Description

*A TIMES AND SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR*

‘[Owolade’s] argument has needed saying for years’ Janan Ganesh, Financial Times
‘Compelling and admirable’ Sunday Times
‘Passionate and timely’ Observer
‘Excellent’ Telegraph
‘Illuminating’ The Times
‘Timely [and] engaging’ Guardian

***Chosen as a non-fiction highlight of 2023 in The Times, Guardian, Observer, Irish Times and New Statesman***

Across the West, racial injustice has become one of the most divisive issues of our age. In the rush to address inequality and prejudice, and to understand concerns around identity, immigration and colonial history, Britain has followed the lead of the world’s dominant power: America. We judge ourselves by America’s standards, absorb its arguments and follow its agenda. But what if we’re looking in the wrong place?

This is Not America is built on the idea that black Britons are British first and foremost, and thus are likely to have more in common with other Britons than with black people in other parts of the world. It argues that too much of the conversation around race in Britain today is viewed through the prism of American ideas that don’t reflect the history, challenges and achievements of increasingly diverse black populations at home. To build a long-lasting and more effective anti-racist agenda we must acknowledge that crucial differences exist between Britain and America, and that we are talking about distinct communities and cultures, distinguished by language, history, class, religion and national origin. Humane, empirical and passionate, this book provides a bold new framework for understanding race in Britain today.

Publisher Review

An outstanding achievement... This is Not America is a deeply researched, passionately argued and original contribution to one of the most important debates in modern Britain. I admired it immensely. * Dr Amanda Foreman, author of The Duchess * Tomiwa Owolade has achieved the near impossible feat of bringing much needed reason, nuance and balance to the super charged debate about race and racism that has migrated from America to Britain and many other European democracies. * Jacob Mchangama, author of Free Speech * Subtle, subversive and compassionate, this is a book not just for black Britons but for all Britons interested in the evolving character of our national identity, and who want to feel optimistic about it. * Tom Holland, author of Rubicon * A brave and utterly engrossing book. Nuanced, fair-minded and thoughtful... This is Not America is essential reading for anyone interested in some of the most contentious issues of our time * Ian Buruma, author of Year Zero * Tomiwa Owolade navigates questions of race and identity in British politics with a rare combination of subtlety, clarity and moral urgency. Powered by historical scholarship, This is Not America steers a course of cool intellectual rigour through a debate that is too often polarised and polemical * Rafael Behr, author of Politics: A Survivor's Guide * Eloquent and insightful * Dr Remi Adekoya, author of Biracial Britain * A calm and insightful voice in an often overheated debate. * Kenan Malik, author of The Quest for a Moral Compass * This is Not America is not only indispensable writing and indispensable thinking - it is essential to working out who we are in Britain today * Ben Judah, author of This is London * Few books truly deserve to be called 'necessary' but This is Not America is one of them. * Ian Leslie, author of How to Disagree * Well informed, nuanced and balanced, Tomiwa Owolade is the optimistic future of Britain's race debate * David Goodhart, author of The Road to Somewhere *