Chandran Nair, the Founder and CEO of the Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT) in Hong Kong and author of Dismantling Global White Privilege: Equity for a Post-Western World and Consumptionomics: Asia’s Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet, joins host Richard Levick of LEVICK for a comprehensive look at the destructive influence of global White privilege. Chandran’s book has been widely praised by critics including many who make the point that they are both White and Western. He calmly and politely makes his points and is an outspoken critic of the Western economic model and has argued about the need for radical reform of the current economic model and strict limits on consumption. White privilege, he argues, damages and distorts societies around the world, not just in the United States. Chandran discusses on the show and in his book that the belief in the innate superiority of White people and Western culture – once the driving force behind imperialism – is now woven into the very fabric of globalization. It is so insidious that, as Nair points out, even many non-White people have internalized it, judging themselves by an alien standard. It has no rival in terms of longevity, global reach, harm done and continuing subversion of other cultures and societies. He examines its impact on geopolitics, the reframing of world history and international business practices. In the soft-power spheres of White privilege – entertainment, the news media, sports and fashion. Even environmentalism has been corrupted, dominated by a White savior mentality whereby technologies and practices built in the West will save the supposedly underdeveloped, poorly governed and polluted non-Western world. Listen here
