style="font-size:15px;"> 162 176163 177
164 178
165 179
166 180
167 181
168 182
169 183
170 184
171 185
172 186
173 187
174 188
175 189
176 190
177 191
178 192
179 193
180 194
181 195
182 196
183 197
184 198
185 199
186 200
187 201
188 202
189 203
190 204
191 205
192 206
193 207
194 208
195 209
Dedication
This book is dedicated to scholars at risk of persecution. For more information see Scholars at Risk Network, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org
Multiracism
Rethinking Racism in Global Context
Alastair Bonnett
polity
Copyright Page
Copyright © Alastair Bonnett 2022
The right of Alastair Bonnett to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2022 by Polity Press
Polity Press
65 Bridge Street
Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK
Polity Press
101 Station Landing
Suite 300
Medford, MA 02155, USA
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3731-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3732-7(pb)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021939019
by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NL
The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.
Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.
For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Ian Law and Anoop Nayak, to Jonathan Skerrett and Karina Jákupsdóttir at Polity, Tim Clark for copy editing, and to the many students who have taken my courses at Newcastle University, especially ‘Geographies of Race and Nation’ and ‘International Perspectives on Race and Racism’. Thanks also to Rachel Holland for the idea for the cover image. I have learnt much from all the above. Disclaimer: all the opinions in this book are my own.
Introduction: Reframing Racisms
This book argues that racism has a diverse history with multiple roots and routes. It draws on examples of racism from across Asia and Africa in order to interrogate the connection between plural racisms and plural modernities.
Ethnic and racial studies is dominated by studies of racism in the West. Many of these studies assume that racism is a uniquely Western, European, and White practice and ideology. This assumption reflects the experience of racism in Western countries. However, one of its consequences is to allow racism to be ignored, downplayed or denied completely across the majority of the world and, hence, to make the pursuit of equality more difficult. Thus, for example, China’s former ‘paramount leader’ Deng Xiaoping could be confident that ‘since New China was founded in 1949, there has never been any ethnic discrimination in the country’.1 It was a point later elaborated by Premier Zhao Ziyang when he explained that racism is common ‘everywhere in the world except China’.2 A related and officially endorsed position is that ‘foreign instigation’ is the cause of racism and ethnic tensions in China.3 Yet, racism is better characterized as widespread in China than as non-existent. Dikötter suggests that the denial of this fact is a ‘rhetorical strategy used to delay the introduction of clear definitions of racial discrimination into the country’s legal system’.4 A similar pattern of denial in the face of overwhelming evidence can be found in many countries. One can read both that racism is ‘rampant in India’ and that it does not exist in India, for ‘“racism” is thought of as something that white people do to us’.5 In some cases the existence of discrimination is denied by a refusal to acknowledge the existence of ethnic or racial differences. The Government of Pakistan’s position, as stated in their 1977 report to a UN Committee, is that, in Pakistan, ‘there are no racial or ethnic minorities but only religious minorities’.6 Since ethnic tensions
