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sakisreads's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation
saskiahill's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Genocide, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation
Minor: Antisemitism
meganlikesreading's review against another edition
4.5
This has only resulted in the extreme issues of inequality and inequity that we have seen throughout history and will continue to see if change is not made where needed.
Akala’s writing style is very fitting, as he introduces these complex historical events in a way that contextualises them and makes the reader think about their own position in society, and how that impacts themselves and those around them.
4.5 stars; would definitely recommend for its important reflection on racism and classism and their prominence in British society and the lasting impact of the British empire.
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Slavery, Violence, and Police brutality
waybeyondblue's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Racism and Classism
Moderate: Genocide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Cultural appropriation
selimhannah's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Genocide, Hate crime, Violence, Police brutality, and Islamophobia
Minor: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Fire/Fire injury, and Deportation
ruthmoog's review against another edition
4.5
Nonetheless I am in agreement with Akalas views and enjoyed hearing from him about a range of black global experience.
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Bullying and Violence
Lynchingepellicci's review against another edition
3.5
Natives is impassioned, which made it a brilliantly engaging audiobook. Superbly preformed and packed with individual testimony alongside the fact, it presents the human cost of class and racism in a way that could only be ignored by wilful ignorance. I found it reflective, uncomfortable, and engaging.
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Slavery, Police brutality, and Classism
Minor: Genocide, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, and Deportation
lindsaylhunter's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
kristenreads's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
juliston's review against another edition
4.25
(An aside, for those that think they're 'not racist but what about poor white people': if you genuinely cared about poor people you'd stop voting for Tory governments)
This is a hard book! Not just hard to do the learning as a white person raised by one parent who was raised white and privileged in apartheid south Africa and one who attended some of the most exclusive educational establishments in the country. Not just hard to be faced with some pretty difficult to swallow gaps being filled in in British, evidently very racist, history but also genuinely a hard book to read.
I don't mean it's badly written, it isnt at all. The prose is engaging and easy to follow, but fuck me this guy is so much cleverer than me. I am by my own admission very smart, very good at reading and have nearly a decade of higher education under my belt, and I'm still having to look up words from this book. I'm having to look up a lot of dates for historical events too. To be fair, that probably stems from my own abysmal knowledge of world history. When I was supposed to be learning history in school I was a lot more interested in shrinking my body and learning to smoke cigarettes (both pasttimes I thankfully rarely indulge in now) and I have never really bothered to rectify these gaping holes in my knowledge.
Reading Natives was an active process of learning for me. It is a fantastic, eye opening book. Both packed with an incredible amount of historical information (there are 30 full pages of references and notes at the end) and also deeply personal and moving. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for some additional perspective on their British history, for anyone that thinks British people are white by default, or for anyone that thinks white privilege doesn't apply to poor people.
Graphic: Racism