Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging is a part memoir by author Afua Hirsch discussing black history, culture and the harmful legacy of white-centred British history.
In a nation of denial about our imperial past and the present societal racism, Afua unpicks the ongoing question she often receives, “Where are you from?”, even when her, her parents, her partner, her children are British.
Afua openly talks about her experience growing up in a predominantly white area and compares her experience to her friends:
“I have plenty of white British friends with equally fascinating immigration backgrounds [who don’t get asked the question]...if you look like me you can’t just be British...it’s a clue to the fact that Britishness is an identity in crisis.”
Brit(ish) offers a personal and provocative exploration of how this came to be and an urgent call for change:
“Just because one individual chooses not to ‘see race’, it doesn’t mean that the racialised nature of poverty, discrimination and prejudice in society at large disappears. That individual is simply refusing to acknowledge it....Why can’t [someone's] identity and heritage be acknowledged, without it compromising their belonging in Britain, which is, after all, their country too?”