A conversation with the writer Tomiwa Owolade

"If we care about social justice, then specificity matters more than generalisation."

Tomiwa Owolade’s first book This Is Not America is a ferociously-intelligent, zestily-argued riposte of a book that takes aim at thought traps which have (in his view) shaped and distorted the recent conversation around race and so-called “black experience” in contemporary Britain — and not for better. In the opening chapters he sets up the contemporary American racial thought paradigm (no small feat), and then deftly sets about illustrating how ill-fitting this model is when applied to British experience — in particular his own reality, as a middle-class Nigerian immigrant (he emigrated to South East London with his family at age nine).

Finally, Owolade advances a passionate argument that thinkers on all sides of the political spectrum in Britain and beyond might engage in a more inclusive and expansive conversation about racial politics and experience — one that reflects the varied immigrant experience and resists the more pernicious and reductive aspects of identity politics, which in his view work to divide more than unite us.

It’s a pretty spectacular accomplishment for one short book, let alone a first book, written by a guy in his twenties fresh out of grad school.

Reading it as a Canadian, I was both riveted and inspired. One of many aspects of my adopted culture I have come to appreciate over the years is the way Britain posits itself (rightly) as separate and distinct from the American cultural conversation. As I joke to Tom on our interview, “This Is Not America” could easily be the title of every celebrated book of cultural criticism published in Canada about Canada from WWII to today. Yet despite this, the overwhelming noise of US cultural imperialism persists and nowhere is the lazy and disconnected-thinking it results in more irritatingly apparent than in the sphere of social media, particularly when it comes to social justice movements or (let’s be honest) anything to do with Meghan Markle. We talk about her too, a bit, right toward the end. Like so many thoughtful British people Tom’s utter lack of interest in Meghan — or indeed the royal family as a whole — is excruciatingly and endearingly palpable.

I hope you enjoy watching and/or listening to our conversation as much as I enjoyed having it. You can buy his book here.