“Arrested in the Office of DEI” - On the New Racial Regime with Alana Lentin

In this conversation we’re exited to welcome Alana Lentin back to the show to talk about her new book The New Racial Regime: Recalibrations of White Supremacy, which works with the concept of the racial regime put forth by Cedric Robinson in his book Forgeries of Memory and Meaning. The book features a foreword by Elizabeth Robinson, long time interlocutor, partner in critical media work, and life partner of Cedric Robinson. 

We talk about this project which starts with an analysis of the war on so-called Critical Race Theory, and the attendant fascistic agenda, the “whitelash” against Black Studies, and gets deep into zionist counterinsurgency efforts throughout academia, as well as the so-called “war on antisemitism,” and how we make sense of “the processes through which racial colonial rule is ideologically resecured.”

It’s a really interesting read and I definitely recommend people pick it up.

Alana Lentin is a teacher and writer, and identifies as a Jewish European woman who is a settler on Gadigal-Wangal land (Sydney, Australia). Her work focuses on a critical theorization of race, racism and antiracism. 

She is a Professor of Cultural and Social Analysis at Western Sydney University. She is the author and editor of multiple books, including Why Race Still Matters and Racism and Anti-Racism in Europe. 

More about Dr. Lentin and her work can be found at her website.

This also is the first episode that Josh and Jared have recorded together since October of 2023, and it was great to collaborate again on an episode!

We hosted with the Sameer Project last week. With the forced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, it is absolutely critical that we ways to continue getting support their way. We we’ll put a link to donate to the Sameer Project and to that conversation in the show description.

And of course if you appreciate the work that we do on audio podcasts like this, and through our video feed on Youtube, the best way to support our work is to become a patron show for as little as $1 a month, or support us through our BuyMeACoffee page.

Our music as always is courtesy of Televangel

Correction: in the interview Jared said it was the "National Federation of Teachers" which is not accurate (or a thing). It was the National Educators Association, however that vote from the a majority of the 7,000 delegates of the largest US teacher's union was rejected by the union's board. Read more here.

Now here is our conversation with Alana Lentin on The New Racial Regime

The title of the episode is a reference to this tweet.

Source of the image in the thumbnail.

Some References:

Dylan Rodríguez on Lexical Warfare & Counterinsurgency

"Stop Asian Hate" as Zionist Policing with Dylan Rodríguez

"Rosa Luxemburg and the Primitive Accumulation of Whiteness" by Siddhant Issar, Rachel H. Brown, and John McMahon

The War on Anti-Semitism with Anna-Esther Younes

Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism

Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, Decolonization & Islamophobia with Alana Lentin (MAKC episode)

Prior audio episodes with Alana Lentin