The good immigrant
I listen to a lot of US podcasts. In recent years WNCY has put out a lot of great content considering the history of race in the states. In particular The United States of Anxiety has had run after run of gripping journalism that dives into history and the reconstruction era.
But this felt distant, and similar journalism on race in the UK, absent. Turns out it was there all along, I was just looking in the wrong place, not hard enough or not at all until this summer.
This is not a manual for unpicking what whiteness has wrought, or a handbook to that history. It is a collection of stories that shows the breadth of quality writing about race and racism in the UK. Traversing topics but also writing styles and tones. Some are serious or pensive, other wry, witty and outright hilarious. Among them are Nish Kumar and Bim Adewunmi, of Radio 4 and This American Life fame and the actor Riz Ahmed.
Along with vesper flights this year, the book also convinced me collected essays are great. With time for depth, but frequent novelty to pull that draws you across hours of reading.
After "The Good Immigrant" I read: Greetings from Bury Park
Before "The Good Immigrant" I read: The Consuming Fire