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Jenkins: I've really got one question for the panel before I go out to you, so if they could keep their comments brief. I was very interested in what you said, Adam - and perhaps Kenan can begin - when you said anti-racism shares the same basis as racism. Obviously we like to think that we live in a very anti-racist society now, so can we have a few more thoughts on that, can we expend it a little bit? Kenan Malik: I agree very much with what Adam said on this. I think both racism and anti-racism - or rather contemporary anti-racism - are rooted in a romantic notion of human differences in the way Adam described, of human beings as being composed of incommensurate groups, each with particular essences, each with particular lifestyles, values, beliefs and so on, with the difference being that 19th century racial scientists considered these groups to be established on a racial hierarchy, on an evolutionary hierarchy with some higher than others, while the contemporary multi-culturalists regard different groups on a horizontal basis if you like, none better than the other, equally valid. That to me is the primary difference, not very important in the kind of underlying message it sends out. If you look at Britain, if you look at how anti-racism has changed in Britain over the past 50 years, it's interesting that you can have three generations, if you like. The first generation who came here in the 1950s were those who largely accepted racism and lived with it.
Approximate Word count = 991
Approximate Pages = 4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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