Gill’s Reviews > This Is Not America > Status Update

Finally something to agree on!
"Blackness and Britishness are not in tension. Being mixed-race is not a muddle."

Finally we get a mention of people being mixed-race.

His use of statistics becomes most irritating in the Discrimination and Disparities chapter. I get that he's trying to show there's more to it than racism but come on.

E.g. 19% of the UK population between 19-25 is BAME and 25% of entrants to top universities are BAME.
Owolade doesn't distinguish how many of the latter are British. Universities woo foreign students because they can charge them higher fees.

"The Christian missionaries are one instance of a benign form of colonialism."

Really?! What is benign about the suppression of indigenous beliefs and customs? In many places, Christianity was responsible for the imposition of patriarchal structures and the persecution of people outside its rigid gender and sexual norms. Grrr.

"Being black and British is as much shaped by being British as it is by being black."

"This book argues two main points. We should understand race in Britain through a British perspective, and we shouldn't reduce black people to their race."