I REFUSE TO CONDEMN : RESISTING RACISM IN TIMES OF NATIONAL SECURITY; ED. BY ASIM QURESHI

In times of national security, scholars and activists who hail from the communities under suspicion attempt to draw readers and listeners to the complexity of the world we inhabit. For those who campaigned against the SUS law in the 1980s, when young Black men were being routinely stopped in the streets, the wave of counter-terrorism legislation and policy that exists today will be very familiar. Similarly, recent discussions about the impact of drill music in the culture of young Black men has drawn questions around the ways in which they should be securitised, with senior police calling for the use of terrorism legislation against them. In this environment, when those who study and have lived alongside the communities who are at the scrutiny of the state raise questions about the government, military and police policy, they are often shut down as terrorist-sympathisers, or apologists for gang culture. In such environments, there is an expectation on scholars and activists to condemn what society at large fears. This volume is about how that expectation has emerged alongside the normalisation of racism, and how these writers choose to subvert the expectations raised on them, as part of their commitment to anti-racism. Front Matter Dedication Contents List of contributors Introduction: ‘You know nothing, Jon Snow’ How did we get here? Remaking rule #1: ‘I utterly refuse to condemn ...’ They needed us, and now they are terrified The four stages of moral panic The duty to see, the yearning to be seen Resisting the structure Refusing to condemn as a political act Navigating refusal within the academy Randomly selected: close encounters of the hive mind Guilty without a crime The struggle of a Muslim terror ‘suspect lawyer’ Resisting the personal The (im)possible Muslim The racialised ‘go-to Muslim’ Writing for the kids It is Allah who condemns Resisting the performance Is this radical? Am I radical? Grappling with shadows That’s because I’ve read My art is for my people Glossary Acknowledgements Notes Further reading Index In times of heightened national security, scholars and activists from the communities under suspicion often attempt to alert the public to the more complex stories behind the headlines. But when they raise questions about the government, military and police policy, these individuals are routinely shut down and accused of being terrorist sympathisers or apologists for gang culture. In such environments, there is immense pressure to condemn what society at large fears. This collection explains how the expectation to condemn has emerged, tracking it against the normalisation of racism, and explores how writers manage to subvert expectations as part of their commitment to anti-racism. In times of heightened national security, scholars and activists from the communities under suspicion often attempt to alert the public to the more complex stories behind the headlines. But when they raise questions about the government, military and police policy, they are routinely shut down as terrorist sympathisers or apologists for gang culture. In such environments, there is immense pressure to condemn what society at large fears. This collection explains how the expectation to condemn has emerged, tracking it against the normalisation of racism, and explores how writers manage to subvert expectations as part of their commitment to anti-racism. I refuse to condemn highlights how in times of national security a culture of condemnation is expected of people of colour that sits at the heart of structurally racist systems. This collection catalogues the ways in which scholars and activists experience and resist this expectation. -- . >This collection explains how the expectation to condemn has emerged, tracking it against the normalisation of racism, and explores how writers manage to subvert expectations as part of their commitment to anti-racism. - publisher