About:
In this talk, Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter will discuss their book Reactionary Democracy: How Racism and the Populist Far Right Became Mainstream. Recent developments and protests in the US, and more widely, have shown the reality of systemic racism and convergence of the mainstream and far right after a long period in which racism was deemed to be unacceptable and our societies ‘post-racial’. In this talk, Mondon and Winter will look at the legitimisation and mainstreaming of racism and the far right through a variety of processes, such as the construction and racialisation of ‘the people’ or demos as white, ‘populist hype’, euphemisation and liberal tropes such as free speech. They argue that this has not only made racism more acceptable, but emboldened racists, including the far right, once seen as the unacceptable face of what Mondon and Winter term ‘illiberal racism’. In addition to examining this process and history, they will also discuss what we need to do as anti-racists to not only fight racism and the far right, but ensure democracy is itself progressive. They will focus the talk on the United States, but also draw from case studies on the UK and France from the book.
Speakers:
AURELIEN MONDON
Aurelien Mondon is a Senior Lecturer in politics at the University of Bath. His research focuses predominantly on the impact of racism and populism on liberal democracies and the mainstreaming of far right politics through elite discourse. His first book, The Mainstreaming of the Extreme Right in France and Australia: A Populist Hegemony? was published in 2013 and he recently co-edited After Charlie Hebdo: Terror, racism and free speech published with Zed. His new book Reactionary democracy: How racism and the populist far right became mainstream, co-written with Aaron Winter, is now out with Verso.
AARON WINTER
Aaron Winter is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of East London. His research is on the racism and the far-right with a focus on mainstreaming and violence. He is co-editor of Historical Perspectives on Organised Crime and Terrorism (Routledge) and Researching the Far Right: Theory, Method, Practice (Routledge) and co-author, with Aurelien Mondon, of Reactionary Democracy: How Racism and the Populist Far Right Became Mainstream (Verso). He has been interviewed by NBC, BBC, LBC, The Times, Vice, Wired and The New Statesmen. He currently an Associate Editor of the journal Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power and co-editor of the Manchester University Press series Racism, Resistance and Social Change.
