Kureishi celebrates lived multiculturalism while distrusting political mobilizations of identity

Evidence

However, it should be noted that Kureishi describes these shifts from monoculture to multiculture and the kinds of social formation multiculturalism throws up. He is not an advocate for these shifts. As Sara Upstone points out, “To read Kureishi as an upholder of multiculturalism … does not offer the most accurate rendering of his position. For Kureishi does not subscribe to the concept of multiculturalism as a toleration of individual communities and ethnic differences.” Thus, although he celebrates the results of multiculturalism as lived experience, he is deeply suspicious of political moves to harness the politics of recognition. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 170

Categorization

• XREF: The distrust of ‘politics of recognition’ links to my reading of Hamid and Naqvi, who similarly satirize tokenized multicultural celebration rather than endorsing it.
• DEFINE: Distinguishes celebrating multiculturalism as lived experience from subscribing to it as a politics of recognition — a usable critical distinction.