Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire

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Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala

18 reviews

emcatbee's review against another edition

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challenging funny hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

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charleygxrl's review

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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booksjessreads's review

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book was so educational and so thorough. I couldn't put it down. Akala has such an eloquent and emphatic style with his part-autobiography, part-polemic, of racism in the UK.

His book discusses the insidiousness of racism in the UK, but how colourism and racism differs in varying degrees in different countries - tying them altogether. It is true that international events and occurrences in the Commonwealth and the Global South resonated with African and Caribbean communities here in Britain. His book demonstrated how the interconnectedness of the world allowed black Britons to feel connected to black culture, yet so far from it, whilst being racially excluded from their home in the UK.

His accounts of how 'liberal' white people in the UK perpetuate racism continually, and that it is this type of oppression that hits the UK the hardest. One of the parts that intrigued me the most was his discussions and his own personal experiences with racism within the school system. Teachers, and the institution of education itself, holds its hand up to say that the system purposefully disadvantages those of non-white backgrounds, yet equally does nothing about it.

Every single page in this book gave me an extremely poignant and heartbreaking personal account of racism, yet intertwined with statistics and studies that backed up these experiences. Akala is one of many.

This book for me was 5 stars and there is no force on earth that would let me give it any less. I was fully astounded by this book and I am going to read it again and again.

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pollyflorence's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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questingnotcoasting's review

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challenging informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

This completely lived up to all the glowing reviews I'd seen. I meant to read it last month but didn't get round to it and I'm glad I didn't leave it any longer. Akala's writing is articulate, incisive and witty and he interweaves his lived experience with history so smoothly. He examines the way race and class intersect and builds a clear argument against the common misconception that the UK is a meritocracy. That in particular wasn't news to me but there was so much history here that I knew nothing about, including some fairly recent events. I just read Black and British by David Olusoga and I feel like the two books complement each other very well. I found them both really enlightening, especially in the way they dismantle the myths Britain has built around its history of colonialism and slavery.

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rubyhosh's review

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challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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paleghosty's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

I read this as part of the Decolonise UoM Radical Readers Book Club and I'm so glad I got the chance!

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achingallover's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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