Natives by Akala is a book about racism in the UK that has been on my virtual tbr for a while now, so when Caitlyn from Mad Cheshire Rabbit gifted me a copy last Christmas I was excited to delve in.
This book, quite simply, looks at racism in a post-empire world, in a country where the ruling class utilise race as a weapon to manipulate the working class against people of colour, so that they don’t rise up against the rich. I.e.? Britain. My home country.
As a white woman who has lived in a number of places, but primarily northern England, I have had a very different experience of the UK than Akala who is Black (or more accurately mixed race with a white mother and Black father) and has primarily lived in London. As such for me it was super interesting to be exposed to more information about the daily realities of living whilst Black in our country.
Additionally, I spent so much of my time reading this simply researching things. Looking up people that I had never heard of before and looking for books that Akala mentioned. And you best believe I went through that glossary and added a million and one books to my tbr! The book also addressed topics that, in my whiteness, hadn’t occurred to me. And that is always something I deeply appreciate from non-fiction works tackling racism.
On CAWPILE I rated this: Research: 9, Uniqueness: 7, Readability: 8, Personal Impact: 8, Intrigue: 8, Informativeness: 9, and Enjoyment: 8, giving a score of 8.14 and a 4.5* rating.
This is a very welcome addition to my non-fiction shelves, if you couldn’t tell already! Have you read this one? Do you have any other non-fiction books to recommend to me? Let me know!
Abi of Pellinor 