The unified black coalition concealed internal inequalities and tensions

Evidence

However, as James Procter notes, “while the inclusive nature of ‘black’ in the 1970s offered a way of overcoming cultural ‘differences,’ it also led to the suppression of difference in presenting a unified front against racism. ‘Black’ was forced to conceal and perpetuate a range of inequalities and tensions internal to the imagined community it drew together.” — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 151

Categorization

• XREF: Parallel to your leading question: a unifying category can suppress difference just as an externally-imposed ‘Muslim’ label flattens individuals — relevant to contesting vs. reinforcing readings of Hamid and Naqvi. — connects to: Two-thirds agreement on the UN corporate code masked irreconcilable North-South divides — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1796; Black elite status depended on the welfare of the whole black population; Coalition formation across rival black movements was essential to apartheid’s overthrow — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 545 (+2 more)
• QUESTION: Does the novel that contests Islamophobia risk reproducing this suppression-by-inclusion, presenting a unified Muslim front that again flattens internal difference?