Breaking the colonial mindset
Author says open talk on ideas of White privilege, Western superiority can help achieve fairer society
As a young boy growing up in Australia in the 1950s and ’60s, my view of the world was largely shaped through the prism of our colonial past. Our short history, to a large extent, was part of British history. Little was said about Australia’s 250-plus aboriginal groups and their more than 50,000 years of history and culture, and even less about the brutality inflicted by the “white” colonial occupiers.
Britain still figures in Australian history (Queen Elizabeth II is still head of state) but today Australia leans more towards the United States for its social and cultural guidance.
In the post-war years Australia saw massive immigration, mainly from southern European nations and Britain. Immigration from Asia came much later.
Racism still exists despite Australia’s proud boast of being a multiracial society. Jews, Muslims, Africans, and Asians are still verbally and, in some cases, physically abused in this so-called racially tolerant country by white groups that think they are superior.
These are among the many topics Chandran Nair explores in his new book Dismantling Global White Privilege: Equity for a Post-western World.
The Malaysian businessman, who is founder and CEO of the pan-Asian think tank Global Institute for Tomorrow, says his book should not be seen as a “one-sided view of global racism or injustice”.
Instead, it should be seen as a “phenomenon that has its origins in events starting five hundred years ago, which has persisted in various forms and is still very much part of the world today. And that phenomenon is Western superiority and White privilege,” he says in the preface.
Nair does not set out to blame White privilege for all race-based injustices in the world nor does he suggest that equity in a post-Western world is “wholly dependent on dismantling global White privilege.” That, he says, would be “absurd and factually incorrect”.
He does acknowledge the “enormous contributions” Western civilization has made toward human progress. But he says it is the notion that Western superiority is a legacy of history and therefore on the way out that is wrong.
“White privilege,” he says, is an “active and ongoing process. It is aided and abetted by many, including global corporations, the media, and leading international institutions, despite pronouncements about the fight for a fairer and more just world.”
White privilege was something I never thought about until quite recently. My daughter, during a recent trip back from the US where she now lives and works, mentioned it over dinner during a discussion on the growing Black Lives Matter movement.
I said I could sympathise with the growing anger felt by America’s AfroAmerican population, to which she said: “How can you when you are a product of white privilege.”
I will admit I was a little taken aback by her statement but the more I thought about it the more I began to realize what she meant.
In more than 40 years as a foreign correspondent I had seen it in Africa and Asia, but it never registered. Only now are we starting to see White privilege being openly discussed, especially among the younger generation.
Nair draws on his own experiences for his book, having lived and worked in many parts of the world.
Dismantling Global White Privilege is by no means an academic study, but one that should be compulsory reading. Not only for students but adults as well, and people from different backgrounds.
In 170 pages, Nair covers white privilege as it relates to geopolitics, history, business, media, education, culture, sport, fashion, and the environment.
He writes in a simple, easy to read manner making the reader think and question.
One chapter of particular interest is that dealing with the media. Before the advent of the Internet, the world’s mainstream media was dominated by the Western news services such as The Associated Press (based in US); Reuters (UK) and Agence FrancePresse (France) and newspapers such as The Guardian and The Times (UK), and The New York Times and The Washington Post (US). Then you had the BBC (UK), and later we saw the rise of CNN and Fox (both from US).
These news organizations may brand themselves global, but are they? The answer is no. How can they be as they are all based in the West and, as Nair points out, run by “white people”.
“No non-Western outlet has the reach that outlets in the West do. The reach of these global publications is itself a function of an imperial past, and thus their outlook and ideology are fully drenched in all the prejudice, biases, and bigotry of that era,” he writes.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in a landmark report, titled Many Voices, One World, has examined how the world’s information flow was dominated by the West and called for change to better reflect those living in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Pacific and Latin America.
The report, which was published in 1980, caused such a diplomatic uproar that the US withdrew from UNESCO in protest followed by Britain, marking the exit of the biggest financial contributors to the organization, before the two nations rejoined the UN body later.
Nothing has changed but there is growing awareness in the world now that global news does not reflect the views and aspirations of everyone who inhabit the planet, but just of a select, privileged few.
Nair says the purpose of his book is “to stimulate people around the world to rethink the way they understand racism, White privilege, and White superiority so that they can take specific positive actions. The objective is to provide a framework for a constructive conversation, with a focus on solutions.”
The timing could not have been better.