Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race

Racial inequality in contemporary Britain is a legacy of the country’s colonial past. In Chapter 1, Eddo-Lodge presents her personal experiences alongside Black British history to draw connections between current and past racism. Black British history is undertaught in British schools. Eddo-Lodge’s first opportunity to study Black British history came in her second year of university. Pursuing the subject further required effort and “a hefty amount of self-directed study” (7). The dearth of courses in Black British history is part of the erasure of people of color in Britain and reflects their low position in the socio-economic hierarchy.

Eddo-Lodge seeks to dispel the myth that all people of color in Britain are recent immigrants. Thus, she provides an overview of the growth of the country’s non-white population until the late 20th century. The British were directly involved in the transatlantic slave trade. Although Britain sent most of its captives to work in its colonies in the Americas and Caribbean, some Africans remained in Britain. Like other colonial powers, Britain treated Africans as disposable commodities valued primarily for their labor and ability to produce more slaves. The attitudes and beliefs underlying the brutal treatment of Africans during slavery did not disappear after the abolition of slavery in 1833.

Britain’s mistreatment of African captives is of a piece with its treatment of sepoys, Indian soldiers who fought on behalf of Britain in return for freedom from colonial rule during World War I. (The British government later reneged on its promise to end colonialism in India.) The British did not adequately clothe and equip sepoys. Consequently, some sepoys died on the long journey from India to Europe. Sepoys were assigned menial tasks once they reached the battlefields, such as digging trenches and carrying injured soldiers. Poor working conditions and low pay led a sepoy regiment in Taranto, Italy to stage a strike, which then turned into a mutiny. Many of the sepoys who participated in World War I moved to Britain after the fighting ended, leading to a growth in the non-white population.

New labor demands prompted the British government to encourage immigration from its colonies after the Second World War. Friction between white people and people of color grew as more immigrants arrived in the country. This friction sometimes erupted in violence, as evidenced by the Nottingham race riots of 1958. Despite rising tensions, the British government did not officially address racism until it passed the Race Relations Act in 1965. The passing of the act did not end racial discord. Instead racism grew more pronounced in the 1970s with the revival of sus laws, which gave police the power to stop, search, and arrest suspected criminals, most of whom were people of color. The criminalization of Blackness grew alongside the National Front, a white, far-right, anti-immigration political party that capitalized on anti-Black sentiments. The recession of the 1980s exacerbated racial inequalities with Black and Asian men suffering from unemployment at 10 times the rate of white men (36). Race riots also continued across the country. Police responded by increasing their harassment of people of color.

Centuries of race-based discrimination cannot be undone without first dismantling the structures that support it, such as discriminatory policing. Britain’s colonial past laid the foundation for these structures. Unvarnished discussions about the past are key to addressing contemporary racism. Eddo-Lodge’s opening chapter provides a basis for these discussions, filling a gap in the British educational system.