Live on Bloomberg TV

00:00What made you want to write this book. I think the context was you know who were the all that focus on the George Floyd murder and then the spread of that sentiment about colonization imperialism in the West and the taking down the statues etc.. You know several people in Hong Kong expats etc said to me you should write this book about how it's actually much more insidious issue than simply you know white black relations in the Western world and historical figures. And having been involved in the anti-apartheid movement in southern Africa during the apartheid era and lived etc. I had so much to tell but I didn't think I wanted to write a book. But then I wrote an article which then kind of went global. And I essentially tried to argue that while it's important that this discussion is taking place in the West in the United States around critical race theory it's sort of a very narrow focus and that there's a much more insidious nature of white privilege that term itself as you or you acknowledge it seems very divisive. But my intention was not to be divisive to bring people together take knowledge that this persists. It has to be essentially addressed. Of course I use the word dismantle in a way that's not meant to be aggressive but to suggest that until we confront that we will not be and therefore looked at nine spheres around the whole modern world. How does this manifest itself. When it came to this year because I think one of the argues you make in your book is that the pandemic has actually been made worse exacerbated by this argument. You have. Yes. So perhaps I can answer that question by saying what is white privilege. So white privilege in. I say in the book is the best way to understand how the dominance and the oppression even if you could use that loaded term of people in the other parts of the world by Western cultures is bogus perpetuated and reinforced with one objective between countries and within countries. And it is to essentially maintain economic superiority. So when I lived in southern Africa in brokering anti-apartheid move it was not about black and white people was the class struggles and economic struggle. And so it manifests itself today in the vaccines issued by the countries that have the technology the know how etc. not wanting to essentially share the knowhow and technology. And that's all economic interests. And that's fundamentally the issue that I argue. It's not simply a race issue. You know I mean racism exists in all forms partnerships in different parts of it. But the driver if you look at history is essentially maintaining economic privileges and dominance and the vaccine issue the patents built into these things. Well I was going to ask you I guess as a follow to that is how do you disentangle. It's a very complex obviously. How do you disentangle simply white from wealth for example. Right. And you do have nations for example that it because part of it seems to also be the countries that do have the resources and developed countries for example are not all white dominant for example. And I can I can see how that side of the argument might come up. And I wonder if you could respond to that. You know I don't think you can separate if you you know if you look into history that the dominant economies of the world are essentially economies that if you look at the UK or you radically they were basically white not the UK. But if you look at Australia etc. But they were essentially white settler communities that dominated the world. So when an area where now the the the the historical wealth accumulated and I can't I think use of colonialism imperialism plundering all of those things are essentially maintain this this this position that these countries have. So Australia has a disproportional representation in that sort of world in the world global space because it's a white settler community that had access to these resources through a historical pathway. And that is essentially now I think created anxiety. And the preservation of that privilege as etc is what I call white white white privilege. And that has to be essentially addressed. And all of us are live in Asia. Will we'll know how that manifests itself in different ways. There's some subtle ways and some more insidious ways. And you know I have a whole chapter on how business the business world is dominated by. You know if you look at the rating agencies you look at the investment banks all of those.

No schedule data available.

BTV Channel FinderWatch BTV in your area

Nair On How White Privilege Shapes The Modern World

Global Institute For Tomorrow Founder & CEO Chandran Nair discusses his upcoming book titled, Dismantling Global White Privilege: Equity for a Post-Western World, which explores how white privilege has shaped the modern world, including modes of international business, sport and music. He was speaking with Yvonne Man, David Ingles and Rishaad Salamat on "Bloomberg Markets: Asia.".

More From Bloomberg Markets
All episodes and clips