The Politics of Multiculturalism: Race and Racism in Contemporary Britain

What does racism look like in the twenty-first century? Why does it continue to blight our societies when it is so widely rejected, and how do we combat racist practices when dominant social actors and institutions embrace the language of diversity and cultural difference?

This book provides an original and innovative response to these questions. Taking as a case study the racial politics of the British state under New Labour, Ben Pitcher advances an idea of multiculturalism as the only conceptual framework that is capable of making sense of the contradictions of contemporary race practice, where racism is simultaneously rejected and reproduced. From explorations of the politics of nationalism to multiculturalism and the War on Terror, this book is a wide-ranging investigation of some of the most urgent and controversial issues of our times.