, 2018
A brilliant book, have read some of the essays before but others particularly underpinning capitalism as the mover of racism (and imperialism) is brilliant
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews