Author-Meets-Critics: The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice
Venue
G.06, 50 George Square, The University of EdinburghDescription
Co-sponsored RACE.ED and CRITIQUE Event with Nasar Meer (The University of Edinburgh) on his book, The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice
What can we learn from successes and failures in the pursuit of racial justice in the UK and elsewhere in the Global North? A dominant view of racial justice has long been linked to a ‘cruel optimism’ which normalises social and political outcomes that sustain racial injustice, despite successive governments wielding the means to address it. Researchers, activists and minoritised groups continually identify the drivers of these outcomes, but have grown accustomed to persevering despite strong resistance to change. Looking at numerous examples across anti-racist movements and key developments in nationhood/nationalism, institutional racism, migration, white supremacy and the disparities of COVID-19, Nasar Meer argues for the need to move on from perpetual crisis in racial justice to a turning point that might herald a change to deep-seated systems of racism.
Respondents:
- Rowena Arshad (The University of Edinburgh)
- Shaira Vadasaria (The University of Edinburgh
Key speakers
- Professor Nasar Meer, Personal Chair of Race, Identity and Citizenship
- Professor Rowena Arshad CBE, FEIS
- Dr Shaira Vadasaria, Lecturer in Race and Decolonial Studies