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Very Short Introductions #161
Racism: A Very Short Introduction
From subtle discrimination in everyday life, to horrors like lynching in the Old South, cultural imperialism, and "ethnic cleansing," racism exists in many different forms, in almost every facet of society. Despite civil rights movements and other attempts at progress, racial prejudices and stereotypes remain deeply embedded in Western culture. Racism takes a frank and objective look at why these notions exist. It explores how racism has come to be so firmly established, and looks at how race, ethnicity, and xenophobia are related. This book incorporates the latest research to demystify the subject of racism and explore its history, science, and culture. It sheds light not only on how racism has evolved since its earliest beginnings, but also explores the numerous embodiments of racism, highlighting the paradox of its survival, despite the scientific discrediting of the notion of 'race' with the latest advances in genetics. As encompassing as it is concise, Racism is a valuable guide to one of the world's most destructive problems.
194 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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1396 people want to read
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November 17, 2013
There was a game show on British tv called Family Fortunes. One time the question was asked : “Name a dangerous race.” Quick as a flash, one guy banged his bell and shouted “Arabs!”. The game show host said no, that was not on the card. Another contestant guessed Formula One and she won that round.
I didn’t want to read a book on racism particularly, I wanted to find out about the history of the whole concept of “race” – how it developed, and what the current state of thinking is. But I couldn’t find one. It seems to be a pariah subject. However, a lot of this book is exactly what I was looking for.
You can see the development of scientific, secular thought over the last four hundred years as a little like the grand old Duke of York. We get marched up to the top of the hill, where we survey all around us from a perfect pinnacle of superior knowledge; but then we get marched back down again…
First there was the painful struggle to make any kind of basic sense of the material world. This led to the mania for classifying stuff (Noah, Linnaeus, Darwin, etc). Establishing categories is tough. But then, having got all this down, in nice neat lists, by the early 20th century, there came the modern desire to break it all down again, and disassemble all the hardwon clear lines – deconstructionists tear holes in texts and in readers, quantum physicists use the erasers on the end of their pencils to blur the boundaries between matter and time and yoghurt, and so on until as your man Marx said all that is solid melts into air.
So it goes with the idea of race. The human biologists and anthropologists of the 19th century built up many different taxonomies of race, all of which have been thrown in the Dumpster of Obsolete Ideas :
Even self-confessed racists appear to have as little agreement about how many races exist and how exactly they are to be differentiated. … This is simply because humanity cannot be divided into races. (p86)
…The concept of race is now regarded by the majority of biologists as having no credible scientific foundation. (p75)
He mentions the “one drop” rule which was applied in the law of the Southern States of the USA at one time – if you had even one drop of black blood in your veins, you were black. He says that if that rule applied the other way round, that if there was one drop of white blood in you, you were white, there would be very few black people left in America. This is to demonstrate the fatuity of hard and fast racial division – it can’t be done.
A personal aside : my Muslim friend grew up here in Nottingham being called a Paki. He was born in England, and his parents came here two or three years before the creation of the state of Pakistan in 1947. But still, all his life he’s been routinely shoved into this category. It’s even on British census forms. (“Ethnic origin : Pakistan” is one of the boxes you can tick on the forms, even though “Pakistan” is not an ethnicity because it’s a political invention.)
All right, so there’s no such thing as race! But of course there is such a thing as racism. It’s kind of like being an atheist in the Vatican – you know there’s no God, but all these people here are sure acting like there is one. So, with respect to modern thinking, saying there’s no such thing as race doesn’t get us very far. For a start, it makes the term racism a nonsense.
He doesn’t say so, but I think Rattansi might wish to rename racism as geo-culturalism, because that’s something he does accept the reality of – particular cultures which are located in particular places on the globe.
That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.
After dismantling race, Rattansi then trains his argument on racists. To be racist, you have to feel firstly that you yourself have an identity, individual and collective, which you consider different from other particular individuals. So far so obvious – the racist thing is to discriminate between one group (yours) and another. Rattansi tells us that the further we look at individual psychology, the more identity becomes difficult to grasp. You have multiple identities, not one. You may be a wife, mother, sister, daughter, Christian, adulterer, Greek-American, country music fan, blah blah, all in one person.
Identities are rarely coherent and integrated. They are prone to inconsistency and contradiction.
The different identities we have can involve different behaviours and moralities. We can see this in the bizarre lives led by concentration camp commandants, who led exemplary and affectionate family lives in houses within the grounds of the camps where thousands were dying every day.
The multiplicity of identities of individuals as well as the resulting de-centredness of their subjectivity is such that individuals are not always fully knowledgeable about the layers of identification in their makeup, nor in control of their responses, so that they may end up behaving in a manner they abhor and have long tried to avoid.
He is therefore critical of those who bandy the epithet “racist” in a manner he describes as “simplistic”. He’s trying to get away from arid, entrenched shouting matches.
So first, he deconstructs “race”, then “identity”, and then “racism”.
But he quotes the following statistic: in the USA, in 2001, the real median income of black families was 58% that of white families. Which was only 10% higher than the 1947 figure.
And : in South Central Los Angeles the ratio of primary care doctors to the population was 1 to 12,993 (in 2003). In Bel Air (a wealthy neighbourhood) it was 1 to 214.
This in spite of white Americans’ belief that serious racial discrimination is a thing of the past.
Anyway, we surely need no statistics here – the names of Stephen Lawrence, Jean Charles de Menezes, Rodney King, O J Simpson and Anders Behring Breivik ring out over the decades.
It’s a bit of a grim subject, but fans of irony won’t want to miss how Lord Macauley in 1835 proposed an Indian education system for producing “a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, opinions, in morals, and in intellect” who would act as “interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern”. This was the education system which led directly to creation of the nationalist movement and the overthrow of British rule. The British were interpreted right out of India.
This review could go on – I have to resist throwing in a paragraph about Trevor Phillips’ remark about Britain “sleepwalking into segregation” because of multiculturalism. And what about the whole Islamophobia debate – is that racism? Rattansi quotes the case of a white British guy previously married to a Chinese woman, currently living with a Jamaican woman, and waging a violent one-man bomb-throwing war against the local mosque. I would like to point out the rise and fall in local elections here of the British National Party, and the egregious slimebags in the English Defence League. Or how the British census, by trying to find out where public resources are most needed to combat institutionalised racism, perpetuates racist thinking by its insistence that everyone is categorised ("White: other"). But I have detained you too long.
This is a very thought-provoking introduction to a fearsomely complex problem which will not be going away any time soon.
I didn’t want to read a book on racism particularly, I wanted to find out about the history of the whole concept of “race” – how it developed, and what the current state of thinking is. But I couldn’t find one. It seems to be a pariah subject. However, a lot of this book is exactly what I was looking for.
You can see the development of scientific, secular thought over the last four hundred years as a little like the grand old Duke of York. We get marched up to the top of the hill, where we survey all around us from a perfect pinnacle of superior knowledge; but then we get marched back down again…
First there was the painful struggle to make any kind of basic sense of the material world. This led to the mania for classifying stuff (Noah, Linnaeus, Darwin, etc). Establishing categories is tough. But then, having got all this down, in nice neat lists, by the early 20th century, there came the modern desire to break it all down again, and disassemble all the hardwon clear lines – deconstructionists tear holes in texts and in readers, quantum physicists use the erasers on the end of their pencils to blur the boundaries between matter and time and yoghurt, and so on until as your man Marx said all that is solid melts into air.
So it goes with the idea of race. The human biologists and anthropologists of the 19th century built up many different taxonomies of race, all of which have been thrown in the Dumpster of Obsolete Ideas :
Even self-confessed racists appear to have as little agreement about how many races exist and how exactly they are to be differentiated. … This is simply because humanity cannot be divided into races. (p86)
…The concept of race is now regarded by the majority of biologists as having no credible scientific foundation. (p75)
He mentions the “one drop” rule which was applied in the law of the Southern States of the USA at one time – if you had even one drop of black blood in your veins, you were black. He says that if that rule applied the other way round, that if there was one drop of white blood in you, you were white, there would be very few black people left in America. This is to demonstrate the fatuity of hard and fast racial division – it can’t be done.
A personal aside : my Muslim friend grew up here in Nottingham being called a Paki. He was born in England, and his parents came here two or three years before the creation of the state of Pakistan in 1947. But still, all his life he’s been routinely shoved into this category. It’s even on British census forms. (“Ethnic origin : Pakistan” is one of the boxes you can tick on the forms, even though “Pakistan” is not an ethnicity because it’s a political invention.)
All right, so there’s no such thing as race! But of course there is such a thing as racism. It’s kind of like being an atheist in the Vatican – you know there’s no God, but all these people here are sure acting like there is one. So, with respect to modern thinking, saying there’s no such thing as race doesn’t get us very far. For a start, it makes the term racism a nonsense.
He doesn’t say so, but I think Rattansi might wish to rename racism as geo-culturalism, because that’s something he does accept the reality of – particular cultures which are located in particular places on the globe.
That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.
After dismantling race, Rattansi then trains his argument on racists. To be racist, you have to feel firstly that you yourself have an identity, individual and collective, which you consider different from other particular individuals. So far so obvious – the racist thing is to discriminate between one group (yours) and another. Rattansi tells us that the further we look at individual psychology, the more identity becomes difficult to grasp. You have multiple identities, not one. You may be a wife, mother, sister, daughter, Christian, adulterer, Greek-American, country music fan, blah blah, all in one person.
Identities are rarely coherent and integrated. They are prone to inconsistency and contradiction.
The different identities we have can involve different behaviours and moralities. We can see this in the bizarre lives led by concentration camp commandants, who led exemplary and affectionate family lives in houses within the grounds of the camps where thousands were dying every day.
The multiplicity of identities of individuals as well as the resulting de-centredness of their subjectivity is such that individuals are not always fully knowledgeable about the layers of identification in their makeup, nor in control of their responses, so that they may end up behaving in a manner they abhor and have long tried to avoid.
He is therefore critical of those who bandy the epithet “racist” in a manner he describes as “simplistic”. He’s trying to get away from arid, entrenched shouting matches.
So first, he deconstructs “race”, then “identity”, and then “racism”.
But he quotes the following statistic: in the USA, in 2001, the real median income of black families was 58% that of white families. Which was only 10% higher than the 1947 figure.
And : in South Central Los Angeles the ratio of primary care doctors to the population was 1 to 12,993 (in 2003). In Bel Air (a wealthy neighbourhood) it was 1 to 214.
This in spite of white Americans’ belief that serious racial discrimination is a thing of the past.
Anyway, we surely need no statistics here – the names of Stephen Lawrence, Jean Charles de Menezes, Rodney King, O J Simpson and Anders Behring Breivik ring out over the decades.
It’s a bit of a grim subject, but fans of irony won’t want to miss how Lord Macauley in 1835 proposed an Indian education system for producing “a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, opinions, in morals, and in intellect” who would act as “interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern”. This was the education system which led directly to creation of the nationalist movement and the overthrow of British rule. The British were interpreted right out of India.
This review could go on – I have to resist throwing in a paragraph about Trevor Phillips’ remark about Britain “sleepwalking into segregation” because of multiculturalism. And what about the whole Islamophobia debate – is that racism? Rattansi quotes the case of a white British guy previously married to a Chinese woman, currently living with a Jamaican woman, and waging a violent one-man bomb-throwing war against the local mosque. I would like to point out the rise and fall in local elections here of the British National Party, and the egregious slimebags in the English Defence League. Or how the British census, by trying to find out where public resources are most needed to combat institutionalised racism, perpetuates racist thinking by its insistence that everyone is categorised ("White: other"). But I have detained you too long.
This is a very thought-provoking introduction to a fearsomely complex problem which will not be going away any time soon.
October 24, 2020
Wichtige Fragen werden ausführlich diskutiert und verschiedene Perspektiven (Biologie, Soziologie, Geschichte) finden Gehör.
January 26, 2016
العنصرية
كيف و متى نشات؟
الاغريق و الرومان و الفراعنة المصرين و النوبيين
احد ابناء نوح يعاقب بالحرق و تغير لونه للسواد و هو جد الافارقة السود
ااصل الانواع و علم الجينات و الوراثة و داروين بالتاكيد
العنصرية ضد اليهود في اوروبا و الهولوكوست
مدى مشاركة الشعب الالماني في الهولوكست
و لماذا اليهود
السود مجددا و النهضة الاوربية و تجارة العبيد
العنصرية الحديثة
المهاجرين و الاسلاموفوبيا
العنصرية المؤسسية في العصر الحديث
كيف و متى نشات؟
الاغريق و الرومان و الفراعنة المصرين و النوبيين
احد ابناء نوح يعاقب بالحرق و تغير لونه للسواد و هو جد الافارقة السود
ااصل الانواع و علم الجينات و الوراثة و داروين بالتاكيد
العنصرية ضد اليهود في اوروبا و الهولوكوست
مدى مشاركة الشعب الالماني في الهولوكست
و لماذا اليهود
السود مجددا و النهضة الاوربية و تجارة العبيد
العنصرية الحديثة
المهاجرين و الاسلاموفوبيا
العنصرية المؤسسية في العصر الحديث
March 10, 2016
Unlike feminism, where you're spoilt for choice, finding a decent introductory book on racism is a lot more of a challenge. Fortunately the usually reliable 'A Very Short Introduction' series delivered the goods. Of course, being the only book on the subject I've ever read, this work may have flaws that I'm not aware of. But I found it accessible and thought provoking, making clear the whole topic has a level of complexity rarely touched on in the day to day reporting of racism by the media
July 4, 2020
A good, short introduction to a complex topic. I read the updated edition, which is quite current. A volume this brief on a broad topic will always have some blind spots. In this case, it suffers a bit from a near-exclusive focus on the West in general and Britain and America in particular. There is little made of racism among non-Western people (like, for instance, between Chinese and Japanese in the early 20th century). But still, this is a solid introduction to an academic field receiving renewed attention by many, now, and this is a more sober analysis than many currently popular polemics.
May 20, 2020
A very bias view on the subject intertwined with authors personal moral investment.
The first part of the book provides a decent quick summary of development of racism in western culture, the second part is a blunt anti-racism rhetoric.
My first issue is that Ali doesn't distinguish the general phenomenon of racism with a particular case of western racism, making readers wonder why the title of the book is not "western racism introduction..." .
Second, Ali ignores the particularities of immigration and cultural mix, which are essentially inseparable from racism. In Ali's opinion, racists are "ignorant and irrational" , thus is everyone was as smart as Ali, the world would be a much better place. Due to a shallow interpretation of facts Ali comes off as condescending, therefore, alike many other anti-racists, making a dialogue much harder for everyone.
The first part of the book provides a decent quick summary of development of racism in western culture, the second part is a blunt anti-racism rhetoric.
My first issue is that Ali doesn't distinguish the general phenomenon of racism with a particular case of western racism, making readers wonder why the title of the book is not "western racism introduction..." .
Second, Ali ignores the particularities of immigration and cultural mix, which are essentially inseparable from racism. In Ali's opinion, racists are "ignorant and irrational" , thus is everyone was as smart as Ali, the world would be a much better place. Due to a shallow interpretation of facts Ali comes off as condescending, therefore, alike many other anti-racists, making a dialogue much harder for everyone.
March 11, 2015
Breaking news: I read a non-fiction book. And it took me less than a month.
Although it didn't really have any badass main characters or loveable sidekicks, it had its fair share of dramatic twists and it definitely got me thinking.
What is race even? Who came up the idea of separating humans based on their appearance? And why?
What an interesting and relevant read.
Although it didn't really have any badass main characters or loveable sidekicks, it had its fair share of dramatic twists and it definitely got me thinking.
What is race even? Who came up the idea of separating humans based on their appearance? And why?
What an interesting and relevant read.
June 30, 2013
This book starts off strong and then fails to deliver in later chapters. Worth a read but it could have been better.
June 2, 2014
Covers the enormous ground of what 'race' is (it turns out not to signify much at all) and the history of what might be called racism in a hundred-odd concise and clear pages. A solid introduction.
August 21, 2020
Incredible, I highly recommend this for anyone interested in the past and present history of "race."
May 11, 2022
Racism has been a topic I’ve wanted to engage with for a while and I thought that a Very Short Introduction would be the perfect resource for that. Indeed, it gives an insight on the historic circumstances in which racism developed, how people suffered from it in the past and then moves into a section talking about modern and every-day racism. Those parts of the book have been very insightful to me, and I think I was able to take away a lot.
However, a few sections of the book focused very much on the terminology surrounding racism and as a non-native English speaker I found those very hard to understand and follow. These parts were frustrating to read as I was getting gradually more and more confused, and I think this part could have been executed in a more minimal way and with a simpler word choice to make it more accessible to everyone.
My favorite part of the book that I found most engaging was the part about modern-day racism and how it has played out in the recent years. Some of the insights were really fascinating and eye-opening.
I must mention that this is no handbook on how to be anti-racist, so don’t pick this up if that is what you are looking for. It is mor of a historical and philosophical breakdown of the topic and there are other books out there that will fulfill your needs better if you are looking for help in your personal journey.
4/5
One final word on the topic of Mesut Özil as it was used as an example of modern-day racism in Germany. Mesut Özil is a German soccer player who used to be on the national team for many years. Together with his still active colleague İlkay Gündoğan (also of Turkish heritage) he met the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shortly before the presidential election in Turkey. Both signed a tricot with a handwritten line that said, “With respect for my president”. Both players were harshly criticized for the timing of the meeting and the statement considering Erdoğan’s political controversies. In the subsequent matches both players were booed upon every contact with the ball. While I think booing has no place in any sport and while I am certain some of the people involved were acting out of racist motives instead of expressing their concern about the political statement, I think the general criticism in the media was justified and Özil’s behavior in particular was less than ideal and deescalating. He missed out on apologizing for the meeting and the implied support. On the contrary, Erdoğan was invited to his wedding as his best man in the following year after his resignation from the national team stating that the German Soccer Association did not protect him enough from the racism he encountered in this situation.
However, a few sections of the book focused very much on the terminology surrounding racism and as a non-native English speaker I found those very hard to understand and follow. These parts were frustrating to read as I was getting gradually more and more confused, and I think this part could have been executed in a more minimal way and with a simpler word choice to make it more accessible to everyone.
My favorite part of the book that I found most engaging was the part about modern-day racism and how it has played out in the recent years. Some of the insights were really fascinating and eye-opening.
I must mention that this is no handbook on how to be anti-racist, so don’t pick this up if that is what you are looking for. It is mor of a historical and philosophical breakdown of the topic and there are other books out there that will fulfill your needs better if you are looking for help in your personal journey.
4/5
One final word on the topic of Mesut Özil as it was used as an example of modern-day racism in Germany. Mesut Özil is a German soccer player who used to be on the national team for many years. Together with his still active colleague İlkay Gündoğan (also of Turkish heritage) he met the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shortly before the presidential election in Turkey. Both signed a tricot with a handwritten line that said, “With respect for my president”. Both players were harshly criticized for the timing of the meeting and the statement considering Erdoğan’s political controversies. In the subsequent matches both players were booed upon every contact with the ball. While I think booing has no place in any sport and while I am certain some of the people involved were acting out of racist motives instead of expressing their concern about the political statement, I think the general criticism in the media was justified and Özil’s behavior in particular was less than ideal and deescalating. He missed out on apologizing for the meeting and the implied support. On the contrary, Erdoğan was invited to his wedding as his best man in the following year after his resignation from the national team stating that the German Soccer Association did not protect him enough from the racism he encountered in this situation.
February 29, 2024
Racism: A Very Short Introduction by Ali Rattansi
Is introductory gold.
Rattansi’s latest edition reworks some parts and adds a whole chapter to deal with the rise of the far right and nationalism. Which seems to permeate every aspect of our current lives. It was good to have a more updated version, moving with the realities that even 10 years ago did not seem possible.
Moving beyond the United States centric world view, but still western view, we explore many concepts including what defines races, and racism, and how who is included in whiteness has morphed.
The one drop rule/ concept was very interesting given that in present society we self identify rather than are forced to identify.
The sexuality concepts interplaying with race, as well as xenophobia of colonising actors is fascinating to explore. Although a short introduction it does give proper weight to the subject and allows you to then explore more of each topic with its multiple sources.
What makes this book so good, as it is just an overview, is the tracking of racism in western society through history. How the justification changes or the “proof” changes but the bigotry, exclusion, or hatred stays the same. Going from the blatant disregarding of people as peoples written in laws to the (un)intended disregard of peoples by computer codes, school systems, etc etc
This book is for anyone who would like to explore or learn more about racism in history, society, institutions and the structure from which it forms.
Is introductory gold.
Rattansi’s latest edition reworks some parts and adds a whole chapter to deal with the rise of the far right and nationalism. Which seems to permeate every aspect of our current lives. It was good to have a more updated version, moving with the realities that even 10 years ago did not seem possible.
Moving beyond the United States centric world view, but still western view, we explore many concepts including what defines races, and racism, and how who is included in whiteness has morphed.
The one drop rule/ concept was very interesting given that in present society we self identify rather than are forced to identify.
The sexuality concepts interplaying with race, as well as xenophobia of colonising actors is fascinating to explore. Although a short introduction it does give proper weight to the subject and allows you to then explore more of each topic with its multiple sources.
What makes this book so good, as it is just an overview, is the tracking of racism in western society through history. How the justification changes or the “proof” changes but the bigotry, exclusion, or hatred stays the same. Going from the blatant disregarding of people as peoples written in laws to the (un)intended disregard of peoples by computer codes, school systems, etc etc
This book is for anyone who would like to explore or learn more about racism in history, society, institutions and the structure from which it forms.
Read
October 20, 2022It is a nice introduction to the subject. Unfortunately the pervasive liberalism of the author not only seem to muddle the discussion and offer vague terminology, but to blunt the edge of much of its criticism. The analysis is exceedingly focused on individuals and individuals’ actions to the point it argues that institutional is an outdated concept that should be overcome. The author makes the important point that racism is not an anomaly or the product of ignorance but in many cases a deliberate position, but from there he jumps to the conclusion that the best option is to debate racists out of their prejudices.
The outright whitewashing of the USSR and the workers’ movement to the history of antiracism is disappointing, but not surprising; but the omission of the role of colonialism and the genocides it perpetrated in Africa in shaping the Holocaust feels like nothing short of an omission. Indeed, the chapters about the Holocaust and Islamophobia are perhaps the weakest part.
The phrase that best illustrates this book to me was "combating and unraveling racisms are part of a continuous, long-term project. And it should be democratic, not authoritarian, in form." I.e., compliance with the protocols of liberal bourgeois democracy is more important and urgent than combating racism. And politely debating racists and showing them scientific studies will change their mind. Overall, feels like the work of an "enlightened centrist".
The outright whitewashing of the USSR and the workers’ movement to the history of antiracism is disappointing, but not surprising; but the omission of the role of colonialism and the genocides it perpetrated in Africa in shaping the Holocaust feels like nothing short of an omission. Indeed, the chapters about the Holocaust and Islamophobia are perhaps the weakest part.
The phrase that best illustrates this book to me was "combating and unraveling racisms are part of a continuous, long-term project. And it should be democratic, not authoritarian, in form." I.e., compliance with the protocols of liberal bourgeois democracy is more important and urgent than combating racism. And politely debating racists and showing them scientific studies will change their mind. Overall, feels like the work of an "enlightened centrist".
October 18, 2024
This was ok not great, as a primer on the subject it suffices; on the subject be sure to check out the. works by Thomas Sowell; Discrimination and Disparities, Social Justice Fallacies and as far as the whole race as non-entity goes: The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America, The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea and the magisterial: The Mismeasure of Man.
February 14, 2019
A very interesting, contextually-diverse analysis of racism that proceeds historically, sociologically, and biologically. It constantly reminds the reader that “racial frames of interpretation” have been perennial sources of untold suffering and injustice throughout human history, and that those enduring and mutating frames of reference are intimately tied together with other frames, such as nationalism, socioeconic class, religion, gender, sexuality, and other complex touchstones of identity. Although strategies for combatting racism are not explored explicitly in this book, there is a compelling and suggestive subtext that might condition effective activism: any “progress,” as regards 20th century racism, has been made by thoughtfully resisting simplistic categorizations of others as racist, on the one hand, or enlightened/altruistic, on the the other.
September 25, 2025
The audiobook version of this “very short introduction” managed to cram 10 pounds of information into a 5 pound bag. It was so informative, and so compelling, that before I got an hour into it, I ran over to the local bookstore and picked up a copy of it. It was the last one they had, of the dozens of other titles in the series in the bookstore. That suggests it may be pretty popular.
Rattansi define racism, racialism, gives examples of them throughout the western world. He discusses the controversies surrounding racial tensions in these areas, and where his academic perspective differs from those of others addressing the topic. It’s fascinating.
I hope to get to the book before the year is out. While the audiobook was great, this is going to be one of those subjects I’ll have to sit with a print version and take notes.
Rattansi define racism, racialism, gives examples of them throughout the western world. He discusses the controversies surrounding racial tensions in these areas, and where his academic perspective differs from those of others addressing the topic. It’s fascinating.
I hope to get to the book before the year is out. While the audiobook was great, this is going to be one of those subjects I’ll have to sit with a print version and take notes.
November 6, 2020
A quick history of racism
While reading this book, it is difficult not to think of current issues seen in today's society. But the main purpose of this work is strictly to give an understanding on how racism was used throughout the world's history, how it affects everyone (& not just one specific group of people), & how it has changed recently & how that can affect our future societies.
While reading this book, it is difficult not to think of current issues seen in today's society. But the main purpose of this work is strictly to give an understanding on how racism was used throughout the world's history, how it affects everyone (& not just one specific group of people), & how it has changed recently & how that can affect our future societies.
February 16, 2022
There was certainly some bias from the author on pieces here and there but, overall, I think anyone would benefit from this concise, academic work. The strength of this book, in my opinion, was how Rattansi consistantly demonstrated the complexity of racism. It entails having a framework of multiple disciplines (history, sociology, science, politics, etc). Rattansi does an admirable job addressing all of that in 160 pages!
abandonados
August 26, 2020No, cuanto más leo, más me cabreo. ¡Anda!, con pareado y todo.
El autor avisa en su introducción de que no se puede, ni debe, simplificar el racismo. Perfecto. Pues bien que simplifica la Historia. Me he quedado patidifusa con las explicaciones que da sobre ciertos hechos históricos y cómo ignora otros tantos.
Menuda decepción. Tendré que buscar otro ensayo sobre el tema.
El autor avisa en su introducción de que no se puede, ni debe, simplificar el racismo. Perfecto. Pues bien que simplifica la Historia. Me he quedado patidifusa con las explicaciones que da sobre ciertos hechos históricos y cómo ignora otros tantos.
Menuda decepción. Tendré que buscar otro ensayo sobre el tema.
April 30, 2021
Good Very Short Introduction
This VSI is like others I’ve read: concise and well-written. My main complaint with this book is that it tries to divide attention and examples between the UK and the USA, but it is clear the author is more knowledgeable about the UK issues than with the USA-specific examples. It took a bit (not much) away from my overall enjoyment.
This VSI is like others I’ve read: concise and well-written. My main complaint with this book is that it tries to divide attention and examples between the UK and the USA, but it is clear the author is more knowledgeable about the UK issues than with the USA-specific examples. It took a bit (not much) away from my overall enjoyment.
July 7, 2023
A useful book making many good points.
But it does not provide a definition
It does not mention class till chapter 6
and
It jumps across the Atlantic making Britain a bit like the US but does not highlight Asia Australia or Russia for example. It does survey Europe which is very interesting.
But it does not provide a definition
It does not mention class till chapter 6
and
It jumps across the Atlantic making Britain a bit like the US but does not highlight Asia Australia or Russia for example. It does survey Europe which is very interesting.
July 2, 2019
I liked the book. It was helpful to get a basic understanding of the topic presented. My only criticism is that it is very academically written, making it probably hard for some to follow along.
June 21, 2020
Ali Rattansi certainly tried his very best to give a nonbiased view of racism. Tried to give a different perspective, the only trouble most people try to make seem less complicated.
June 25, 2020
A comprehensive account of racism history.
August 5, 2020
I found this book helpful to see racism from a global and historical perspective. It’s an excellent primer for its size, and we'll written.
December 3, 2020
Really more of a 4.5 because it was relatively witty. Informative & just a smidge less dense than the other two texts I had to read for my class on Race & Racism.
April 24, 2021
سيئة للغاية
February 28, 2023
This rightfully feels like a 101 course in a college class.
February 9, 2024
This entire book could have been a blog post.
August 2, 2024
short and informational
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews