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Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala - The Sunday Times Bestseller Kindle Edition

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*RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK* SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE | THE JHALAK PRIZE | THE BREAD AND ROSES AWARD & LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING

'This is the book I've been waiting for - for years. It's personal, historical, political, and it speaks to where we are now' Benjamin Zephaniah
'I recommend Natives to everyone' Candice Carty-Williams

From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers - race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.

Covering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, sexual objectification and the far right, Nativesspeaks directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain's racialised empire.

Natives is the searing modern polemic and Sunday Times bestseller from the BAFTA and MOBO award-winning musician and political commentator, Akala.

'The kind of disruptive, aggressive intellect that a new generation is closely watching' Afua Hirsch, Observer
'Part biography, part polemic, this powerful, wide-ranging study picks apart the British myth of meritocracy' David Olusoga, Guardian
'Inspiring' Madani Younis, Guardian
'Lucid, wide-ranging' John Kerrigan, TLS
'A potent combination of autobiography and political history which holds up a mirror to contemporary Britain' Independent
'Trenchant and highly persuasive' Metro
'A history lesson of the kind you should get in school but don't' Stylist
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  1. wutang1980's avatar
    A really good read
  2. RuudBullit's avatar
    A good read (actually I listened to it on audible, and he's a good narrator). Anyone thinking this is just Britain bashing should give it a read, it certainly didn't come across like that to me.
  3. BrianButterfield's avatar
    So tired of this hating of Britain until we destroy ourselves. Cause Britain exporting democracy and being the first nation to outlaw slavery was the worst thing in the world? The Portuguese brought his family to Jamaica and the British freed them... But no one talks about who sold them? Africans.

    So utterly bizzare these people are to me.
    cloughja's avatar
    I don't think we can take much credit for stopping doing something evil. And democracy was invented in ancient Greece so I don't think we can take credit for adopting it and then enforcing it at gunpoint on other countries.
  4. Alan.Partridge's avatar
    Brilliant book
  5. Crazy.Jamie's avatar
    Really glad that this has been posted and is going hot, because it is truly superb. If you’re someone who likes to inform themselves about important subjects that you might not know much or anything about, this should shoot to the top of your to read list.
  6. contom's avatar
    FIRE IN THE BOOTH.

    Akala is brilliant
  7. IfIHadANickel's avatar
    Akala is so basic. The stuff he talks about is literally what any uni undergraduate spouts, with the same level of eloquence and smug self righteousness. Not saying it is all without merit but he's got a serious victimhood complex.
    General_J's avatar
    Skintellectual grifter, it’s proven quite profitable though. Ironically only due to the “bigotry of lower expectations” I’d imagine.
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