Black Success

How did the Windrush generation become so prosperous? Why are Nigerians achieving so highly in the education system? Why does Hollywood rush to cast black British actors? And why are so many Jamaicans winning Olympic gold? And what lessons are there from these success stories for young black people in low-income communities?

Tony Sewell weaves together memoir and polemic to explore the drivers of black success and answer these questions. Truthful, provocative, and often surprising, he traces black people’s hard-won achievements back to their source: family, education, hard work, discipline and the property market. He argues in favour of rejecting victimhood and low expectations and embracing high ambitions, drawing on a range of interviews and stories to offer a more exciting, sometimes visionary new view of black life in Britain today.

This book is the perfect riposte to the storm of criticism that met the Sewell Report on racial disparities. It is essential reading not only for Black Britons who are tired of being denied agency and responsibility, but also for anyone who wants a balanced perspective on race relations in Britain.