I'm Black So You Don't Have to Be

When the personal becomes collective

Colin Grant’s wonderfully structured, non linear autobiography is both a laying out of his own story, as a black Briton, whose parents came from Jamaica, in the late 50s, and a laying out of the experiences of his parent’s generation, his own, and onwards.

It is a joyous, bleak, celebration of individual lives, and also a story which demands that white readers pay attention. From time to time events happen which make us do just that, but then, perhaps, we forget the petty, daily, evidences of our colonial thinking.

Colin Grant tells the stories of others, primarily his parents, a sibling, and the extended family of his parent’s generation, but also, of a stranger whose life crossed his during his training as a doctor. The first story starts as he leaves Luton, where he grew up, and stayed for a while with an uncle in London, when he started his medical training. So this is a young man, leaving home, beginning to find his identity outside his family. The final story is that of his own children, who beautifully bring him home to embrace his Caribbean identity.

The whole point about this journey being that – to succeed in a white world, black Britons have to learn to ‘code-switch’ There is a way to be within a white world, and a different way to be with other black people.

I have read a few books this year, by other black writers exploring their own personal journeys, but, depressingly, there are these common experiences of white privilege everywhere and all around.

This is a fabulous read, and, by revealing through showing and celebrating individual lives, the messages land more precisely and devastatingly – including for Grant himself – than any polemic could do

I'm Black So You Don't Have To Be is easily my favourite memoir of the year.

I love how Grant puts different people from his life at the heart of each vignette: it's such a smart way to add depth and perspective to autobiographical writing. There is real warmth and honesty in his narration, even through the complex subjects he touches upon, such as domestic abuse, institutional racism and familial alienation. And his storytelling is wonderful - so immediate and well-paced that I found myself reading carefully so as not to skip a word.

It's rare to read a memoir so well-crafted; this is an astute and absorbing read.