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Kenan Malik

@kenanmalik.bsky.social
17K followers 73 following 630 posts

Writer & Observer columnist. Latest book: Not So Black and White (Hurst). “Unsettles the pieties of contemporary race-talk” - Paul Gilroy. “A work of immense scholarship” – Jon Bloomfield. Website: kenanmalik.com

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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
“The policing of speech always comes armed with its own excuses.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
Macklemore’s axing from Ed Sheeran’s US tour exposes the ...
The outcry over the rapper’s calls for a ‘Free Palestine’ at the Met Life stadium shows that economic power is far more effective at policing free speech than ‘woke’ activists
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
“Read James Baldwin when you’re stuck. Listen to John Coltrane when you’re not.” Barack Obama’s advice to his speech writer: observer.co.uk/culture/musi...
observer.co.uk
Davis and Coltrane: 100 years of ice and fire | The Observer
One was cool and ironic, the other fervent and spiritual. Born in the same year, Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s intense relationship flourished amid drugs, creative friction and a relentless search f...
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
“The dilemma today is that neither of the two main solutions to the conflict – the creation of two states for Jews and Palestinians or of a single, secular democratic state for both – is viable. No sanction will alter that.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
observer.co.uk
Britain is morally right to sanction Israel – but it won’...
Ed Miliband’s measures against illegal settlements are a necessary gesture, even if they are predicated on a solution that is unviable
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Ellie Harris @eleanorrrlouise.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
This piece completely gets what we were trying to do with the report; not locate the distress young people are experiencing with them, or in their own heads, but in the conditions they have found themselves in. In the policy choices made by adults. In the material conditions of growing up today.
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
“Too much contemporary discussion of the impact of technology on the young fetishises the psychology at the expense of wider social realities.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
One in 20 young people have no close friends – and we can...
It’s not just lives lived digitally driving loneliness and isolation; it’s a lack of libraries, youth clubs and jobs
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
“Israeli policy is directed toward making life unbearable for Palestinians wherever they live, so that their emigration can be described as an act of free will.” Amira Hass in @haaretzcom: www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026...
haaretz.com
Otherwise Occupied • Israel isn't debating a Palestinian state. It's preparing for expulsion
Gadi Eisenkot's position on Palestinian statehood is beside the point. Across Gaza, the West Bank and Israel itself, the machinery for making Palestinian life impossible is already operating, laying t...
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
“This level of criminality shows that water companies do not believe they [the regulator], or the government, will ever do anything meaningful to stop them.” www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
Dry weather sewage discharges soar as water companies face scrutiny
Exclusive: 7,280 suspected illegal spills in rivers and sea recorded in first five months of 2026
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
“What kind of a society… is unable to provide its citizens with the most basic of needs such as housing,? And what kind of a society scapegoats marginalised groups to camouflage that failure?” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
observer.co.uk
Scapegoating foreigners won’t fix the social housing cris...
Stirring up fury about immigrants’ access to homes fails to tackle the real problem – and raises disturbing questions about what citizenship means
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Ironically, sickle cell anaemia is a good example of the problems of reducing issues to racial categories. Because African Americans and Britons of Caribbean origin suffer disproportionately from the trait… 1/
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
“A story of how those with power possess the authority to avoid accountability while those without power lack the leverage to make the unaccountable accountable.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
Grenfell Tower report shows what’s good for business is o...
US cladding company at the heart of the tragic inferno paid shareholders almost twice as many millions as it did survivors and bereaved relatives
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
“There is also now uncertainty over the status of the long-standing principle that a jury may act according to their conscience, and how that may be used in a defence speech.” Interview with barrister Rajiv Menon on a disturbing use of contempt of court: observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
observer.co.uk
‘A chilling effect’: Palestine Action barrister speaks ou...
Facing prosecution for a closing speech, Rajiv Menon KC denies asking the jury to act on their consciences, and recalls how the case led him to miss a visit to his dying father
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
“A story of how those with power possess the authority to avoid accountability while those without power lack the leverage to make the unaccountable accountable.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
Grenfell Tower report shows what’s good for business is o...
US cladding company at the heart of the tragic inferno paid shareholders almost twice as many millions as it did survivors and bereaved relatives
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
“The retreat to the small, and the jettisoning of grand metanarratives of the kind that Hobsbawm excelled at, has reduced our understanding of who we are.” @johnmerrick.bsky.social on @emile-chabal.bsky.social’s biography of Eric Hobsbawm: unherd.com/2026/08/eric...
unherd.com
Eric Hobsbawm's age of contradictions
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Grunwick dispute, one of the most important strikes of the postwar years www.striking-women.org/module/strik... phm.org.uk/blogposts/ja... www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-... workingclasshistory.com/podcast/grun...
striking-women.org
The Grunwick Dispute | Striking Women
Grunwick was a photo processing plant in Brent, North London. The dispute took place between 1976 and 1978. The events of this famous [no-lexicon]strike[/no-lexicon] and the background of the women wo...
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Grenfell Tower cladding firm Arconic paid almost twice as much compensation to its shareholders for economic loss from misleading statements about the cladding than to the estates of the victims and to survivors of the fire: Report from @cmmonwealth.bsky.social: www.common-wealth.org/publications...
common-wealth.org
Unpunished and Undeterred: Corporate Accountability After Grenfell
Legal frameworks governing corporate malpractice are not fit for purpose.
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Transportation, 21st century style. And not just transported, but transported to a foreign prison from which they may never be released. Extraordinary how quickly this has become normalised. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/m...
nytimes.com
He Was Deported to a Country He’d Never Heard Of. He May Never Go Free.
As the Trump administration sends a growing number of immigrants to countries they have no connection to, some find themselves imprisoned with no way out.
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
“The way that political issues have become reframed as matters of security, to create ‘a world in which fellow civilians are the principal threat, and where military and surveillance technologies are deployed to “fight’ them’.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
From CCTV to digital data, states are policing problems t...
The migrant breach in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta reveals how increased securitisation by governments inevitably leads to a paranoia ‘doom loop’
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
“As trust has eroded, so security has become a kind of social glue.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
From CCTV to digital data, states are policing problems t...
The migrant breach in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta reveals how increased securitisation by governments inevitably leads to a paranoia ‘doom loop’
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
This is tragic and terrible. It is, I wrote, a story from which few emerge looking clean. And that is still the case, including with much of the discussion over the last few hours. RIP x.com/BBCNews/stat...
x.com
BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) on X
Ex-Cambridge professor at centre of plagiarism row found dead https://t.co/TAJLaIvQtv
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
“Our client is not averse to criticism, nor does he wish to stifle the legitimate voicing of opinions of those who may disagree with his work.” “We await your confirmation that no article will be published.”
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
An important bookshop, especially in an area with too few bookshops. Do support.
Appeal by Newham Bookshop threatened with closure because of council rate rise
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
A case apparently not just of plagiarism but also of the catastrophic use of AI to try to disguise it.
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
“It is a story from which few emerge looking clean.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
The racism black academics face isn’t helped by leaping t...
Accusations of plagiarism against the black scholar have given rightwingers a chance to vent their fury – but downplaying the allegations plays into their hands
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
“It is a story from which few emerge looking clean.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
The racism black academics face isn’t helped by leaping t...
Accusations of plagiarism against the black scholar have given rightwingers a chance to vent their fury – but downplaying the allegations plays into their hands
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Quite a tweet from the head of Jordan's FA x.com/AliBinAlHuss...
x.com
Ali Al Hussein (@AliBinAlHussein) on X
There is no shortage of issues regarding FIFA. Let me start by clarifying what some of these are from an FA perspective, in particular that of Jordan going into a World Cup for the first time. We are...
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
“Sam Altman… said we’d ultimately be happier if we keep our heads down and keep grinding.” “Somehow we never get the promise of the four-hour work week at mass scale in society... And I don’t expect AI to change that.” futurism.com/artificial-i...?
futurism.com
Sam Altman Says Even the Power of AI Will Never Lead to a Shorter Work Week
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has some bad news: AI will never lead to a shorter work week — despite having already ushered in the singularity.
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
“Ceuta’s border is so thoroughly militarised that it puts even Trump’s barrier-building – let alone that of Greece, Poland or Finland – to shame. The paradox… was that this militarisation had involved ceding control”: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The right’s exploitation of the Ceuta migrant ‘crisis’ almost guarantees that it will happen again | Ruben Andersson
The EU’s panic and the lack of solidarity emboldens smugglers and the far right – and makes Spain even more vulnerable, says Ruben Andersson, professor of social anthropology
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
“What should not be acceptable is for leftwing parties to blunt their principles or to diminish hostility to one form of bigotry in the name of confronting another.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
In its refusal to confront Islamist bigotry, the left has...
The right seized on the ethnicity of the Berlin Pride attacker to demonise Muslims, but liberals have been hamstrung for fear of appearing illiberal
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Not been on social media for a while, so a bit slow on the Jason Arday debate. Seems to me the key line is Arday’s response to @theguardian.com questioning one of his claims: “To be honest with you, I thought you’d just believe me”. This is as much about the culture and the institutions… 1/
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
“What should not be acceptable is for leftwing parties to blunt their principles or to diminish hostility to one form of bigotry in the name of confronting another.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
In its refusal to confront Islamist bigotry, the left has...
The right seized on the ethnicity of the Berlin Pride attacker to demonise Muslims, but liberals have been hamstrung for fear of appearing illiberal
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
“Foreignness is being asked to do more than describe legal status. Legal status may affect legal consequences. But why should it alter the moral weight of the act?” Anye-Nkwenti Nyamnjoh in @africasacountry.bsky.social africasacountry.com/2026/06/the-...
africasacountry.com
The right to belong imperfectly
In South Africa, one of xenophobia’s quieter moral mechanisms is the way foreign wrongdoing is made to carry more meaning than citizen wrongdoing.
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Being obnoxious, even hoping that someone had died painfully, is not, or should not be, a crime www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Aberdeen University worker charged over Ann Widdecombe death comments
Police Scotland had initially said there was no criminality but have now confirmed a 50-year-old has been arrested and charged.
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Wouldn't it be good to have an England manager that had faith in the team rather than deciding simply to park the bus once England take the lead...
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
“South Africa reveals in the starkest form what happens when the anger created by the betrayal of working-class hopes is exploited by sections of the elite to deflect from their own role in that betrayal.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
South Africa’s xenophobic violence is a warning for a wor...
Anti-migrant sentiment is being exploited by elites to deflect from their own role in economic hardship
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
“South Africa reveals in the starkest form what happens when the anger created by the betrayal of working-class hopes is exploited by sections of the elite to deflect from their own role in that betrayal.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
South Africa’s xenophobic violence is a warning for a wor...
Anti-migrant sentiment is being exploited by elites to deflect from their own role in economic hardship
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
When even Sepp Blatter thinks he's able to take the moral high ground... x.com/SeppBlatter/...
x.com
Joseph S Blatter (@SeppBlatter) on X
Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies. If a U.S. President intervenes with the FIFA President — and a player is suddenly ...
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
“Much of this debate reflects a yearning for simple notions of belonging. Identities, though, are always messy, elastic and contradictory, because human societies and relationships are, too.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
observer.co.uk
This World Cup shows how contradictory and messy it is to...
With 99 players born in France but just 23 playing for Les Bleus, the tournament highlights how lines of nationality are blurred
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Well, that was worth staying up for #MEXENG
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
I guess one of the privileges of being the first recipient of the Fifa Peace Prize is being able to decide who gets a red card on the pitch.
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
“Much of this debate reflects a yearning for simple notions of belonging. Identities, though, are always messy, elastic and contradictory, because human societies and relationships are, too.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
observer.co.uk
This World Cup shows how contradictory and messy it is to...
With 99 players born in France but just 23 playing for Les Bleus, the tournament highlights how lines of nationality are blurred
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Happy 4th July @ 250
Photo of the Statue of Liberty at sunset
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
“The fear of the far right exploiting the issue has only made it easier for the far right to do exactly that, and to shape the narrative.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/politic...
observer.co.uk
From anti-racists to racists, the grooming gangs debate h...
If the official inquiry into these horrific crimes is to offer justice and answers, it must navigate a path through distortion and bigotry
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Looking forward to this
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Though it hasn’t become a national issue, there have in recent weeks been arson attacks of mosques, street attacks on those perceived to be Muslim, and now this. An issue that needs to be taken seriously. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Man charged after suspected anti-Muslim attacks in Edinburgh
Two people were injured close to a mosque and a man was later seen battering the door of a pizzeria as members of the public run away.
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
“It is a tragedy of today’s politics that, for too many, working-class defiance finds its outlet in racist organisations and reactionary parties, and that the left’s neglect of class politics… has left it with little moral standing to challenge that”: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
An abandoned working class has found its voice. Tragicall...
After decades of economic exploitation, political disdain and social abandonment, people turn to anyone who will listen
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Today marks the ninth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire. And still no accountability. x.com/Grenfellnext...
x.com
GRENFELLNEXTOFKIN (@Grenfellnextkin) on X
We look forward to the day we do not have to make these badges anymore. We were set up to wait in vain. NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE. @MHCLG @Keir_Starmer @AngelaRayner @AndyBurnhamGM @DawnButlerBrent ...
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
“The wider issues thrown up by the case should concern even those who oppose the activities of Palestine Action.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
observer.co.uk
Sentencing the Palestine activists for terrorism places c...
The judge’s ruling in arms factory case raises spectre of what the defence barrister Rajiv Menon describes as ‘creeping authoritarianism’
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John Merrick @johnmerrick.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
This is very good, from Kenan Malik, on the perverse nonsense pedalled by the right since the murder of Henry Nowak — but that doesn’t shy away from criticising liberal identity politics either.
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
“Politicians who have been vocal in criticising “victim culture” are now at the forefront of promoting white victimhood.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/politic...
observer.co.uk
In weaponising Henry Nowak’s tragic death, the right has ...
The language around antiracism has degraded notions of equality to the point that it has been adopted by extremists to portray white victimhood
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Kenan Malik @kenanmalik.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
“The paradox of a nation that is far less racist but in which discussions of ideas and policies once confined to the far-right fringes have become mainstream.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
observer.co.uk
Forget Restore Britain – the problem is mainstream politi...
Despite Britons becoming more liberal, extremist ideas such as those espoused by Rupert Lowe’s party have been normalised
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