I borrowed this out of the library after seeing @wordrevel on Instagram raving about it. And it certainly lived up to that review.
The Good Immigrant is a collection of short essays from 21 POC authors who mainly come from the British entertainment industry. It was certainly an enlightening read, gaining insights from how racial discrimination and hostility from society restricted their careers or their life in general. While I had an inkling that these do occur around the world, it was startling to read them as the essays felt very personal at times and it was easy to visualise yourself in their shoes.
Coming from a minority group in my own country also helped me frame the book in a new light. I could sympathise with some of the issues raised in the book (see Bim Adewunmi’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Tokenism) but I also felt more grateful that I didn’t suffer through blatant and hurtful discrimination in the way that coloured most of the essays.
To put it simply, this book definitely gave my brain an academic massage. I’m not saying that the language is tough but the ideas and issues compacted in this book definitely made me ponder. It’s been over a year since I graduated university and it was a nice welcome to read something that powerful again.
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