'The Good Immigrant' is a new collection of essay on what it means to be a person of colour now
Image: Coco Khan
“What’s it like to live in a country that doesn’t trust you and doesn’t want you unless you win an olympic gold medal or a national baking competition?”
So reads the blurb on the dust jacket of The Good Immigrant, a book of essays edited by Nikesh Shukla. This incisive quote articulates feelings of not belonging that will likely be familiar to many people of colour in the UK. This book says: let’s take matters into our own hands.
In the 254 pages of The Good Immigrant Shukla has gathered together 21 black, Asian and minority ethnic contributors — each with their own chapter. Individually and together they explore what it means ‘to be a person of colour now’.
This tour de force, crowdfunded on publishing platform Unbound (disclaimer: I pledged to help get the book published) is a nuanced look at the state of race, immigration and nationality in Britain and beyond.
It is a collection of essays rich in meaning. They contain elements of humour; Shukla’s chapter ‘Namaste’ makes light of restaurants that offer chai tea:
“Chai means tea. Chai tea means tea tea.”
There are moments of beautiful honesty; Reni Eddo-Lodge explores identity in a world that too often fails to represent blackness as nuanced and diverse. She articulates what it is to find your own sense of being regardless, ‘to be an immigrant, good or bad, is about straddling two homes, whilst knowing you don’t really belong to either’.
And moments of justified anger: Musa Okwonga’s searing critique of UK society reveals how unrelentingly difficult it is to live in a country that virulently demonises immigrants and fails to deal with systemic racism.
This is a book that should be read by everyone. It takes on the one-dimensional stereotypes that cage people of colour in a box marked ‘stereotype’ or ‘other’. As well as pushing for and itself signifying change, this book is a space of relief for people of colour who are used to navigating a society that makes them feel unwelcome. It is a reminder that ‘straddling two homes’ is not unusual.
In the pages of this book there is also a rallying cry: this group of writers tell us in their own ways that we can carve out a space for ourselves and in the process work together to remould what’s considered normal.
The Good Immigrant powerfully challenges the conventional narratives and the conventional voices we are fed from an early age — when we are led to believe that whiteness is the norm. Because as Darren Chetty makes clear in his essay, an earlier version of which featured on the site Media Diversified, stories don’t have to just be about white people.
Highlights include Chimene Suleyman’s piece is a moving examination of language and naming. In their respective essays, Vera Chok and Wei Ming Kam reveal in different ways the all too often ignored anti-Chinese sentiment that lurks in this country. And Salena Godden incisively picks apart the way shade decides worth, noting ‘universally we are divided and whatever shade you are born it is not right or good enough’.
Crucially, the damaging legacy of the British colonial project prowls these pages. The Empire was built on racial hierarchies and the subjugation of peoples across the world. During colonialism, constructed racial difference helped Britons define their national identity in relation to the racialised ‘other’, considered inferior to European whiteness.
What relevance does this have now? We live in a country where 44 per cent are proud of Britain’s colonial past, while only 21 per cent regretted that it happened. A history of bloodshed, brutality and oppression if not ignored has often, then, been mythologised. And so, the racial hierarchies, these writers show, persist. But in an altered form.
It’s tempting to label this book ‘timely’. When xenophia has a tight, visible grip on UK politics and racism spills out onto the streets in the form of violent attacks, it is a literary life raft; injecting reason and humanity into this hate-filled climate. But limiting it to this would be to a disservice to Shukla and the book’s contributors.
It gives people of colour and their myriad experiences space in a society where these voices are silenced, sidelined or weaponised for political purposes. It speaks to the problems of multiculturalism that existed well before pictures of a jubilant, post-Brexit Nigel Farage were splashed all over the news.
It uncovers the racism that for a period of time went underground. And it shows just how poor representation is for people of colour in public life.
For these reasons it is not just timely: it is a crucial read that says enough is enough.
Maya Goodfellow writes for Media Diversified, The Independent, The Guardian and LabourList
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4 Responses to “What’s it like to live in a country that doesn’t trust you?”
Michael WALKER
“? We live in a country where 44 per cent are proud of Britain’s colonial past, while only 21 per cent regretted that it happened. A history of bloodshed, brutality and oppression if not ignored has often, then, been mythologised. “”
Too right . The Briotish Empire was barberous, grown by force of arms and bloodshed and treated teh local as serfs .
Of course now the British Empire no longer exists, the countries freed from the yoke of British Imperialism are now paradigms of democracy , peace and fair treatment of minorities. Any suggestions to the contrary are just the manifestations of a failing country and to suggest it is anything but the fault of the British Empire is totally unfair and unjust.
So female genital mutilation, the persecution of Christians and other non Muslim minority religions, ISIS, sex slaves , large scale rape of women and other atrocities are all the UK’s fault..
Imran Khan
Another ridiculous article on this blog. I am third generation Asian and neither I nor my family and friends recognise this description of the country we call home. Britain was welcoming and still is in spite of the massive pressures put on it especially in recent years by an unprecedented wave of immigration. Ms Goodfellow should actually get out and meet ordinary Asians and Africans who are glad to be here.
Two countries took their independence from the British Empire by force of arms, The United States and the Republic of Ireland. All the rest were granted it and most have made a complete hash of the thing. Much of Africa would be far better off under European control, independence means nothing if people are oppressed and starving.
Robert Petulengro
“A history of bloodshed, brutality and oppression if not ignored has often, then, been mythologised. And so, the racial hierarchies, these writers show, persist. But in an altered form. ”
Snore.
When we left Uganda, Kenya, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan and lost control in the Levant, a history of bloodshed, brutality and oppression really did start.
But we do not talk about that.
Chinese look unwhite too. Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, even Malaysia have overtaken Kenya and even the bread basket of Africa, Rhodesia (Now Zimbabwe a model state of democratic freedoms and universal human rights based on a firm monetary system and a fair economy).
Why?
Imran Khan
Ms Goodfellow. It would be good if you actually engaged in a debate with us. No?