Perspectives

Current issues

Salman Rushdie’s essay “The New Empire within Britain” addresses both institutional racism and immigration in Britain.

People of color living in the United Kingdom still deal with institutional racism. One example of this is police brutality which started the Black Lives Movement in the U…

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Textual perspectives

A similar text to “The New Empire within Britain” is Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech, in which he addresses problems regarding race in the US. Like Rushdie, Obama also believes that the past is the problem, blaming present racial tensions on slavery and the constant discrimination against black people.

“This Is My England” by Andrea Levy also addresses the fact that people of color feel discriminated in England even though they are British as well. Like Rushdie, Levy talks about how black people are discriminated against when it comes to getting a job and how they are given poor conditions even though they are qualified. 

Leo Benedictus’ article “Every race, colour, nation and religion on earth” discusses London’s diverse society. He also talks about immigrants and how they easily adapt to the British culture, while British people also assimilate foreigners’ diverse cultures. However, some British people f…