Black and Brown in Europe So White Podcast

Shada Islam, Emmanuel Achiri, and William Noah Glucroft
  • 0.0 (0)
  • News Commentary
  • Updated Biweekly

A podcast from Brussels that's more than skin deep. Join us for critical conversations about the imperial logics and racial orderings that persist in Europe's so-called postwar liberal peace project. bbeswpod.substack.com

Episodes

  1. Oct 6

    BBESW Podcast EP5: PEGIDA 2015 is EPP 2026

    In what is surely just a well-timed coincidence, the European Parliament will debate “Islamist entryism” on the third anniversary of the major Hamas attack on Israel. A day later, on 8 October, they will vote on whether there needs to be an “EU strategy” to counter forms of Islamic “influence” in Europe. Seeing that Islam has been part of Europe for just about ever, that would have to be quite a strategy, indeed. On the album of racism’s greatest hits, Islamophobia is the track that Western political and media elites can’t seem to get enough of. Unlike other forms of racism that they at least pretend to care about combating, Islamophobia serves as the hard underbelly rationalizing everything from deportations to extrajudicial drone strikes. Even as European policymakers throw Muslims a fig leaf of protection, they undermine what little credibility they have earned by officially sanctioning moral panic of civilizational erasure. Officially, European policymakers are concerned with violent extremism and radical movements. In reality, from Hollywood action movies to post-9/11 shenanigans of the “war on terror,” to vicious repression of pro-Palestine voices, the neo-imperial politics of Western states are shot through with a general suspicion of every Muslim—or could-be Muslim. Our episode looks at the origins, development, and dynamics of Islamophobia. We trace how Orientialism is alive and well in the heart of the establishment European worldview and shapes so much of it. Have a listen to our latest episode and let us know your experience and how you see things. For further reading, don’t miss Shada’s great new essay about what the EPP is up to: To get all our episodes right away and for free, don’t forget to subscribe! Join us as we confront the imperial core with its multifaceted peripheries. And remember: Solidarity means moving through the world together, so be sure to share us with an ally or two—or someone needs a little nudge to become one. Don’t miss us on Instagram, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. NB: Transcripts are auto-generated and subject to errors. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bbeswpod.substack.com

    BBESW Podcast EP5: PEGIDA 2015 is EPP 2026

  2. Aug 10

    BBESW Podcast EP4: After Ceuta Is Before Ceuta

    What is “Europe”? Where do its borders lie? Who gets to roam freely within them and who is kept forcibly out? These questions and their shifting answers were on painful display recently as tens of thousands of human beings crossed into Spain’s colonial enclave of Ceuta, on mainland Morocco. Why they did remains a matter of dispute and conspiracy. The truth is probably a combustible mix of factors. The response, however, has been anything but ambiguous. Much of the European Union, where right-wing populism and nativist securitization increasingly dominate the political mainstream, quickly turned against center-left Spain. Its Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, is already the odd duck within the European establishment for his relatively supportive position on Palestine, openness to migration, and opposition to military spending. Under pressure to act, Sánchez came out looking little better than his less-than-liberal peers. Although Europe’s visa-free Schengen Area was never at risk, many of the countries that are part of it took unverified panic on social media and chaotic scenes in Ceuta as an opportunity to double down on the civilizational discourse that has gripped European politics. Ironically, many of these countries have themselves called Schengen into question with all but permanent requests for “temporary” border controls. In the aftermath of Ceuta, dozens of migrants are dead, and Europe is weaker and more divided. Its most racist and belligerent voices have the upper hand in a zero-sum politics of exclusion. It is difficult to argue that international law, due process, and human dignity have much of a place in the European Imaginary anymore. Instead, it’s clear that more than any Frontex guard or technocratic piece of legislation, what polices Fortress Europe most of all are racially coded boundaries that help determine who “deserves” certain rights and freedoms and who does not. To get all our episodes right away and for free, don’t forget to subscribe! Join us as we confront the imperial core with its multifaceted peripheries. And remember: Solidarity means moving through the world together, so be sure to share us with an ally or two—or someone needs a little nudge to become one. Don’t miss us on Instagram, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. NB: Transcripts are auto-generated and subject to errors. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bbeswpod.substack.com

    BBESW Podcast EP4: After Ceuta Is Before Ceuta

  3. Jul 28

    BBESW Podcast EP3: Books To Bring With You To the Beach or the Mountains

    In Europe, the concept of “summer” feels almost like a fundamental right. For several weeks, shops close up and cities empty out as workers and families undertake their annual traditions of checking out from everyday life. Soaring temperatures, spreading wildfires, and high-season prices do not appear to have changed this pattern much. It’s as if capitalism itself downshifts to a less oppressive mode of operation in this season—its neoliberal impulses dulled by ocean tides and mountain air. Yet those structures are never far away. In the Mediterranean, they help determine who sinks and who swims; from the Balkans and across the Schengen Area, they police borders and movement across them. Everyone should enjoy well-deserved time off, without forgetting who gets to be off and why—and what “off” even means. That’s why, before you disappear till September, Shada, Emmanuel, and William send you packing with our favorite books. These are stories and histories of resilience, resistance, and remembrance. We hope they fill you with inspiration and good ideas to bring back with you. We’d love to hear what you think of them and share your favorite books with us! Until then, have a great and meaningful summer with the people who matter most to you. To get all our episodes right away and for free, don’t forget to subscribe! Join us as we confront the imperial core with its multifaceted peripheries. And remember: Solidarity means moving through the world together, so be sure to share us with an ally or two—or someone needs a little nudge to become one. Don’t miss us on Instagram, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. NB: Transcripts are auto-generated and subject to errors. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bbeswpod.substack.com

    BBESW Podcast EP3: Books To Bring With You To the Beach or the Mountains

  4. May 26

    BBESW Podcast EP2: Feature, Not A Bug

    Shada, Emmanuel, and William are back! If you liked our pilot episode, you will really enjoy this one. Together, we connect contemporary policing in Europe to its colonial continuities, anti-immigrant politics, and the securitization of everything that seems to have no end. Repression of pro-Palestinian activism is only the tip of the imperial iceberg. Anyone who contests the status quo of state power—climate campaigners, workers, artists—risks facing its wrath. The problems aren’t individual. They’re structural. That means the solutions need to be, too. Ultimately, we ask: Can the European “peace project” be truly democratic when wedded to a capitalist system of extraction, subjugation, and racialized control? To get all our episodes right away and for free, don’t forget to subscribe! Join us as we confront the imperial core with its multifaceted peripheries. And remember: Solidarity means moving through the world together, so be sure to share us with an ally or two—or someone who could become one with a little nudge. Don’t miss us on Instagram, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. NB: Transcripts are auto-generated and subject to errors. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bbeswpod.substack.com

    BBESW Podcast EP2: Feature, Not A Bug

  5. May 10

    BBESW Podcast EP1: Introductions

    Greetings! Where else to begin this new podcast series than in the beginning? Shada, Emmanuel, and William trace their divergent yet overlapping paths to “Europe”—a place and an idea that can be difficult to define, except to say that you know it when you see it. Our experiences and trajectories are neither individual nor accidental. They reflect larger social structures: products of racial hierarchies, colonial continuities, and (geo)political power dynamics. The European Union likes to think it’s beyond all that, when in fact it is built on and replicates these very logics. How we are simultaneously agents of and subjects to them—and how we can resist them to imagine new possibilities of organizing human life—is the subject of this podcast. To get all our episodes right away and for free, don’t forget to subscribe! Join us as we confront the imperial core with its multifaceted peripheries. And remember: Solidarity means moving through the world together, so be sure to share us with an ally or two! Don’t miss us on Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify. NB: Transcripts are auto-generated and subject to errors. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bbeswpod.substack.com

    BBESW Podcast EP1: Introductions
  • 5 Episodes

About

A podcast from Brussels that's more than skin deep. Join us for critical conversations about the imperial logics and racial orderings that persist in Europe's so-called postwar liberal peace project. bbeswpod.substack.com

Information