Rednecks and Barbarians Uniting the White and Racialized Working Class
Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
Houria Bouteldja is a French-Algerian political activist and writer. She served as spokesperson for the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic until 2020. She is the author of Whites, Jews and Us: Towards a Politics of Revolutionary Love. The author lives in Paris, France. Rachel Valinsky is a writer, translator, and editor living in New York and Paris. Previously, she translated Houria Boutledja's Whites, Jews, and Us: Toward a Politics of Revolutionary Love for Semiotext(e). She is the Artistic Director at Wendy's Subway and the Director of Publications at the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) in New York.<p>'This book is for anyone who wants to learn more about French decolonial theory and to read one of the most interesting antiracist decolonial activists in France today, Houria Bouteldja. Known for her incisive analysis of moral antiracism in France, Bouteldja offers here a strong argument for the unity between “rednecks” and “barbarians”. This is essential to fight the foundations of the total racial state and its racial pact which maintains the division between these two groups.'</p>
- Françoise Vergès, author of <i>A Programme of Absolute Disorder: Decolonizing the Museum</i>,
<p>'Houria Bouteldja throws all our certainties into the air, and with brilliant precision, reassembles them. With a clear and uncompromising eye, she points towards a truly emancipatory future in which, following Fanon, all the Wretched of the Earth can ‘look for something else’, far beyond the racial state’'</p>
- Alana Lentin, author of <i>Why Race Still Matters</i>,
<p>'The hatred that Houria Bouteldja arouses is commensurate with her courage.'</p>
- Annie Ernaux,
<p>'A masterpiece'</p>
- François Bégaudeau, author of <i>The Class</i>,
'Bouteldja throws all our certainties into the air, and with brilliant precision, reassembles them' - Alana Lentin
In Europe and North America, the white working class is increasingly tempted by right-wing political parties. Fascistic candidates and ideas seem to reap the fruits of social unrest everywhere. With her usual thought-provoking and unyielding insights, Houria Bouteldja shows how the history of the left explains this conundrum and how we can overcome it.
Drawing from Black radical and decolonial Marxism, she shows that by privileging white constituencies, unions and left parties laid the foundations for a racial contract that binds workers and the poor to the state.
However, there may still be a way out of this trap. Uniting ‘rednecks’ (the white working class) and ‘barbarians’ (the racially oppressed), requires a project of popular sovereignty, where national identity is transformed through revolutionary love. Looking to the future, Bouteldja imagines antiracism as a redemptive struggle aimed not only at rehabilitating marginalized communities but also at redefining white dignity.
Introduction
PART I: The Integral Racial State, or Pessimism of the Intellect
1. The Racial State
2. Race and Political Society
3. Race and Civil Society
4. Birthing the White Political Field
PART II: Revolutionary Love, or Optimism of the Will
5. Do Whites Love Children?
6. Dirty Hands
7. Choosing Our Ancestors
“Houria Bouteldja is one of the most interesting antiracist decolonial activists. Known for her incisive analysis, Bouteldja offers a strong argument for unity between ‘rednecks’ and ‘barbarians’” Françoise Vergès, author of A Programme of Absolute Disorder
“Bouteldja throws all our certainties into the air, and with brilliant precision, reassembles them. Clear and uncompromising, she points towards a truly emancipatory future” Alana Lentin, author of Why Race Still Matters
“A masterpiece” François Bégaudeau, author of The Class
In Europe and North America, the white working class is increasingly tempted by right-wing political parties. Fascistic candidates and ideas seem to reap the fruits of social unrest everywhere. With her usual thought-provoking and unyielding insights, Houria Bouteldja shows how the history of the left explains this conundrum and how we can overcome it.
Drawing from Black radical and decolonial Marxism, she shows that by privileging white constituencies, unions and left parties laid the foundations for a racial contract that binds workers and the poor to the state.
However, there may still be a way out of this trap. Uniting “rednecks” (the white working class) and “barbarians” (the racially oppressed), requires a project of popular sovereignty, where national identity is transformed through revolutionary love. Looking to the future, Bouteldja imagines antiracism as a redemptive struggle aimed not only at rehabilitating marginalized communities but also at redefining white dignity.
Houria Bouteldja is a French-Algerian political activist and writer. She served as spokesperson for the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic until 2020. She is the author of Whites, Jews, and Us: Toward a Politics of Revolutionary Love.