Sunday, September 01, 2019

Five of the best books on race in Britain

Nikesh Shukla is a British writer and diversity activist who conceived and edited The Good Immigrant, the acclaimed collection of essays about race and immigration by 21 writers of color. He is the editor of Rife Magazine, an online magazine for young people, and the author of the novels Coconut Unlimited which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and Meatspace. He has been shortlisted for the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award and named as one of Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers 2016. His third novel, The One Who Wrote Destiny, and his first YA novel, Run, Riot, were published in 2018.

At the Guardian Shukla tagged five indispensable books on race in Britain, including:
Chinua Achebe once wrote: “Until the lion learns to speak, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” Which might be why in 2016 a poll found that 43% of British people thought the British empire was a good thing. Shashi Tharoor’s Inglorious Empire seeks to dispel that myth. The book, which seethes with anger and resentment, lays out in chillingly plain prose how the British empire plundered India’s resources and riches and left the country broken.
Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue