Chandran Nair is the Founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT), an independent pan-Asian think tank based in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur focused on advancing a deeper understanding of global issues including the shift of economic and political influence from the West to Asia, the dynamic relationship between business and society, and the reshaping of the rules of global capitalism.

He is the author of Dismantling Global White Privilege: Equity for a Post-Western World, The Sustainable State, Consumptionomics and the creator of The Other Hundred, a non-profit global photo journalism initiative to present a counterpoint to media consensus on some of today’s most important issues. Chandran sits on the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome, is a member of the Global Advisory Board of Ethical Markets and is a Senior Fellow of CIMB ASEAN Research Institute (CARI), as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.  He is also an Advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia on development issues.

KEY TAKE-AWAY
  • Many who consider themselves liberal and anti-racism are unaware of the powers and privilege from which they have, and continue, to benefit.
  • The outcry following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a white policemen took the form of widespread condemnation of such acts of racist violence and raised awareness of institutionalized racism. What it didn’t do was to address the global structural racism or make any contribution towards dismantling it. Reaction to the ‘facile’ nature of this response provided the inspiration behind Nair’s book.
  • White privilege is a multi-dimensional, many-headed creature.  It reaches across all areas of contemporary life: business, media, sport, fashion and culture to name a few.
  • Nair claims that “The US perpetuation of white privilege is military, economic, full on, everywhere and active.”
  • The more the US ‘abuses’ the reserve currency status of the US$ the more likely a de-colonization of the global monetary system becomes. Less clear is what any alternative system would look like.
  • There is still a deep-rooted association of power with whiteness.  As a result, you don’t have to be white to be part of the perpetuation process of white privilege.
  • A whole cosmetic industry is grounded in the desire of African and Asian women to have paler (whiter) skin.
  • In large swathes of the banking and business sector the rules are written and policed by Western institutions and implemented by Western companies.
  • Greater ethnic diversity in terms of employees and business leaders is a step in the right direction but should not be used to assuage consciences and serve as an alternative to deep-rooted reform. “To be accepted … Asians and Africans still can’t be themselves.”
  • The war in Ukraine serves as a daily reminder of the Western bias of the mainstream media and Western hypocrisy in terms of its response to the ensuing casualties and refugee crisis.  “Losses are defined through their whiteness.”