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bethanwx's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Essential reading. Eddo-Lodge crafts a thorough exploration of racism in the UK through her personable narrative voice.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deportation, Misogyny, Colonisation, Grief, Classism, Hate crime, Police brutality, Slavery, and Racism
wanderinghappygal's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Slavery, Racism, Sexual assault, and Racial slurs
anjaleer's review against another edition
4.0
I’ve recently started working in the corporate world which has been quite different compared to my university where people talked about social justice and understood privilege. During my lunch break me and other POC’s try to engage on the topic of race with our white college but this took a lot out of us. Having to relive our pain and still have people defend their privilege really took a lot of me. This book therefore came at just the right time in terms of me understanding my place in the conversation about race and that it’s ok to take a break from these conversations for the sake of my own mental health.
This book is truly amazing as it goes through all the struggles that POC’s go through with historical data to back it up so it doesn’t seem as though we are overreacting (as many believe we do). One of my biggest take always from this is the last chapter. I’m always stuck on how to properly articulate what a white person needs to do now that they have had this conversation. I often get asked how we are expected to move forward to equality and this book perfectly explains what I should say.
Thank you for allowing this book to exist <3
This book is truly amazing as it goes through all the struggles that POC’s go through with historical data to back it up so it doesn’t seem as though we are overreacting (as many believe we do). One of my biggest take always from this is the last chapter. I’m always stuck on how to properly articulate what a white person needs to do now that they have had this conversation. I often get asked how we are expected to move forward to equality and this book perfectly explains what I should say.
Thank you for allowing this book to exist <3
oxnard_montalvo's review against another edition
I wanted to read something that focuses on systemic racism through a non-American lens; looking back on how issues of racism have been addressed in my time in the UK, so much of the conversation seems to be about the US without really touching on problems within the UK. There seems to be a kind of disonance between the progressive values the UK claims to have, and reality.
Similarly, now that I've had an opportunity to see how racism is broached in primary schools, all the focus is on the US civil rights movement, Rosa Parks and MLK. All of which are presented somewhat superficially in class time. This book certainly made me aware of events and policy that I'd previously never heard of.
Reading through some of the reviews of this book make me wonder if the people writing them acutally attempted to read this. Nothing in it was insulting or particularly radical in my opinion.
Similarly, now that I've had an opportunity to see how racism is broached in primary schools, all the focus is on the US civil rights movement, Rosa Parks and MLK. All of which are presented somewhat superficially in class time. This book certainly made me aware of events and policy that I'd previously never heard of.
Reading through some of the reviews of this book make me wonder if the people writing them acutally attempted to read this. Nothing in it was insulting or particularly radical in my opinion.
emeraldgarnet's review against another edition
2.0
Chapters one and seven contain a lot of value. However, much of the other chapters is a confused jumble and chapter six cannot have been written by someone with a genuine understanding of the British class system.
Note: I grew up in the UK during the 1990s and 2000s, at a very similar time as the author.
Note: I grew up in the UK during the 1990s and 2000s, at a very similar time as the author.
gvstyris's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This is the difference between racism and prejudice. There is an unattributed definition of racism that defines it as prejudice plus power.
An insightful novel, and one I will definitely be recommending to white friends and family going forward. Learning about British involvement in the slave trade and its history of police brutality was eye-opening and very worthwhile, so I'm glad I finally got around to giving this a read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Misogyny, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Police brutality, and Hate crime
whitt4ker's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
5.0
daumari's review against another edition
5.0
I am not the target audience for this book, but I still strongly encourage everyone to read it as Eddo-Lodge addresses essential factors underpinning the structure of our society.
This year (2018 at time of writing) is exhausting and feels like it's gone on forever. I recognize part of that fatigue has been due to doing ally-adjacent work of explaining in conversations why coded language and power structures are harmful (it's unfair to put the burden of educating the unaware on people of color, but as I am a non-black POC, I feel I can be useful here). A friend was accused of "reverse racism", and their acquaintance had to gently but firmly be informed that racism is prejudice + power, so it doesn't check out to accuse their one black acquaintance of it. Eddo-Lodge goes into detail with history and statistics on why this is so.
The chapter on intersectionality with feminism also struck a chord with me, as I have [white] female friends who mentioned early in the current administration that they just didn't check the news any more as it was stressful/frustrating/etc. I absolutely understand the need for relief from the firehose onslaught of, well, everything but at the same time, there are fellow citizens who cannot afford to tune out as policy changes immediately affect them.
I was caught off guard by this book being centered on British structural racism, but realized that as an American, most of my prior reading is centered on a domestic lens. There's a cool comfort in recognizing other countries have similar issues (though we arguably inherited it from the mother country before ah, making it our own). Not sure if other US readers are aware, but typically when Brits refer to Asians, they mean South Asians instead of East. The Asian diaspora includes everyone descended from Asian countries, but it's an interesting geographical linguistic distinction (and a good reminder that I and fellow east Asian Americans need to show solidarity with our brown brothers and sisters).
Societal struggle is not a zero sum game. The "take back our country" rhetoric is frustrating because the success of black and brown people does not diminish white people in the same field. It's not the job of minority folks to educate our white friends, but this book is a good start.
This year (2018 at time of writing) is exhausting and feels like it's gone on forever. I recognize part of that fatigue has been due to doing ally-adjacent work of explaining in conversations why coded language and power structures are harmful (it's unfair to put the burden of educating the unaware on people of color, but as I am a non-black POC, I feel I can be useful here). A friend was accused of "reverse racism", and their acquaintance had to gently but firmly be informed that racism is prejudice + power, so it doesn't check out to accuse their one black acquaintance of it. Eddo-Lodge goes into detail with history and statistics on why this is so.
The chapter on intersectionality with feminism also struck a chord with me, as I have [white] female friends who mentioned early in the current administration that they just didn't check the news any more as it was stressful/frustrating/etc. I absolutely understand the need for relief from the firehose onslaught of, well, everything but at the same time, there are fellow citizens who cannot afford to tune out as policy changes immediately affect them.
I was caught off guard by this book being centered on British structural racism, but realized that as an American, most of my prior reading is centered on a domestic lens. There's a cool comfort in recognizing other countries have similar issues (though we arguably inherited it from the mother country before ah, making it our own). Not sure if other US readers are aware, but typically when Brits refer to Asians, they mean South Asians instead of East. The Asian diaspora includes everyone descended from Asian countries, but it's an interesting geographical linguistic distinction (and a good reminder that I and fellow east Asian Americans need to show solidarity with our brown brothers and sisters).
Societal struggle is not a zero sum game. The "take back our country" rhetoric is frustrating because the success of black and brown people does not diminish white people in the same field. It's not the job of minority folks to educate our white friends, but this book is a good start.
vexyspice's review against another edition
3.0
I learned a few things from this like why there is a fairly strong west indian presence across the pond. However, the content itself isnt anything different from what ive read about race relations here in America. Same stuff, different nation.