The hushed-up history of activism by people of colour
Scientific book by VUB researchers on 'new wave' of anti-racism in Europe
In the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, a new dynamic has emerged in the European anti-racism debate. The open-access book 'A New Wave of Anti-Racism in Europe? Racialised Minorities at the Centre', edited by Ilke Adam (Free University of Brussels), Jean Beaman (CUNY Graduate Center, New York) and Mariska Jung (VUB) provides insights on how racialised minorities themselves determine the course of that resistance. The work offers a critical look at the history of Belgian activism and the current political backlash.
While public debate is often dominated by discussions about 'woke' and polarisation, the researchers in the book ask whether we are actually witnessing a new phase in the struggle for equality and what that means in a climate of increasing far-right mobilisation.
Focus on Belgium: beyond 'white' history
A crucial part of the book is its examination of the Belgian context. According to Ilke Adam of the Brussels Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Migration and Minorities (BIRMM) at the VUB, the history of anti-racism in Belgium is often remembered as a predominantly 'white' story, such as the famous 'Hand in Hand' actions after Black Sunday in the 1990s.
However, there is a whole history of activism by people of colour that has remained underexposed in our collective memory (see also https://press.vub.ac.be/lancering-webplatform-first-waves-verhalen-van-de-eerste-militante-en-antiracisme-golven-in-belgie and https://firstwaves.be/fr/nodes/pages/first-waves/#). For instance, the book highlights events such as the riots in Forest in the 1990s. While the media at the time focused on violence, the research shows that underlying this was a deeper struggle against racist injustice and police brutality. It is a struggle that is still painfully topical today, especially after incidents such as the death of young man Adil in Brussels.
The book is the result of a broad international collaboration with contributions from authors from several European countries and the United States. During the recent digital book launch, the authors, together with renowned scholar Alana Lentin, reflected on the shift in power where minorities are taking the lead themselves. They also paid extensive attention to the impact of 2020 on local contexts and how the current political backlash organises against movements for racial justice.
Open access availability
To make the knowledge gathered as widely accessible as possible to activists and policymakers as well as the general public, the work has been published fully open access. The full text can be accessed and downloaded for free as a PDF from the Springer publisher's website Link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-00002-6
Contact
Prof. Dr Ilke Adam: tel no available from the editors
