The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla
I love the title The Good Immigrant. It reminds me of the unfairly high standard to which people of colour are often held, and especially of the way refugees and immigrants are made to feel they have to earn a place in their new country. I often think about the fact that I didn't earn a place here, nor does anyone expect me to. The media attention around Mamoudou Gassama (dubbed Paris' "Spider-Man"), who was offered citizenship after climbing up a four-storey building to save a child, raised some worrying questions about the way we not only treat, but think about migrants.
Thanks to the brilliant Big Green Bookshop for this one.
The Good Immigrant is a collection of essays from Black and Minority Ethnic authors about their experiences of living in the UK. I think the format is perfect for this, because it gives plenty of room for flexibility; while I would describe all the chapters as essays (as opposed to something like Common People: An Anthology of Working Class Writers, which includes other formats such as short stories and poems), they are all very different in tone and scope.
The format also allows for individuality. Several of the authors express their understandable dissatisfaction with terms such as 'People of Colour' and 'Black and Minority Ethnic', wanting to avoid generalisation. I learnt the alternative term 'Global Majority' in this book, which is probably too cheesy to start using regularly, but I do like the point it's making. It's so difficult to think of a term to group BAME people together, but maybe that's because they shouldn't be grouped together. I can't see a way around using such terms for practical reasons (as here), but it's good to remember that they are encompassing such an enormous range of people.
The individuality of the voices and experiences in this book was probably my favourite aspect. And kudos to Shukla for ordering them in a way that smoothed the transitions between essays.
Most of the essays talked about their authors' experiences of racism, but this isn't a book about racism. Some of the authors chose to talk explicitly about race, but a lot of them chose simply to talk about their lives, and, unfortunately, living in the UK in a body that's not perceived as white entails racism. But many authors also echoed what I've seen people saying elsewhere recently, about too often finding themselves limited to writing about race. I loved this book, but I also hope to be able to read books - and watch films or TV programmes - where people of colour aren't limited to talking about race.
Thanks to the brilliant Big Green Bookshop for this one.
The Good Immigrant is a collection of essays from Black and Minority Ethnic authors about their experiences of living in the UK. I think the format is perfect for this, because it gives plenty of room for flexibility; while I would describe all the chapters as essays (as opposed to something like Common People: An Anthology of Working Class Writers, which includes other formats such as short stories and poems), they are all very different in tone and scope.
The format also allows for individuality. Several of the authors express their understandable dissatisfaction with terms such as 'People of Colour' and 'Black and Minority Ethnic', wanting to avoid generalisation. I learnt the alternative term 'Global Majority' in this book, which is probably too cheesy to start using regularly, but I do like the point it's making. It's so difficult to think of a term to group BAME people together, but maybe that's because they shouldn't be grouped together. I can't see a way around using such terms for practical reasons (as here), but it's good to remember that they are encompassing such an enormous range of people.
The individuality of the voices and experiences in this book was probably my favourite aspect. And kudos to Shukla for ordering them in a way that smoothed the transitions between essays.
Most of the essays talked about their authors' experiences of racism, but this isn't a book about racism. Some of the authors chose to talk explicitly about race, but a lot of them chose simply to talk about their lives, and, unfortunately, living in the UK in a body that's not perceived as white entails racism. But many authors also echoed what I've seen people saying elsewhere recently, about too often finding themselves limited to writing about race. I loved this book, but I also hope to be able to read books - and watch films or TV programmes - where people of colour aren't limited to talking about race.
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