"Afropean: Notes From Black Europe" by Johny Pitts

I only read this particular book this year but really, it pretty much changed the way I think about people of colour and migration. This book bases itself in the way in which Black people are viewed across Europe and seriously, as a person of colour and even though I’m Indian and from England, I could really connect with this book of experience. The reason I read this was because I heard people talking about it online as the next great nonfiction text of the Black experience in Europe. Now, I’d read quite a few of these books in comparison to my library on the Black experience in America because I live in Europe. Most of the Black experience in America based books I’ve read have been written as novels as opposed to nonfiction essays etc.

The way in which “Afropean” changed the playing field was by writing the book as a flashback experience rooted not in historical trends, figures, statistics and retellings, but instead rooted in experiences that had seemingly happened recently in perspective of the book and its composition. When reading it, I often thought about the time between the event and the writing of the book and whether that had any impact on how sometimes, the book would sound almost sorrowful at times, as if the book’s composition date had not given enough time between the actual event and itself in order to get the emotional state fully processed and so, the writer had not yet completely gone through all the stages of resentment towards his adversary. The stage of acceptance had not been yet reached and it is a positive point for the text because of the fact the writer can then do the following things for the reader:

a) it shows the experience of emotion in complete action as opposed to a complete flashback and thus, give the reader a more up-to-date look at the state of the world towards the Black-European experience and the most recent reaction they can give. If you want another text that does this, the consult “One Day When I Was Lost” by James Baldwin

b) it shows the stages of that experience. Beginning with the resent towards the racist, the writer shows how that singular emotion has to be held back and thus, when progressing through the book, the reader comes to understand how the process of emotion links to the fact that the Black-European experience is often rooted in the silence that many bring towards it. The acceptance of this treatment is wrong and therefore, the writer never lets himself or the reader get there. Instead, the reader is left on the end of the experience and emotion - allowing themselves to find a solution to this problem instead of accept in silence.

c) it gives the reader hope. The fact that acceptance of this behaviour is never reached can give the reader hope for change and thus, the experience of racism is seen as more of a problem because of the fact the writer does not try to rationalise it. Instead, the writer denounces it, often with sorrow and purpose, showing relatively little hatred but always a higher moral standing ground with more reason, intelligence and poise. The reader, therefore, is more likely to believe that the writer is here for change and can change things. As the book progresses, this idea is solidified more and more as we see more and more of the different aspects of the experience through the eyes of treatment and progression through emotional retaliation

The reading experience of this book so greatly influenced the way I think about race relations in Europe that I actually read it a second time and made notes about the way in which the writer discusses the different trends of the experience of racism and how basically all racism has similar arguments yet all emotion towards that racism is processed differently since the target often grows to accept this behaviour - he then shows us an alternative to this acceptance by never actually doing it himself. The different essays in this book are set in different cities and different countries all over Europe and show the reader the growing solitude of the Black-European in a Europe where white supremacy is still holding on by a tether, attempting to climb back up but failing as progress pushes it back down.