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introvertsbookclub's review against another edition
4.0
Hirsch’s books asks big questions about identity – British identity, racial identity, class identity. It starts as a personal account of experiences that were shaped by being Black in a predominantly white society, and a person who is treated as not British in a British society. She explores who is and is not accepted as British and how acceptance is based on racial identity (often assumed by appearance and name).
Across her book, Hirsch traces the legacy of colonialism and racism that has shaped Britain; the views, biases and entitlements of the white people within it; and lived experiences, opportunities and sense of identity of the people of colour within it. Across all different parts of society she investigates the ways that racism has been embedded within our society and how refusal to acknowledge or address it only makes it more insidious.
This is an incredible book. Probing and painful and curious and deeply engaged. I just wish I had read it sooner.
Graphic: Racism and Police brutality
aislingmoconnell's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Sexual violence
thebowandthebook's review
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, and Slavery
emmacb's review
4.0
Graphic: Classism and Racism
readingthroughinfinity's review against another edition
4.5
Hirsch looks back at the UK's colonial history and uses this to inform her analysis of present day attitudes towards people of colour and the persisting idea that white people 'don't see race'. This book is astute, expansive, and very well written and should be a must-read for all white people living in the UK.
Content warnings for discussions of racism, xenophobia, and misogyny, attempted rape, violence, break ins, potential attempted kidnapping.
Moderate: Racism, Xenophobia, Misogyny, and Violence
Additional content warnings for break ins, attempted rape, possible attempt at kidnapping.readingelli's review
5.0
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: War, Death, Police brutality, and Sexual assault
Minor: Rape and Murder
alinarburwitz's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Racial slurs
mollyv's review
4.25
Graphic: Racism and Violence
marionhoney's review
4.5
Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, and Slavery
Moderate: Child abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia
Minor: Abandonment, Antisemitism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Excrement, Genocide, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Police brutality, and Rape
sophiemeink's review against another edition
5.0
"Britain has no ‘white history’. British history is the multiracial, interracial story of a nation interdependent on trade, cultural influence and immigration from Africa, India, Central and East Asia, and other regions and continents populated by people who are not white, and before that, invasion by successive waves of European tribes most of whom, had the concept of whiteness existed at the time, would not have fitted into it either.”
Moderate: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, and Slavery
Minor: Death, Violence, Police brutality, and Islamophobia