Abstract
Scholarly debates on race, racism and racial (in)justice have gained a new momentum since the 2020 antiracism movements. The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice is a timely and welcome contribution to the growing corpus, offering a stimulating analysis of the past, present and future of the struggles for racial justice in the UK and the Global North. Nasar Meer pursues the question: ‘what can we learn from success and failure in the pursuit of racial justice in the UK and elsewhere in the Global North’? (p. 1). To address this question, he successfully utilizes Lauren Berlant’s concept ‘cruel optimism’, which, for Meer, helps one to grasp the bitter reality of what is called ‘crisis ordinariness’ (p. 9). Meer argues that racial injustice is an intrinsic component of the existing social systems, not an exception. Modern nation-states are descendants of empires in which racism was a constitutive element of the social and political system – but they are reluctant to acknowledge, let alone challenge, this inheritance. In this context, racial injustice is destined to flourish; there is no such thing as ‘inevitable progress in racial justice, that things are getting or will get better in time’ (p. 126). Failing to recognize this, Meer contends, will lead to only surface-level changes that fail to address the racial projects or social systems that lie at the heart of the issue.
Meer examines a variety of issues from national identity and migration to institutional racism, the discrepancies of Covid-19 pandemic, and White nationalism. Chapter 2 discusses the ways in which prevalent racialized boundaries influence the making and remaking of national identities as well as how they can be re-revisited to foster inclusivity. Meer argues that racial justice requires us to develop a better understanding of how past wrongs influence current issues and how this can be mitigated in the future. Citing the prominent Parekh Report, he emphasizes the importance of reconciling ‘a changing national identity with an honest and necessary account of its origins; to forge a narrative that [does] not disenfranchise its Black and ethnic minorities’ (p. 31).
Then, he moves on to a discussion on how racialization can be confronted via highlighting the importance of tackling institutional racism (Chapter 3). Examining the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent Macpherson Inquiry, Meer argues that even though ‘unwitting racism’ (p. 57) within the police force was evident and the inquiry provided crucial insights and recommendations to address this endemic problem within and beyond the police force, almost no meaningful improvement has been achieved. Next, he discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated rampant racial disparities (Chapter 4), underlining the necessity of focusing on racial determinants of health in its own terms in addition to the wider social determinants (e.g. poverty, housing). The emphasis on the importance of treating race as a distinct determinant of health is significant as it can improve both the health of marginalized communities and health equity writ large. The following discussion shifts the focus on to the refugee crisis examining how racialized national discourses have been bolstered by anti-refugee discourses and approaches in recent years (Chapter 5). Meer questions the extent to which, if at all, one can de-racialize refuge as a step towards racial justice. He pays special attention to city-level responses to migration governance and racial justice, arguing that cities are not solely ‘the sites for national-level processes to filter down, they have a distinctive and historical role to play in the design and implementation of approaches to refuge’ (p. 107).
Meer, then, raises vital questions concerning whether modern liberal democracies are vulnerable to White nationalism (Chapter 6). Focusing on the linkages between Whiteness and racialization, Meer sheds light on how White nationalism has been normalized in mainstream politics. His suggestion that ‘we must talk about Whiteness as an everyday project of privilege, and not just about White supremacy as a fringe element’ (p. 124, emphasis in original) is worthwhile insofar as it encourages us to get to the bottom of the issue of White racial project not simply by singling out violent components but addressing its historical continuity and centrality as embedded in mainstream social and political systems. Finally, in the concluding chapter, Meer focuses on how we can learn from the past to avoid ‘cruel optimism’, arguing that the burden of racial justice needs to be symmetrical between racialized minorities and the majority, ‘only then’, he concludes, ‘might the cruel optimism of racial justice transform into a justified perseverance of hope’ (p. 130).
I have three main criticisms. The first relates to contemporary White nationalism and its ideo-theological underpinnings. Meer argues that ‘race’ is not solely a product of modernity, it rather ‘bears pre-modern antecedents in Christianity’ (p. 120). His emphasis on the pre-modern roots of racial projects is important in terms of demonstrating how ‘racialised categories have saturated cultural portrayals of [for example] Muslims and Jews, endowing each with characteristics’ that seemingly made them non-Christian (p. 120). However, this elides a more nuanced understanding of how Whiteness as a racial project is connected to various contemporary religious and ideological camps (such as Christian Identity, Creativity, and Wotansvolk) that further sharpens White nationalism. This could have produced an exploration of the ideo-theological foundations and motivations, grievances, narratives of victimhood, and so on of White nationalists, as well as how they can be challenged. Secondly, the book does not address transnational aspects to Whiteness as a racial project. Does European White nationalism shape the USA context or vice versa? Do struggles for racial justice in one place contribute to struggles elsewhere? Thirdly, and relatedly, Meer’s decision to limit discussion and analysis to the UK (and the Global North to some extent) restricts the book’s potential audience. In fact, in the case of the UK, readers may want to read about racisms (anti-Black, anti-Muslim, etc.) and how different racialized groups understand racial justice as well as how they respond to White racial projects.
Overall, The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice is a significant monograph, offering an insightful analysis of racial justice and how it is often connected to a cruel optimism. This is an important read for students, academics, journalists and policymakers interested in race, racism and racial (in)justice in the contemporary UK and the Global North.