The Fire Now: Anti-Racist Scholarship in Times of Explicit Racial Violence

Not so long ago, many spoke of a ‘post-racial’ era, claiming that advances made by people of colour showed that racial divisions were becoming a thing of the past. But the hollowness of such claims has been exposed by the rise of Trump and Brexit, both of which have revealed deep seated white resentment, and have been attended by a resurgence in hate crime and overt racial hatred on both sides of the Atlantic. At a time when progress towards equality is not only stalling, but being actively reversed, how should anti-racist scholars respond? This collection carries on James Baldwin’s legacy of bearing witness to racial violence in its many forms. Its authors address how we got to this particular moment, arguing that it can only be truly understood by placing it within the wider historical and structural contexts that normalise racism and white supremacy. Its chapters engage with a wide range of contemporary issues and debates, from the whiteness of the recent women’s marches, to anti-racist education, to the question of Black resistance and intersectionality. Mapping out the problems we face, and the solutions we need, the book considers how anti-racist scholarship and activism can overcome the setbacks posed by the resurgence of white supremacy.

Table of Contents:
Foreword: The Heat and the Burdens of the Day - Christina Sharpe Changing our Fate in The Fire Now - Beth Kamunge, Remi Joseph-Salisbury and Azeezat Johnson Part I: Transforming Academia 1. I Am Not a Writer - Muna Abdi 2. An Academic Witness: White Supremacy within and beyond Academia - Azeezat Johnson 3. Understanding Racism within the Academy: The Persistence of Racism within Higher Education - Jason Arday 4. Black Study - Derrais Carter 5. Confronting My Duty as an Academic: We Should All Be Activists - Remi Joseph-Salisbury Part II: Intersectional Identities, Intersectional Struggles 6. Majority Monitoring - Sai Murray 7. Crippin’ Blackness: Narratives of Disabled People of Colour from Slavery to Trump - Viji Kuppan 8. Intersectionality before the Courts: The Face Veil Cases - Amal Ali 9. Colour-Blind Racism and the 2017 Women’s March: White Feminism, Activism, and Lessons for the Left - Adrienne Milner and Adekonyinsola Aromolaran 10. ‘The Climate Crisis is a Racist Crisis’: Structural Racism, Inequality and Climate Change - Leon Sealey-Huggins Part III: Lessons from History, Connections Across Spaces 11. Beware the Northern Fox: Keeping A Focus on Systematic Racism Post Trump and Brexit - Kehinde Andrews 12. This Ain’t Nothing New: Contextualising Black Responses to Trump’s America - Layla Brown-Vincent 13. Understanding the Present through the Past: Struggles against Racism - Moussa Traoré 14. Fighting for Survival: Lessons from the Pan African Resistance - Tony Talburt 15. Could It Happen Here? Canada’s Multicultural Oasis and Global Right Wing Drift - Sam Tecle and Carl James 16. Domesticating Trump - Keguro Macharia Part IV: Understanding and Reframing Oppression 17. Writing in the Fire Now: Beth Dialogues with Wambui and Osop - Beth Kamunge, Wambui Mwangi and Osop Abdi Ali 18. Movements Through Trauma: How to See Ourselves - Maryam Jameela 19. Fundamental British Values: Moving Towards Anti-Racist And Multicultural Education? - Sadia Habib 20. Teaching White Innocence in An Anti-Black Social Order: British Values and the Psychic Life of Coloniality - China Mills 21. 'Be Exactly Who You Are': Black Feminism in Volatile Political Realities - Kadian Pow 22. Laughter and the Politics of Place-Making - Patricia Noxolo 23. Demanding the Impossible: Responding to The Fire Now - Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Azeezat Johnson and Beth Kamunge Afterword - George Yancy

About the Author :
Remi Joseph-Salisbury is a senior lecturer at the Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University. He is a founding member of the Critical Race and Ethnicities Network (CREN), and a Trustee for the Racial Justice Network. A committed activist, his writing has appeared in the Independent and the Voice. Azeezat Johnson is a lecturer in Human Geography at Queen Mary University of London. She completed her PhD at University of Sheffield on the clothing practices of Black Muslim women in Britain. Her research interests are focused on critical race studies, Black feminism, Muslim women and Islamophobia. Beth Kamunge is an African black-feminist and doctoral researcher in food politics, at the University of Sheffield’s department of Geography. Remi Joseph-Salisbury is a senior lecturer at the Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University. He is a founding member of the Critical Race and Ethnicities Network (CREN), and a Trustee for the Racial Justice Network. A committed activist, his writing has appeared in the Independent and the Voice. Azeezat Johnson is a lecturer in Human Geography at Queen Mary University of London. She completed her PhD at University of Sheffield on the clothing practices of Black Muslim women in Britain. Her research interests are focused on critical race studies, Black feminism, Muslim women and Islamophobia. Beth Kamunge is an African black-feminist and doctoral researcher in food politics, at the University of Sheffield’s department of Geography.

Review :
This book is timely and incisive not only given the historical juncture at which we find ourselves in, but in its articulation of how we can respond to explicit racial violence. The Fire Now is an indispensable book of our times. It is urgent, it is written with love and it embodies the politics of inclusive community-building. It is is a significant contribution to British activism and scholarship and is a must-read for anyone who is affected by racism at universities and is moved to act against it. This collection is incredibly important. The essays remind you that you are not alone in this fight against injustice and oppression. I left this book feeling hopeful and revived, and pray it will have the same impact for many others. An important book for the unpredictable and dangerous times in which we live. Now, more than ever, we need to understand the function of white supremacy and the anti-racist theories and practices to effectively combat it. These eloquent essays offer an inspiring landscape of resistance to white supremacy and racist violence in the age of Trump and Brexit. It belongs on the bookshelves of everyone who refuses to be silent in the face of profound injustice. Mobilizes the global resources of anti-racist activism and scholarship, bringing light and heat to a world desperately in need of both. The writing it contains is brilliant, timely and essential. This powerful collection captures the voices of a new generation of revolutionary writers and activists who declare “no more!” to racial injustice. The Fire Now will burn in your thoughts for as long as racism and white privilege prevail. A handbook for those who wish to undertake anti-racist work in resurgently racist times. By curating a timely and diverse set of critical interventions, the editors have provided an indispensable book with which to confront our current political climate. A clarion call and a collaborative love letter, The Fire Now is a ferocious and diligent reckoning with newly energised forces of racism and white supremacy.