I have been slowly savouring this book for the past two weeks as each essay is a powerful unit in its own right and so I tend to take a break after each one to allow it to sink in.

My husband bought this book some two or three years ago while we were living in the US as immigrants. Reading it made me realise that I have been an immigrant for the past 19 years with no prospect of getting out any time soon. I went to study in Prague, Czech Republic in 2001 – 9 years after Czechoslovakia split. I was a Slovak student benefiting from the agreement between the two countries allowing its citizens the same application and admission process to their universities.  The Czechs have a special word for us -  ‘naplavenina’ or ‘silt’, basically, something that gets carried in by water and stays. I stayed for 15 years and still consider Prague a home.

Four years ago I followed my husband on his relocation to the US where I must have been a ‘good’ immigrant as I have not experienced being looked down on or being called out as someone ‘stealing jobs’ or ‘abusing the benefits system’.

Of course I know the main reason I have not been an object of racism or xenophobia and that is why I find it paramount to pay attention and listen to those who experience it in their daily lives. This collection comes with an added value of each of the essays offering an absorbing individual story enveloped in an original style. Some are angry, some are funny, some are both and some are neither. They are the perfect examples of every person being an individual with idiosyncratic perceptions and opinions. I know this should not come as a surprise but, as a number of the authors themselves point out, the majority population still fails to perceive them that way as the current most popular term denoting minorities -  BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) illustrates.

I only knew few of the contributors, three to be precise, Nish Kumar from TV comedy panel shows, Reni Eddo-Lodge from her book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race and Nikesh Shukla as the co-founder of The Good Literary Agency and so now I have a great few more people to watch and follow and that being only halfway through the book. I have also learnt a great deal of history, geography and some linguistics. On top of that, I am also learning about British culture as I am new here myself and have great gaps when it comes to such staples as EastEnders or Doctor Who.

UPDATE:

I have finally finished the book, after a few months’ hiatus in reading it and all I can say is that I learnt a lot more and I also spent time reflecting on my own behaviours, thoughts and opinions. The experiences of the contributors made me question, analyse and review myself, my past, present and future in the context of people from different backgrounds, with different histories and paths. We are all given labels by those around us and we all assign labels in return. Why do we need to perceive people as ‘other’ or ‘alike’, ‘us’ or ‘them’? What are the roots and reasons of these division and above all how can I address them and change them, first for myself and then for others. Can this be done? Should this be done by me? I will spend some more time with this and maybe I will never be done attempting to figure out the answers…