White educability: lessons from the terror trial of a far-right nationalist in England

Abstract

Understanding how the discourse of terror has adapted to the rise of the far-right nationalist movement, which itself has turned to terroristic methods, is necessary to combatting anti-Muslim racism within contemporary England. In this paper, we examine a curious trial in which a far-right nationalist, convicted under a domestic counter-terrorism statute in England in 2021, was punished with reading canonical English literature. Through analysing this odd choice for a punishment, we introduce the concept of White educability. We argue that the racial knowledge that is circulating in and through this courtroom, and indeed, in and through the discourse of the War on Terror, is that whiteness is educable and Muslimness is not, and therefore that White life is deserving of state protection and Muslim life is, in fact, killable life.