Cover Image: Roots and Rebellion

Roots and Rebellion

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Member Reviews

This book contains the collected stories of British people from many marginalized groups. The opening chapter regarding someone ( a Ghanaian) trying to come to Britain for life saving cardiac care is heart breaking. I cheered as the cardiac surgeon made the trip to Ghana to give this man the care he needed.
More heart break ensued as I read the story of the lady adopted from her homeland into a white British family. Always feeling not white enough and certainly not middle eastern.
The story of the Windrush scandal and those who are actively fighting deportation and fighting for compensation riled me to no end.
All of these stories need to be heard and more importantly a change needs to come.
Thank you authors.

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Focusing on “everyday” people and the oppression they face and deal with in different areas of their lives, rather than just a general populace, was refreshing and allowed you to feel deeply connected with the writers. This is filled with personal stories written by a variety of people, showcasing profound vulnerability, courage, and strength. Many valuable perspectives were given, and multiple hard topics were broached, including ones that I had very little knowledge of, like the UK deportation schemes and transracial adoption. 
Even with the stories mainly being sad and frustrating, the authors managed to infuse a sense of hope and encouragement to stand proud of yourself no matter your background, as well as stressing the importance of helping others.
 
The one thing I had a personal issue with was the lack of acknowledgement towards non-human animal oppression. I was willing to ignore food if it wasn’t a focus, but one essay’s topic was about cultural food, so I feel it’s necessary to comment on this, especially when the foreword explicitly talked about intersectionality and stated:
”𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭, 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘮, 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴?”
Emphasis on the 𝗮𝗹𝗹. I’m aware of how important tradition is in order to feel connected to one’s heritage, but tradition does not make something automatically ethical. I would encourage putting thought into what it means to support violence towards other oppressed beings in the name of tradition, especially when food is viewed as a form of resistance.

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