The 'R' Word

Race and racism remain an inescapable part of the lives of black people. Daily slights, often rooted in fears and misperceptions of the 'other', still damage lives. But does race matter as much as it used to? Many argue that the post-racial society is upon us and racism is no longer a block on opportunity - Kurt Barling doubts whether things are really that simple. Ever since, at the age of four, he wished for 'blue eyes and blond hair', skin colour has featured prominently as he, like so many others, navigated through a childhood and adolescence in which 'blackness' defined and dominated so much of social discourse. But despite the progress that has been made, he argues, the 'R' word is stubbornly resilient. In this powerful polemic, Barling tackles the paradoxes at the heart of anti-racism and asks whether, by adopting the language of the oppressor to liberate the oppressed, we are in fact paralysing ourselves within the false mythologies inherited from raciology, race and racism. Can society escape this so-called 'race-thinking' and re-imagine a Britain that is no longer 'Black' and 'White'? Is it yet possible to step out of our skins and leave the colour behind?

Auteur

KURT BARLING is a multi-award-winning journalist who has worked for the BBC since 1989, on news and current affairs programmes including Newsnight, Today, Assignment, Correspondent, The Money Programme, Black Britain and, more recently, The One Show. He was the special correspondent for BBC News in London for over a decade. Kurt has also worked extensively across Radios 4 and 5, and has made dozens of documentaries on a range of subjects, including the celebrated Who Killed PC Blakelock? and the film that exposed radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza, Trouble at the Mosque. He has a PhD in International Relations and an MSc in Government & Politics from the London School of Economics, and was appointed Professor of Journalism at Middlesex University in November 2013.