![]() His portrayal of some white teachers and their behaviour is genuinely shocking. ![]() I found his reflections on the black experience of education fascinating. This is where Akala’s book is strongest and most nuanced. Yet, he remains aware of ethnic minority success too and progress made. Racial oppression of certain groups certainly has had an economic and material basis as Akala points out.Īkala provides evidence that the appraisal of black pupils in the school system has been flawed and backs this up with statistics. The book is strongest when it stresses the socially constructed nature of ‘race’ and how different human populations have had a different racial narrative constructed around each of them to serve the powerful. However, not all the observations in his book are arguably right I have doubts about some of his positions. The linking of class with race is a particularly worthwhile position. In that way, Akala’s book largely succeeds in its aim. His accounts of organised white supremacy, such as the South African apartheid, show racism at its most vicious. ![]() Drawing on his past experiences of others treating him appallingly, including racist teachers, Akala offers an often harrowing account of injustices inflicted on black people in the UK as well as the British Empire. ![]() Akala’s aim in the book is clear: “to examine how these seemingly impersonal forces – race and class – have impacted and continue to shape our lives”. ![]()
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