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What Does It Mean To Be British Today? Tomiwa Owolade – This Is Not America & Sunder Katwala – How to be a Patriot
March 21, 2024 @ 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Price: £12.50
Venue: The Hub at St Mary’s
Our 2024 panel event What does it mean to be British today? investigates an age of culture wars and ill-tempered clashes on social media. Instead, we need a better conversation on who we are, where we come from, and where we’re going.
How To Be a Patriot seeks to navigate the identity issues of this increasingly disunited kingdom: extremism and integration after 7/7; fear of immigration and the deep divides of Brexit; the resurgence of online racism; and the so-called culture wars. Sunder Katwala reflects his personal journey growing up with some identity issues to work through – as a half-Indian, Irish Catholic child of the NHS, the chequered history of post-imperial Britain seemed very personal to him – and how that shaped his sense of the inclusive and confident patriotism that could recognise our differences need not define us.
This Is Not America addresses one of the most divisive issues in our age. In the rush to address racial inequality and prejudice, Britain has followed the lead of the world’s dominant power: America. But what if we’re looking in the wrong place? In his humane and passionate book, Tomiwa Owolade argues that it is possible to be both proudly black and proudly British, with too much of this debate at home viewed through the prism of American ideas that fail to reflect the history, challenges and achievements of black communities in Britain.
Our panel guests this evening:
Sunder Katwala is the director of the think-tank British Future. He was born in Yorkshire, England to parents who had come to Britain to work for the National Heath Service. He has worked in journalism, publishing and think-tanks including as a leader writer for the Observer newspaper, leading the Fabian Society before founding British Future a decade ago to address issues of identity. He regularly contributes to the national broadcast and print media, from the Guardian and New Statesman to the Telegraph and Spectator, and writes a weekly column for the Eastern Eye.
Tomiwa Owolade is a writer and critic. He has written for various publications including The Times, The Observer and the London Evening Standard. This Is Not America is his first book.
