Terror Capitalism and Uyghur Dispossession — with Darren Byler

Sociocultural anthropologist and assistant professor at SFU’s School for International Studies, Darren Byler joins Am Johal to speak about his latest book, “Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City.” Darren describes how China surveilles and dispossesses Uyghur populations through a mass digital surveillance system, connecting it to the war on terror. Darren and Am also discuss the similarities and differences between the colonialism of China with India, Israel, and other Western countries.

Finally, the conversation goes into how Uyghur men protect their wellbeing by developing anti-colonial friendships. The conversation also highlights how many Han Chinese people are building a community of inter-ethnic solidarity to refuse the colonial structures of the state system.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/157-darren-byler.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/157-darren-byler.html

Resources:
— Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City: https://www.dukeupress.edu/terror-capitalism
— In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/696114/in-the-camps-by-darren-byler/
— Glen Coulthard on Below the Radar: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/37-glen-coulthard.html
— Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon: http://abahlali.org/files/__Black_Skin__White_Masks__Pluto_Classics_.pdf
— Justice for “Data Janitors by Lilly Irani: https://www.publicbooks.org/justice-for-data-janitors/
— Amazon Mechanical Turk: https://www.mturk.com/
— Digitize and Punish: Racial Criminalization in the Digital Age by Brian Jordan Jefferson: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Digitize-and-Punish-by-Brian-Jordan-Jefferson-author/9781517909239

Bio:
Darren Byler a sociocultural anthropologist and assistant professor at Simon Fraser University’s School for International Studies. His research examines the dispossession of stateless populations through forms of contemporary capitalism and colonialism in China, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. He has written two books, Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City, and In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony. Darren is part of the Xinjiang Documentation Project, which features personal testimonies and archives, internal police reports, translations and other documents about the ongoing detention of Turkic Muslims in China and the erasure of their native knowledge.

Cite this episode:
Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Terror Capitalism and Uyghur Dispossession — with Darren Byler” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, February 01, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/157-darren-byler.html.