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Who Are We?
From award-winning journalist and sociology professor Gary Younge, a nuanced analysis of identity politics and why they matter today.
We are more alike than we are unalike. But the way we are unalike matters. To be male in Saudi Arabia, Jewish in Israel or white in Europe confers certain powers and privileges that those with other identities do not have. In other words, identity can represent a material fact in itself.
As Gary Younge demonstrates in this classic book, now featuring a new introduction, how we define ourselves affects every part of our from violence on the streets to international terrorism; from changes in our laws to whom we elect; from our personal safety to military occupations.
Moving between fascinating memoir and searing analysis, from beauty contests in Ireland to the personal views of Tiger Woods, from the author's own terrifying student days in Paris to how race and gender affect one's voting choices, Gary Younge makes surprising and enlightening connections and a devastating critique of the way our society really works.
We are more alike than we are unalike. But the way we are unalike matters. To be male in Saudi Arabia, Jewish in Israel or white in Europe confers certain powers and privileges that those with other identities do not have. In other words, identity can represent a material fact in itself.
As Gary Younge demonstrates in this classic book, now featuring a new introduction, how we define ourselves affects every part of our from violence on the streets to international terrorism; from changes in our laws to whom we elect; from our personal safety to military occupations.
Moving between fascinating memoir and searing analysis, from beauty contests in Ireland to the personal views of Tiger Woods, from the author's own terrifying student days in Paris to how race and gender affect one's voting choices, Gary Younge makes surprising and enlightening connections and a devastating critique of the way our society really works.
- GenresNonfictionPolitics
256 pages, Paperback
Published January 26, 2021
8 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
Gary Younge
18 books180 followersGary Younge is an author, broadcaster and editor-at-large for The Guardian, based in London. He also writes a monthly column, Beneath the Radar, for the Nation magazine and is the Alfred Knobler Fellow for The Nation Institute. He has written five books: Another Day in the Death of America, A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives; The Speech, The Story Behind Martin Luther King’s Dream; Who Are We?, And Should it Matter in the 21st century; Stranger in a Strange Land, Travels in the Disunited States and No Place Like Home, A Black Briton’s Journey Through the Deep South. He has made several radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit.
Born in Hertfordshire to Barbadian parents, he grew up in Stevenage until he was 17 when he went to Kassala, Sudan with Project Trust to teach English in a United Nations Eritrean refugee school. On his return he attended Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh where he studied French and Russian, Translating and Interpreting.
In his final year of at Heriot Watt he was awarded a bursary from The Guardian to study journalism at City University and started working at The Guardian in 1993. In 1996 he was awarded the Laurence Stern Fellowship, which sends a young British journalist to work at the Washington Post for three months.
After several years of reporting from all over Europe, Africa, the US and the Caribbean Gary was appointed The Guardian’s US correspondent in 2003, writing first from New York and then Chicago. In 2015 he returned to London where is now The Guardian’s editor-at-large.
He has enjoyed several prizes for his journalism. In 2017 he received the James Aaronson Career Achievement Award from Hunter College, City University of New York. In 2016 he won the Comment Piece of the Year from The Comment Awards and the Sanford St. Martin Trust Radio Award Winner for excellence in religious reporting. In 2015 he was awarded Foreign Commentator of the Year by The Comment Awards and the David Nyhan Prize for political journalism from Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. “It’s the powerless on whose behalf he writes,” said the Center’s director. In 2009 he won the James Cameron award for the “combined moral vision and professional integrity” of his coverage of the Obama campaign. From 2001 to 2003 he won Best Newspaper Journalist in Britain’s Ethnic Minority Media Awards three years in a row.
His books have also won many awards. In 2017 Another Day in the Death of America won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize from Columbia Journalism School and Nieman Foundation, was shortlisted for the Helen Berenstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism from New York Public Library and The Jhalak prize and was longlisted for The Orwell Prize for Books and Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Non Fiction from American Library Association. Who Are We? was shortlisted for the Bristol Festival of Ideas Prize. No Place Like Home was shortlisted for The Guardian’s first book award.
He has also enjoyed considerable acclaim from academia. Currently a visiting professor at London South Bank University, he was appointed the Belle Zeller Visiting Professor for Public Policy and Social Administration at Brooklyn College (CUNY) from 2009-2011. in 2016 he was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and in 2007 he was awarded Honorary Doctorates by both his alma mater, Heriot Watt University, and London South Bank University.
He lives in London with his wife and two children.
Born in Hertfordshire to Barbadian parents, he grew up in Stevenage until he was 17 when he went to Kassala, Sudan with Project Trust to teach English in a United Nations Eritrean refugee school. On his return he attended Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh where he studied French and Russian, Translating and Interpreting.
In his final year of at Heriot Watt he was awarded a bursary from The Guardian to study journalism at City University and started working at The Guardian in 1993. In 1996 he was awarded the Laurence Stern Fellowship, which sends a young British journalist to work at the Washington Post for three months.
After several years of reporting from all over Europe, Africa, the US and the Caribbean Gary was appointed The Guardian’s US correspondent in 2003, writing first from New York and then Chicago. In 2015 he returned to London where is now The Guardian’s editor-at-large.
He has enjoyed several prizes for his journalism. In 2017 he received the James Aaronson Career Achievement Award from Hunter College, City University of New York. In 2016 he won the Comment Piece of the Year from The Comment Awards and the Sanford St. Martin Trust Radio Award Winner for excellence in religious reporting. In 2015 he was awarded Foreign Commentator of the Year by The Comment Awards and the David Nyhan Prize for political journalism from Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. “It’s the powerless on whose behalf he writes,” said the Center’s director. In 2009 he won the James Cameron award for the “combined moral vision and professional integrity” of his coverage of the Obama campaign. From 2001 to 2003 he won Best Newspaper Journalist in Britain’s Ethnic Minority Media Awards three years in a row.
His books have also won many awards. In 2017 Another Day in the Death of America won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize from Columbia Journalism School and Nieman Foundation, was shortlisted for the Helen Berenstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism from New York Public Library and The Jhalak prize and was longlisted for The Orwell Prize for Books and Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Non Fiction from American Library Association. Who Are We? was shortlisted for the Bristol Festival of Ideas Prize. No Place Like Home was shortlisted for The Guardian’s first book award.
He has also enjoyed considerable acclaim from academia. Currently a visiting professor at London South Bank University, he was appointed the Belle Zeller Visiting Professor for Public Policy and Social Administration at Brooklyn College (CUNY) from 2009-2011. in 2016 he was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and in 2007 he was awarded Honorary Doctorates by both his alma mater, Heriot Watt University, and London South Bank University.
He lives in London with his wife and two children.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 17, 2021
This is a collection of essays by journalist, writer, and sociology professor Gary Younge. It was first published in 2010, but the new edition has an introduction that addresses how the themes of this book impacts and is impacted by Brexit, Trump, and COVID-19.
Each chapter begins with an incident somewhere in the world that raises questions about what is an identity, and how it affects one's view of the world. The essay then veers off in various directions that all relate to this particular aspect of identity.
While the perspective is largely from the "progressive" view one might expect from a Guardian columnist, the author is very judicious about looking at different sides of the issue. While he brings to light many ironies in the modern world, his attitude even to those with whom he disagrees are more sympathetic than condemnatory. The overriding theme is that while we cannot live without identities (necessarily plural), obsession with them can blind us to our common humanity.
My favourite anecdote about an American official visiting Haiti:
"What proportion of Haiti's population is white?", the American asked.
"95 percent".
"How do you get that figure!?"
"Well, how do you measure blackness in the United States?"
"Anyone with a black ancestor."
"Well that's how we measure whiteness. Anyone with a white ancestor."
Each chapter begins with an incident somewhere in the world that raises questions about what is an identity, and how it affects one's view of the world. The essay then veers off in various directions that all relate to this particular aspect of identity.
While the perspective is largely from the "progressive" view one might expect from a Guardian columnist, the author is very judicious about looking at different sides of the issue. While he brings to light many ironies in the modern world, his attitude even to those with whom he disagrees are more sympathetic than condemnatory. The overriding theme is that while we cannot live without identities (necessarily plural), obsession with them can blind us to our common humanity.
My favourite anecdote about an American official visiting Haiti:
"What proportion of Haiti's population is white?", the American asked.
"95 percent".
"How do you get that figure!?"
"Well, how do you measure blackness in the United States?"
"Anyone with a black ancestor."
"Well that's how we measure whiteness. Anyone with a white ancestor."
January 29, 2023
An incredibly thoughtful and thorough deconstruction of the national, social, political and personal complexities of identity, from what it means to be an 'Irish woman', or 'Jewish' in Israel, or Belgian in any sense of the word, or a black Brit discriminated against in France, but celebrated in the Soviet Union. Always loved Gary Younge's journalism, and this is a great, smart read...
May 15, 2025
Perspective is great from all areas, though some confused me, but I think it’s because I’m not very well versed in global affairs, but that’s okay!!! The section about having to choose between multiple identities was really interesting, and I don’t think we can truly weigh them and say where one becomes more important than another—loved that. Great book!
February 8, 2023
I love this book, I think that this book is great for anyone into identity and thinking about that topic in in-depth ways and from different point of views and seeing different ideas come to light. Highly recommend. A great read! :)
July 10, 2024
Gary Younge does it again!!!
This book remains even more resonant today in 2024, as it did when it was first published in 2010.
This book remains even more resonant today in 2024, as it did when it was first published in 2010.
August 23, 2023
Never before have I listened to a book, then started listening to it again immediately, and bought a copy to note and highlight.
The new introduction adds a lot, but even with that now being a few years old, and the substantive text older still, this is one of the best works on the subject I've ever read. It feels not just relevant, but prescient given all that has happened since with more polarised public discourse, and entrenching of views/ camps.
I wish that I'd had the opportunity to read this before or while doing my Master's in Migration and Diaspora Studies.
The personal and autobiographical sections are complex and beautiful. There's a wide range of academic, popular, historical, and contemporary sources used too. His analysis is sharp, and his writing is clear. It's an even-handed work, but with a robust expression of what Younge stands for, and why. It's nuanced, but doesn't get lost in the complexity.
Just brilliant.
The new introduction adds a lot, but even with that now being a few years old, and the substantive text older still, this is one of the best works on the subject I've ever read. It feels not just relevant, but prescient given all that has happened since with more polarised public discourse, and entrenching of views/ camps.
I wish that I'd had the opportunity to read this before or while doing my Master's in Migration and Diaspora Studies.
The personal and autobiographical sections are complex and beautiful. There's a wide range of academic, popular, historical, and contemporary sources used too. His analysis is sharp, and his writing is clear. It's an even-handed work, but with a robust expression of what Younge stands for, and why. It's nuanced, but doesn't get lost in the complexity.
Just brilliant.
March 8, 2024
Gary Younge is an outstanding Journalist and writer. His work always packs a punch and gets you thinking. Really interesting insights in this book. A pleasure to read.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews