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A review by booksjessreads
Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Police brutality, and Murder
Moderate: Violence