2022-05-23
Part biography, part political work: Akala explores the intersection of race and class in the UK through the lens of his own experiences growing up and the politics inherent in all actions.
By exploring not only the history of the British empire and its interactions/extractionist invasions of its “holdings”, but also Japanese and other empires and the changing notions of whiteness and race through history, he emphasises the constructed nature of race and its role in preserving white supremacist power structures.
Particularly in a heavily class-divided nation like Britain, the class/race intersection can lead to damaging assumptions being made — that he's writing mostly about childhood and early adulthood highlights the ways in which we're shaped by the perceptions and behaviour of the people in immediate authority over us, such as teachers and school administrators.