Gary Younge



Profile:
Full name: Gary Younge

Area of interest: US affairs, Race, African-American literature, Europe, South Africa, Russia

Journals: The Guardian, The Nation magazine

Email: [mailto:g.younge@guardian.co.uk g.younge@guardian.co.uk]

Website: Guardian.co / Gary Younge

Blogs: Comment is free... | The Nation / The Notion

Representation:

Networks:



Biography:
Education: Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh: French and Russian; City University, London: PG Dip in Newspaper Journalism, see: Student testimonials

Career: English teacher in a Sudanese refugee school, 1986/1987; Student Union Sabbatical Offices,1989/1990; Channel 4 current affairs programme, researcher, 1993; The Guardian: reporter on South African elections, 1994, assistant foreign editor, 1994/1998, feature writer, 1998, New York correspondent, 2003 (has written extensively from the United States, South Africa and throughout Europe)

Current position/role: columnist and feature writer (based in the US)


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles:

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:
 * Are my roots showing?: Am I from Barbados? Or am I from Stevenage? For much of his youth, Gary Younge wasn't sure. Here he reflects on the the dilemma of his double identity - The Observer, 12th September 1999
 * Memoirs of a teenage Trot: In 1984 the miners were on strike, the IRA bombed Brighton's Grand Hotel, and Gary Younge, aged 15, joined the revolution. But it couldn't last - The Guardian, 19th February 2000

TV/Radio: BBC News: Minister of Rage - 'For months, The Guardian's Gary Younge has followed the rise and rise of the charismatic Minister Louis Farrakhan. His film report looks at just why the leader of the Nation of Islam is still barred from entering the UK' - 30th May 2002; and see: Interview with Professor Vibert White

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours: Laurence Stern Fellowship, 1996 (seconded to the Washington Post); Best Print Newspaper Journalist (Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards), 2003

Other:



Books & Debate:

 * No place like home: a Black Briton's journey through the American South (1999) OCLC 49226176 (Google book preview)
 * The English question (2000) OCLC 44485309

(also see: My favourite travel books, Gary Younge The Guardian)

Latest work: Stranger in a strange land: encounters in the Disunited States (2006) OCLC 62421357

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: 

The Guardian:
Column remit: US affairs

Section:

Role: columnist

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:g.younge@guardian.co.uk g.younge@guardian.co.uk]

Website: Guardian.co / Gary Younge: All comment | Race issues | US elections 2008

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Monday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2011

 * Haitians whether voters or big business chose their singing president'' - The economic crisis has intensified the implosion of democratic legitimacy. Multinationals, not nation states, now rule - 4th July
 * Obamaphilia says more about its own weakness than the US president'' - Europeans see in Barack Obama the possibility of intelligent, public-spirited leaders, a far cry from their own, and ignore his actual record - 22nd May
 * are no good answers in Libya. But war should never be the default'' - Libya shows again that successful regime change can be brought about only by ordinary people, not by foreign bombs - 9th May
 * bin Laden's death: The US patriot reflex'' - Given 9/11, a desire for vengeance is a legitimate emotional response. But it is not a foreign policy - 4th May
 * Israelis and Palestinians, the status quo is neither sustainable nor desirable'' - To suggest Israelis and Palestinians are equally responsible would suggest they hold equal power to shape events. They don't - 25th April
 * Tea Party tail wags the Republican dog, but it's Obama who's dragged off course'' - The American right is on the verge of imploding. Yet on the budget as in healthcare, the president punched below his weight - 11th April
 * American right is trapped in a hyperbolic and dysfunctional world'' - To have credibility within the Republican party is to have none outside it. They act as if all their Kool-Aid has been spiked - 28th March
 * multiculturalism the European right fears so much is a fiction – it never existed'' - The state never backed cultural difference at the expense of cohesion. What is emerging is people's lived experience - 14th March
 * is making the battle lines clear in America's hidden class war'' - The brazen choices of the Republican governor shows the real ideology behind attacks on unions – in the US and beyond - 28th February
 * west can no longer claim to be an honest broker in the search for peace'' - Egypt proved that our leaders see freedom as a question of strategy, not principle - 14th February
 * US is moving on from Afghanistan, but its troops are still dying there'' - US admiration for its soldiers may be deep and widespread, but interest in what they are doing is shallow and fleeting - 31st January



Articles: 2010

 * power is limited. But their anger and revolt can prove contagious'' - The protest means more than fees. If they resist education cuts, it would boost opposition to the whole austerity drive - 6th December
 * Tea Party is not new, or coherent. It's merely old whine in new bottles'' - This incoherent group has no leaders, no policies, no headquarters. It is held together by Fox TV and big money - 8th November
 * midterm elections: Harry Reid's survival is a rare bright spot for Obama'' - Nevada aside, it was a great night for the Republicans, but they remain only slightly less loathed than the Democrats - 4th November
 * midterm elections: machine v momentum'' - The Democrats are hoping their activist base from 2008 will get out the vote to prevent a rout, but the Republicans scent success - 2nd November
 * Obama's most loyal base'' - Black voters were discounted until the race tightened, but now it seems a strong African American turnout could be key - 28th October
 * voters could swing the midterms'' - They have been disappointed by Democrats, alienated by Republicans. But if Latino voters have real clout – if they use it - 27th October
 * was never going to have the room to effect radical change'' - The US electorate's mistake was to believe that transformation was something you could impart to a higher power - 25th October
 * Party supporters want to 'take their country back'. To where?'' - The party they are voting for and the candidates they back have actively worked to undermine what they really want - 11th October
 * won as cool and unflappable. But presidents need to act angry too'' - Americans want a leader they can relate to, as well as revere. Until Obama delivers, he must at least reflect the public mood - 27th September
 * recession bites deeper, Barack Obama has discovered that people can't eat hope'' - His achievements are impressive but insufficient, his party is confused. As elections loom, fundamentalists and fantasists are seizing the initiative - 13th September
 * cause job losses? Like ice-cream brings sharks'' - To claim the statistics show that foreigners are to blame for rising unemployment is a leap of xenophobic bad faith - 16th August
 * coalition doesn't want to heal Britain's broken leg, but amputate it'' - The left must show this for the elective surgery it is: cuts born of ideology, where the many pay for a crisis created by the rich - 19th July
 * the little men's history'' - New Labour-era memoirs reveal leaders for whom world events play second fiddle to petty obsessions - 13th July
 * when the poison of Iraq is drawn can Labour hope to move on'' - The silence over the war in the leadership battle is deafening. Yet the party won't be trusted until this toxic issue is addressed - 5th July
 * a problem that won't go away'' - The right to asylum is enshrined in international law – but you wouldn't know it from the behaviour of many western nations - 18th June
 * Saville report is for all our Bloody Sundays'' - Derry's 1972 tragedy is but one of many in history, but the Saville report provides the chance to face the past with honesty - 15th June
 * Party is creating waves for Republicans'' - Fissures in the Republican party between moderates and more conservative figures is the only show in town for US primaries - 9th June
 * equality can't yet be claimed a western value, but it is a human right'' - The far right's use of homophobia as a stick with which to beat Islam is symptomatic of a broader confusion - 7th June
 * complicity in apartheid crimes undermines its attack on Goldstone'' - To rubbish the former judge's report on Gaza, Israel has dredged up his record in South Africa – while forgetting its own - 24th May
 * people have spoken. Don't let the markets shout them down'' - The clash of democracy and capitalism is as acute as ever as a discredited financial sector seeks to dictate political terms - 10th May (Cif at the polls)
 * hate Tories. And yes, it's tribal'' - Labour was my tribe, but they did terrible things I could not be associated with. But I still long for Cameron to fail on Thursday - 5th May
 * we need an honest immigration debate. But this tough talk isn't it'' - Racist fear-mongering prevents discussion of the poverty, natural disasters and wars that cause people to emigrate - 26th April
 * Republicans are like frat boys in Animal House'' - Reckless, anarchic and strident, the American right is living in a parallel world where fear and rage drive out the facts - 12th April
 * presidents and women MPs do not alone mean equality and justice'' - Representation is a start, and an important one. But equal opportunities should be pursued above the photo opportunities - 15th March
 * Tea Party is a dynamic force, but it is still unruly and incoherent'' - This angry and leaderless movement is a potential liability for the Republican party, and its importance is often exaggerated - 1st March
 * to Europe, the US can at least make a pretence of democracy'' - Nation states have been superseded by greater forces. Greece's people are now seeing the naked disregard for their will - 15th February
 * west owes Haiti a bailout. And it would be a hand-back, not a handout'' - The Caribbean nation should be reimbursed for centuries of punitive treatment and brutality by the outside world - 1st February
 * you're disillusioned with Obama, you don't understand how he won'' - The distance between the aspirations he raised and his record a year on is the distinction between the electoral and the political - 18th January
 * war on terror has been about scaring people, not protecting them'' - The ease with which the plane bomber could operate exposes the vacuity and recklessness at the heart of the US response to 9/11 - 4th January



Articles: 2009

 * changed my mind about racism'' - I thought a paradigmatic shift in attitudes to race was occurring in Britain. The decade has proved me wrong - 28th December
 * America's growing voice of rage is a force to be reckoned with'' - In poorer, isolated towns the rightwing protest movement is flourishing. Republicans as well as Obama must take note - 21st December
 * who follow Sarah Palin are sowing the seeds of their own destruction'' - The former Alaska governor represents thwarted aspirations and brooding resentment. But she backs policies which would increase them - 23rd November
 * year on, Obama has shown that meaningful change can happen'' - It is still too early for concrete results, though. And those responsible for electing him are hurting the most - 9th November
 * attacked the bankers, but took our eyes off the whole rotten system'' - Prince Andrew says that bonuses are minute 'in the scheme of things'. He is half-right. We must take the focus off individuals - 26th October
 * you watch the BNP on TV, just remember: Jack Straw started all this' - To set New Labour against Griffin is simply putting the cause against the symptom - 22nd October
 * system let Obama be president. But he still may not be able to beat it'' - Even if he is pushing the US in the right direction, it is unlikely to be far or fast enough in a political culture resisting reform - 12th October
 * powers in the Caribbean emphasise the end of empire'' - Britain needs to develop a more realistic, modest view of its role in the world if its foreign policy is to have any impact - 28th September
 * doesn't need more friends'' - He needs meaningful results – which is why he needs to strike a decisive tone on the world stage this week - 24th September
 * morality of the war on terror has now descended into viagra handouts'' - From women's liberation to domestic despotism in eight years. But the structure set up by the neocons is still in place - 14th September
 * is losing the health debate – but he can still mobilise and win'' - Obama must inspire a grassroots campaign to head off the right's coordinated intervention in the health battle - 31st August
 * engage the birther fantasists is futile; to dismiss them, reckless'' - The Obama conspiracy theorists may appear marginal, but they have a sizeable audience now and were effectively running the country until last year - 3rd August
 * should realise that segregation may be over, but exclusion lives on'' - African-Americans have been hit harder by this recession than others, and the president should be wary of lecturing them - 20th July
 * Jackson: We span, shuffled and combed our hair up high – to be like the boy on Bandstand'' - Michael Jackson was the first black superstar of the post civil-rights era - 29th June
 * may deserve to lose – but the country doesn't deserve the Tories'' - With the first real threat from Conservatives in over a decade, the party has to prove to voters that it can reform itself - 22nd June
 * conservatives are fighting for the rights of a minority – white men'' - Obama's nomination of a Latina to sit on the supreme court has prompted an attack from the right against racism - 8th June
 * Obama cedes ground on torture to Cheney, we'll all pay a heavy price'' - By acknowledging recent crimes while refusing to pursue the criminals, the president has made his position untenable - 25th May
 * the monarchy'' - A new politics: Or if we cannot do without the royal family, we must at least make the monarch's role ceremonial, not constitutional - 20th May
 * has had an epoch-defining 100 days. But vultures are gathering'' - We have seen the scale and scope of his ambition. But every element in the president's agenda carries a clear possibility of failure - 27th April
 * will we find the perfect Muslim for monocultural Britain?'' - Patriotic, pious, peaceful and patient. Labour's anti-terror strategy depends on mythical figures as elusive as WMD - 30th March
 * the miners' strike taught me to believe in impossible things'' - Now another formative political moment is upon us, and an ideological space is once again opening up for the left - 16th March
 * about to get nasty: time for Obama's movement to get moving'' - He has plans to stop the war, save the planet and redistribute wealth. If he's to overcome the lobbyists he'll need a new coalition - 2nd March
 * will get no warning when the people's response to this crisis comes'' - The president is popular for now - but while his stimulus package is being hailed as a victory, no one truly believes it will work - 16th February
 * courting the Republicans, Obama could get the worst of all worlds'' - Consensus among the nation's political elite is a recipe for disaster - just look at Iraq, the war on terror and deregulation - 2nd February
 * the moment. From then, it's not who Obama is, but what he does'' - The expectation heaped on his skinny shoulders may be unrealistic - but let's savour the day, and then keep him to his task - 19th January
 * has yet to learn the US lesson, that the war on terror was a failure'' - Americans now realise that aggression fuels extremism. This offers Obama the chance for a new Middle East policy - 5th January



Articles: 2008

 * has pushed political credibility and financial trust into freefall'' - Recent scandals in America reveal a value system that puts the wealth of a few before the welfare of many - 22nd December 2008
 * have never felt so excited, and yet so depressed'' - As the nation basks in the warm glow of Barack Obama's win, its wealth and power are perched on the edge of a precipice - 24th November 2008
 * army of supporters must maintain their level of activism'' - The potent force behind the president-elect's campaign cannot allow the big business lobby to seize back the agenda - 10th November 2008
 * politics of smear won't work in the middle of a stockmarket crash'' - Voters care too much about their homes and their retirement to be swayed by the McCain camp's desperate slurs - 13th October 2008
 * has a terrible headache, but it seems like no one wants to cure it'' - For the election to make any sense in such a crisis, the assumptions of the past 30 years must be thoroughly challenged - 29th September 2008
 * is playing the incognegro, but it is not a risk-free strategy'' - Historically, there's been a last-minute swing away from black candidates by white voters. Will Obama change things? - 15th September 2008
 * whom the poll tells'' - Liberals are prone to panic, but because of America's electoral college system, the outlook for Obama isn't at all bad - Guardian.co.uk - 10th September 2008
 * who are tasked to police this democracy are blinded by confetti'' - The real problem with the Bush years is not so much what he did but that America's political class enabled him to do it - 1st September 2008
 * They came to see history in the making'' - 30th August 2008
 * People see in Obama what they want to see - that's a blessing and a curse - As the US Democratic candidate heads towards Europe, liberals refer to him as if he represents a second coming - 21st July 2008
 * It's no surprise that the BNP's rise and New Labour's demise are linked - The ruling party failed to make the case against racism and xenophobia, pandering instead of standing on principle - 7th July 2008
 * Occupations abroad always lead to the erosion of liberties at home - 23rd June 2008
 * Obama could set an earthquake under the established electoral map - 9th June 2008
 * Hillary has cynically turned to the one argument she has left: race - 28th April 2008
 * The US needs to talk about class, but politicians don't have the vocabulary - 14th April 2008
 * America lauds Martin Luther King, but undermines his legacy every day - 31st March 2008
 * Ranking race against gender is the first step towards fundamentalism - 17th March 2008
 * Obama must build a movement to take him beyond the White House - 3rd March 2008
 * It's up to the superdelegates to prove Democrats believe in democracy - 18th February 2008
 * In this great meritocracy, only one thing matters: who is your daddy? - To change the political sclerosis gripping their country, Americans need a president distinguished by his lack of pedigree - 4th February 2008
 * Republicans lack consensus, but their Democrat rivals lack content - 21st January 2008
 * An Obama victory would symbolise a great deal and change very little - 7th January 2008



The Nation: 'Beneath the Radar'
Column remit: US affairs

Section:

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email:

Website: The Nation / Gary Younge

Commissioning editor:

Day published:

Regularity: Monthly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:

 * Beer and Sympathy - Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s arrest most certainly was a "teachable moment" in the racial conversation--but we've learned nothin - 29th July 2009
 * London Falling - New Labour is finished. What replaces it will certainly be worse - 20th May 2009
 * Bonus Outrage: Class Struggle or Class Envy? - Imagine, if you will, a white-collar CEO version of the TV show Cops. Roll cameras. Send up the chopper - 26th March 2009
 * Precarious Populism - The global depression is spawning social unrest, which the extreme right might try to hijack--a good reason for the left to be well organized and engaged - 25th February 2009
 * Beyond Hope - When the government is organizing a movement to back the government in the name of progressive politics, something is seriously awry - 28th January 2009
 * What Obama Means to the World - Coming to terms with a black American not as a symbol of protest, but as a symbol of power - 15th January 2009
 * A Woman Against the System - Extinguishing race as a meaningful category demands we get rid of the racism that gives it meaning - 17th December 2008
 * Obama's Virginia Territory - So far in the once-red state of Virginia, things are going Obama's way - 16th October 2008
 * Palin's Shotgun Politics'' - The vile politics of the party of abstinence stepped up to suffocate Bristol Palin in its embrace - 3rd September 2008
 * Indiscreet Conversations - Jesse Jackson's gaffe demonstrates that the days of being able to think out loud are over - 16th July 2008
 * Obama and the Power of Symbols - 12th June 2008
 * Bitter fruit in Pennsylvania - If Obama's remarks on poor white voters were gauche, the responses they elicited have been galling - 17th April 2008
 * Obama, Ferraro, Wright: 'Postracial' Meets Racism - Wouldn't a real feminist also oppose racism? - 20th March 2008
 * Obama, Ferraro, Wright: 'postracial' meets racism - Wouldn't a real feminist also oppose racism? - 21st February 2008
 * Feudal democracy - If democracy does not prevail in August, the Democrats will not prevail in November - 21st February 2008
 * Some things even Obama can't transcend - Before we can talk sensibly about transcending difference, we must first transform the conditions that give these differences meaning - 24th January 2008



Links:

 * Wikipedia bio