‘A significant piece of work’ Diane Abbott
‘A rigorous and fearless development and dissection of the Black Middle Class in Britain’ Derek Owusu

A landmark portrait of modern Britain, The Good, the Black and the Boujee is a critical reckoning with the pursuit of ‘black excellence’.

From broadcasters and lawyers to content creators, actors and politicians, black professionals appear to have become leaders of Britain’s most visible, profitable and culture-defining industries. Yet educated black professionals say racism is entrenched and rising to the top has never been harder. So what is going on? How have they ascended? At what expense? And what does the expansion of a black middle class mean for all black people in Britain?

National correspondent Symeon Brown has undertaken the largest known data study of Britain’s black middle class and elite to compile a social history and critique of the new black middle class. With style, depth and an incisive eye, Brown unravels the web of class and gender that shapes black Britain today and reconciles the cultural and political conversations surrounding black British identity with the present reality. Whether dissecting the preference of educated black women to be single, the rise of black Conservative power brokers or how the triumph and assimilation of black elites mask the barriers facing the black working class, Brown renders visible the psychological and material cost of class aspiration.

More than a simple portrait of class in motion, The Good, the Black and the Boujee is a forensic study of how race, capital and identity entwine – and what’s lost, gained and discovered through social mobility.

Symeon will be here at bookhaus to discuss all this. Tickets cost £7 and include a glass of wine or a soft drink and £3 off the book. Presented by bookhaus.

Symeon Brown has delivered a delicious bonfire of Black middle-classness.

Nels Abbey, author of THINK LIKE A WHITE MAN

Brown beautifully narratives how the Black middle classes are intimately entangled with Britain's imperial histories, contemporary cultures and political possibilities.

Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper, contributor to EMPIRE'S ENDGAME

A smart, bold and a brilliant read. In The Good, the Black and the Boujee, Symeon Brown skilfully weaves the personal and political to build a fierce and fearless critique of the quest for social mobility in black Britain . . . Endlessly surprising, thought provoking and challenging with a razor-like focus on why class still matters.

Jackie Long

A significant piece of work.

Diane Abbott

Symeon Brown tackles the subject of the Black Middle class with courage, honesty, humour and a passionate investment in the archiving and documenting of the Black presence in Britain. Bypassing the current trend of adopting working class identities or being oblivious to it all, Symeon gets to the heart of the matter: cultural and economic capital. A rigorous and fearless development, and dissection, of the Black Middle Class in Britain.

Derek Owusu, author of BORDERLINE FICTION