'Free speech' has become central to discussions about racism, and is increasingly weaponised against anti-racist movements. This book argues that the weaponization of 'free speech' across the political spectrum, particularly by the far-right/alt-right, has been central to the resurgence, rehabilitation and normalisation of racism within the mainstream politics of western liberal democracies in the last decade. The dilemma then, for anti-racist movements, is how to respond to such a challenge - for if 'free speech' allows racism, then it follows that the elimination of racism is not possible.
Anshuman A. Mondal argues that liberalism has made it look as if there is something called 'free speech' when, in fact, speech is enabled by the structures of power within which we are all embedded. These structures determine who gets to say what, and whose voices are heard. They create and sustain racism, and anti-racism should look beyond the mythology of 'free speech' and focus instead on creating expressive regimes that foster racial and social justice by reshaping social discourse and transforming racialized structures of power.
Recenzijos
Essential. A highly engaging read that incisively skewers liberal free speech shibboleths. It is both a primer on liberalism, free speech, racism, philosophy of language and an incisive intervention into contemporary debates. * Dr Anthony Leaker, University of Brighton, UK * Leading us through the intricacies of liberal political theory, Anshuman Mondal manages to deconstruct this theoretical history of ideas in order to illuminate present debates on so-called cancel culture and attended terms like identity politics. The book unpicks how these terms are weaponised liberal discourse, amongst other things. This is a work of great complexity and clarity. * Michael R. Griffiths, University of Wollongong, Australia * Mondals Racism and Free Speech [ reveals] the contradictions that underlie liberal conceptions of freedom and highlight[ s] the pitfalls inherent in trying to use these rhetorics of free speech and choice to achieve anything close to genuine freedom and equality. * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *
Daugiau informacijos
Explores how the idea of free speech has been central to the resurgence, rehabilitation and normalisation of racism within the mainstream politics.
Acknowledgements
Preface
A note on form and structure
1 What can you say?
2 Are you kidding me?
3 What the hell is going on?
Part 1 Opening
Part 2 Free Speech
The paradoxes of liberty
The rhetorical foundations of liberalism
The trope of infinite and perpetual openness
On persuasion
What do they know of freedom who only freedom know?
The indistinction of liberty
Freedom and foreclosure
4 On tolerance
5 Cancel culture
Part 3 Anti-/Racism
Speech/silence/ing
Speech and silence: an anti-racist dialectic
Racism is/not
How racism does its thing
Racism is what racism does
What did you say?
Whiteness and the transcendental imagination
Racisms gothic imaginary
Why anti-racists dont need free speech
Empowerment, not freedom
6 Coconuts
7 On statues, memorials and monuments
8 The paradox of (counter-)hegemony
Part 4 Shapes
A one-dimensional freedom
Discursive liquidity: the shaping of discourse
9 The case against no platforming is not an open and shut one
10 Safe spaces
11 On harassment and bullying
12 Paul Gilroy in Finsbury Park
Part 5 Closing
Some final thoughts on liberalism and anti-racism
References
Index
Anshuman A. Mondal is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of East Anglia. His research focusses on the construction of modern social and political identities, and the cultural politics attendant upon them. His books include Nationalism and Post-colonial Identity: Culture and Ideology in India and Egypt (2003), Amitav Ghosh (2007), and Young British Muslim Voices (2008). Since 2008, he has published extensively on the politics of free speech and is the author of Islam and Controversy: The Politics of Free Speech after Rushdie (2014).
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