MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long
Latest editorial
‘Challenges posed by a world in which race matters’
GORDON PARSONS recommends a book that will keep the reader, black or white, fully engaged and, as importantly, self-questioning
THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES: 'Being black connotes a lack of a right to anything'
PAUL DONOVAN recommends three new books that explore the human relationship with nature
Doomed adolescents, when the missing person is you, classic whodunnit, and an anti-capitalist eco-thriller
WILL STONE takes a ticket to indie disco heaven, but misses the rarely performed tunes
Reviews of new releases by Jens Lekman, Big Thief, and Christian McBride Big Band
TOM PIERSCIONEK recommends a remarkable series of interviews with those few and brave Israeli citizens who refuse to do military service
Fear of Black Consciousness
Lewis R Gordon
Allen Lane, £20
“I CAN’T breathe.” George Floyd’s dying words have established an iconic meme resounding throughout the world.
Just as the asphyxiating coronavirus “sees” no boundaries, responding most effectively to pre-existing conditions, Lewis Gordon, a leading Afro-Jewish existentialist philosopher, recognises that “our pre-existing pandemics of neoliberalism, neoconservatism, fascism, and their accompanying racism” provided vulnerable social sites for the virus to spread more efficiently.
Gordon quotes WEB Du Bois, the famous social scientist, educationist and socialist, founder of the NAACP: “Being born black does not entail in social scientific terms what it means to be black.”
More from this author
GORDON PARSONS is riveted by a translation of Shakespeare’s tragedy into joyous comedy set in a southern black homestead
GORDON PARSONS is enthralled by an erudite and entertaining account of where the language we speak came from
GORDON PARSONS endures heavy rock punctuated by Shakespeare, and a delighted audience
GORDON PARSONS advises you to get up to speed on obscure ancient ceremonies to grasp this interpretation of a late Shakespearean tragi-comedy
