"A brilliant book on one of the most important issues of our time. Malik writes with great clarity and a profound sense of purpose. If you want to read just one book on modern racism, this is the one." -- Vivek Chibber, author of Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital, and Professor of Sociology, New York University"Malik attempts nothing less than to explain why we inhabit racial identity as we do today, and at what political cost. Most serious readers will quarrel with something in his argument, but political culture as a whole will be enriched by this deeply thoughtful, learned and brave work." -- Wendy Brown, author of Nihilistic Times and Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire"A stunning journey through the ideas that have shaped our thinking about race over the years; a magical accomplishment that is at once nuanced and gripping." -- Remi Adekoya, author of Biracial Britain"From one of our keenest and clearest guides through the labyrinths of identity, this book fills me with hope. A tour de force of courageous and empathetic common sense." -- Thomas Chatterton Williams, author of Self-Portrait in Black and White

"This erudite, sensitive book overturns the core assumptions of contemporary identity politics. Highly recommended for all looking beyond the narrow confines of purity politics to embrace the complexities of what it is to be human, and construct a better world." -- Olufemi Taiwo, author of Against Decolonisation

"Smart, pacy and sharply argued, this is the book you need to read about contemporary politics. Malik delves into the origins of twenty-first-century identity politics, exposes its inherent individualism, and offers thought-provoking progressive alternatives." -- Selina Todd, author of The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class and Snakes and Ladders

"Excellent."-- New Statesman

"Provides clarity on the origins of popular beliefs and assumptions about contemporary identity politics ... Not So Black and White [is] a comprehensive and persuasive guide to thinking of ways in which we can politically organise for better living conditions for the working class on the basis of shared values of liberty, equality and justice, and fight against the oppressive capitalist force of the elite, instead of fighting against each other."-- The Irish Times
"A consistent and compelling ... masterful history."-- UnHerd"A rich account of the history of race ... there is much to recommend in this book as a history of ideas with ongoing relevance for contemporary struggles for equalities and social justice." -- Morning Star"Kenan Malik's fascinating new history of race and racism... provide[s] a valuable intervention in an argument that is often both fraught and infested with thought-terminating clich's and sloganeering." -- Areo"A thorough and nuanced book." -- The Equiano Project
"Provides an illuminating history of the idea of race, and systematically outlines the key concepts necessary to understand the development of racial thinking." -- Spiked"[An] original and ambitious rethinking of the history of the politics of race, from slavery to Black Lives Matter." -- ArtReview"Both a history of modern racism from the invention of race in the eighteenth century to the present day, and a powerful argument for universalism and solidarity." -- Counterfire
"This book opens with a stunning sentence? Taking the long view, author Kenan Malik argues the origins of identity politics lie not in the left but the sometimes reactionary right." -- The Australian"Interrogates race and its relationship to class struggle today, tracing the rise of identity politics alongside the decline of the labour movement and universalism." -- Tribune Magazine"[Malik"s] critique of right and left identarianism is convincing and useful for the academic? and non-academic activist alike, looking to make sense of contemporary race politics and locate it within a larger, complex history of inequality." -- Ethnic and Racial Studies Review"Malik impels us to invert the causal arrows between race and the differential treatment of people from different ethnicities. It"s not the latter that flows from the former but the inverse." -- Law & Liberty"A tour-de-force of intellectual history as well as a political polemic and a plea to the left. Malik takes many of his leftist confreres to task for misunderstanding the causes and function of racism and thereby, unwittingly and unintentionally, contributing to the maintenance of an unjust and unequal status quo." -- The Liberal Patriot"An informative and revealing history of ideas." -- International Socialism"Has important implications for contemporary race politics, particularly for understanding the current debates over critical race theory and the 1619 and 1776 projects." -- Catalyst