It’s been a year since the UK riots, when we saw racist and Islamophobic violence on our streets. At the time, I took great comfort from the books I was reading, which we recommended to charity leaders. In this blog I’ll be talking about three books I’ve read recently on inclusion, which follow similar themes.
When I think of the riots, I remember worrying about my family’s safety. It was a really difficult time, which stayed with me even when things had calmed down. One of the things that got me through it was my belief that our different backgrounds should be celebrated. They should be a source of joy, not fear, shame or division.
September is ESEA Heritage Month, which honours people of ESEA (East and Southeast Asian) heritage and their culture and history. We have some exciting news to announce soon about what we will be doing then. Ahead of that my first two book recommendations are great background reading.
I have both Chinese and English heritage and found Chinese and Any Other Asian: Exploring East and South East Asian Identity in Britain by Anna Sulan Masing a really thought provoking way to think about my community. Masing argues that ESEA heritage is little understood in Britain, leading to generalisations about how the diversity within that heritage is described. As Masing says, the community has lived and worked in the UK for centuries and fought in the British Army both world wars. Yet the ways in which the community has influenced British culture in food, writing, music and art has not been fully recognised.
Masing describes the unique forms of racism that those with ESEA heritage experience, such as the wave of Asian hate we saw during the pandemic, including the horrific spa shootings in Georgia, USA. She also discusses the subtler ways in which racism can play out day to day including Asian restaurants being seen as dirty, and ESEA women being exoticised or assumed to be the nanny of their mixed heritage children(this happened repeatedly to my own mother). Masing discusses all of these issues and the book gave me a better understanding of the richness and variety of ESEA experiences, and the multitude of stories within our community.
Ultimately, the book is also about a bigger question that has still not been addressed in the wake of the riots: how do we create a truly multicultural society where everyone is safe and difference is seen as a source of strength? It’s going to take careful thought, policies which are informed by communities, and resourcing to make this happen.
On a similar note, I loved An A-Z of Chinese Food (Recipes Not Included): A delectable collection that serves up Chinese flavour beyond its taste by Jenny Lau. Lau is a British Chinese writer, community organiser and food activist who founded the food platform Celestial Peach. I was drawn to this book because food has been such an important part of how I teach my children about their Chinese heritage, and I wanted to know more. From cultural appropriation to rice cookers to XO Sauce, this book is for anyone interested in food, culture and what reminds us of home.
Recently I also read Decolonising my Body by Afua Hirsch, in which Hirsch explores the impact of Eurocentric beauty standards on her own relationship with her body as a black woman. Whilst this is framed as a personal quest in the wake of her 40th birthday, Hirsch draws out lessons about how women’s bodies are scrutinised (particularly in the media) on such narrow standards of what it means to be ‘normal.’ In a sign of how entrenched these ideals are, Hirsch describes the huge amount of research and mental reframing it takes for women to move past this. This is an insightful book which I’m going to pass onto my daughter when she is older.
Finally, if you enjoyed our blog last summer about the books we recommended then you can hear more from one of the authors we featured on our podcast. Jassa Ahluwahlia, who wrote Both Not Half: A Radical New Approach to Mixed Heritage Identity, joined us on Starts At The Top to share his insights into inclusion. He discusses how leaders create belonging, moving from allyship to solidarity, and why challenging binary thinking is essential for modern organisations. Listen to our conversation with Jassa on Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts).
I’d love to hear what you’re reading this summer.