The Last White Man - Award-Winning Author Mohsin Hamid on His Latest Novel | Intelligence Squared

[@hermanspaerman3490]

He is already working on his follow-up, "The last muslim", truly provocative stuff.

[@sylezjusz]

The White Man made the guy. No way he'd achieve a fraction of the success he enjoys in the West in Pakistan. It's a love/hate relationship.

[@matthewbean395]

As far as I can tell, nothing he said suggests that he hates “The White Man” or the West. You might be projecting, which is ironic because your comment represents well the reductive racial outlook he is trying to critique. If you’re looking for a radical leftist race theorist I’m afraid you won’t find one here.

[@nickelmouse451]

Sounds like he starts from the assumption that being white is exactly like what a critical race theory textbook says it’s like. After that, all the generosity of trying to understand his characters’ views from the inside is wasted

[@richbattaglia5350]

Saved me time from watching this garbage.

[@matthewbean395]

I haven’t read one of these critical race theory textbooks before and I’m actually curious, what do they say exactly?

[@DinoRamzi]

@@matthewbean395 All kinds of nasty stuff.

[@nickelmouse451]

​@@matthewbean395 I've read Delgado and Stefancic's Introduction to Critical Race Theory (3rd edition). Here are the 5 basic tenants according to them (Chapter 1, §F). (1) Racism is ‘ordinary’ in that it is the “the usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color“ and that it serves whites. (2) `Interest convergence’: racism serves the interests of rich and poor whites alike, so their interests converge to keep non-whites down. (3) `Social construction’: “race and races are products of social thought and relations”. (4) `Differential racialisation’: whites racialise non-whites in different ways at different times in order to serve different goals. (E.g. Muslims went from being “exotic neighbours… harmless but odd” to “security threats”. (5) ‘Intersectuality’: people’s identities are made up of various traits that could lead to complex and differential treatment. (E.g. someone might hate white Jewish men but not white gentile men). (6) (Not a mistake on my part, they just can’t count) `unique voice of colour’: all non-whites know things that whites don’t in virtue of having been oppressed by whites. Thus, they (and not whites) are qualified to talk on the topics of race and racism. Not all of it is rubbish. (E.g. 3 and 5 seem fairly unobjectionable in abstract). However, the main issue is that these commitments are put forward as central tenets rather than hypotheses. They simply state that these things are true without providing evidence. When they do provide evidence, it isn’t referenced. E.g. in Chapter 1, §G, they state “Studies show that blacks and Latinos who seek loans, apartments, or jobs are much more apt than similarly qualified whites to suffer rejections, often for vague or spurious reasons”. This might be true, but they give no reference, we’re simply expected to take their word for it. This bleeds into their claims about whites. Whites are always the oppressor and always in the wrong (unless they blindly accept everything that a CRT evangelist tells them). I’m happy to accept that non-whites experience racism to a different degree and that it’s bad, but the idea that it only flows one way is ridiculous. E.g.1. I and so many of my friends have dated non-white women. Most have never been introduced to our girlfriends’ parents because they have prejudiced views on whites. Those that have been introduced to them have been treated badly. It’s not the end of the world, but it does happen and would be seen as important if it was the other way round. E.g.2. it’s fairly common in universities and funding bodies to give extra credit to candidates who aren’t white. One way this is done is via diversity statements which those applying for funding (in the UK) have to fill out.

[@jackjones9460]

Why do people imagine telling a story’s ending will negate the story’s appeal? The thrill of hearing a story is how it is told!

[@SirHargreeves]

I am writing a book called ‘The Last Arab’. Arabs wake up and they are now black.

[@gnerkus]

Shouldn't it be "The Last Brown Man"?

[@cbysmith]

They are basically.

[@mmhmm9271]

@@cbysmith not at all. They look more like Europeans than they look like sub saharan Africans.

[@londonpheonix9582]

Arabs are a linguistic group not a race. They come in all colours.

[@judiavi]

Just finished reading this book and am finding it hard to deal with, as am confused. Is there such a thing as a "white race"? Surely every "white" person has some other kind of identity, connected to religion, nationality and other groups such as football team you support, city, family etc.... In this book it assumes that being white or NOT is the only thing that identifies or defines us.... Thus when that changes we don't recognize ourselves or others...

[@cbysmith]

The last dark man. Mkay.

[@DangerAmbrose]

Reading comments, eating popcorn.

[@joannechisholm4501]

You as a white person listing to all this makes me thing im living rent free in all your heads, that you all smilling on my demise it baffles me and you all thinks its ok.

[@oneat]

skeptical.

[@cheri238]

What a remarkable experience listening to this writer I have not know about and to be able to listen to this discussion. Tony Morrison, to learn under her. (Remarkable.) Mr. Hamid , what a journey of accomplishments you have done with your life. The hard work and being able to go to these elite colleges with a genuine purpose here in the USA. Your warmth, understanding of complicated world issues, and to be able to incorporate those emotions into characters allows me to know what kind of character you possess. I will buy your novels, as I am a vociferous reader of various interests, beginning at the age of 5 years old. Congratulations to you for your soul of words to all of us being an extraordinary example. RESPECTFULLY to the both of you for having this on today. AFFECTIONATELY ❤️

[@soundknight]

Great audio... Does the book with three love stories have a central moral core? The only way that I can think of a story containing three parts like that being any good is if there is a Central moral core. Do you neglect the reasons people feel this way such as balancing factors of racist laws designed to circumvent competitiveness in exchange for an ideal of what equality would 'look like' in an imaginary perfect world. And no, I'm not going to read the whole book to bother finding out.

[@DinoRamzi]

Given the nature of humans, there is always an in-group and thus “a stranger.” Inverting the status of white personal as the outsider/stranger is interesting, but the position of most people of color (and even whites from places that do not represent the majority global culture) is to be the outsider vying to be respected as a natural member of the majority. “Whiteness” is a term whose definition has been changed to imply the majority culture. As such, the category of white people can grow to include people like Kanye West, or more respectfully, John McWhorter - indeed any black person to the right of the political spectrum. There is already no acceptable definition of whiteness or color and as we mix more in a global society, it will become progressively more difficult to sort people by the category of race.

[@shapeshiftingpanda]

it's an interesting set up and I wanted to like this book more (and enjoyed his previous ones), but it fell flat.

[@getsmart3701]

Great interview, by a great interviewer.

[@joannechisholm4501]

I bet rubbing his hands living out his fantacy of another group of of another group of people.

[@googlemechuck4217]

30 minutes in, 30 commerical later 😖

[@mohamedali2858]

Human zoos: The Western world’s shameful secret, 1900-1958

[@liamwinter4512]

What year did Saudi Arabia outlaw slavery?

[@SirHargreeves]

Repent of the Arab heresy and turn to Jesus Christ.

[@mohamedali2858]

@@liamwinter4512 Slavery culture is one of the most widespread cultures around the ancient world, but this culture of human” ZOO” is unprecedented in Human History except western culture .

[@mohamedali2858]

@@SirHargreeves I love Arab & Jesus what’s your problem with that

[@liamwinter4512]

@@mohamedali2858 I've always found the castration of male slave to be a brutal practice and the rape of women to be pretty horrible. How much money did the "Zoo" pay?

[@LaplacianFourier]

Brilliant humans are born in all corners of the world. But some corners of the world (chiefly Islamic), their brilliance are snuffed out by the stultifying effect of religion (some more than others). I for one am thankful that Mohsin has managed to escape the mind lead poisoning from Islam and managed to grow to something of his full height by his time in England and US East Coast.

[@cbysmith]

Islamic isnt a race.

[@essebonus2062]

🤮

[@gastonlanteri1147]

Mohsin doesn't.