Blog post by Mauricio Rentería, University of Manchester, UK

‘Do you cholea?’                                                  
‘In what sense, choleo?’
‘Using terms such as “cholo motherfucker” or “serrano piece of shit”.’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I’m classist, but not racist.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you use those phrases?’
‘Yes... believe it or not.’
‘Why?’
‘Because driving in this country is horrible.’ (smiles). [1]
 
This exchange took place in 2015 on the streets of San Isidro, one of Lima’s most affluent districts. The interviewer, host of a popular Peruvian YouTube channel, was asking passers-by whether they practised choleo. The term refers to the use of cholo as an insult: a racial slur directed at people of mixed Indigenous ancestry and, in the Peruvian context, carrying a level of violence comparable to that of the N-word in the United States. The interviewee was a middle-aged woman whose appearance and accent would be immediately recognized by most Peruvians as typical of a White, upper-class Limeña. Her responses are striking: she admits to using racial slurs yet insists she is not racist, instead describing herself, without apparent embarrassment, as classist. As if this contradiction were not enough, she justifies her stance with an unrelated grievance: Lima’s traffic.

Blog post by Karim Murji, University of West London, UK and Ipek Demir, University of Leeds, UK

This blog is linked to the Identities Special Issue: The Global Configurations of Whiteness.

How do two recent instances from the UK provide a window into a wider picture of White supremacy?

In late 2025 Robert Jenrick, then the Conservative Shadow Justice Minister (who defected to the Reform Party in 2026) made headlines when he complained of ‘not seeing another White face’ in Handsworth, Birmingham. Handsworth is indeed one of most diverse places in the UK, hosting many ‘postcolonial’ immigrants – data compiled from the Office for National Statistics by Birmingham City Council shows the population as, for example 9% White, 25.1% Pakistani, 23.1% Indian, 10.2% Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean 8.2%, 8.7% White alongside many other ethnic groups.

When challenged Jenrick said he was highlighting a ‘lack of integration’. This claim skates over the fact that racial diversity does not in itself equal a lack of integration. Nor can integration be measured by people’s skin colour. Jenrick’s claim is not really about a lack of integration but rather turns racial diversity itself into a problem and threat which needs urgent attention.

This is how one branch of contemporary Whiteness is constituted when it can present White people as victims of multiculture. The Civil Rights movement in the US reminded us that ‘equality feels like an oppression if you are used to privilege’. Presenting racial diversity as an oppression by those used to dominance is an expression of supremacy.