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Brought to you by Penguin

Im black so you dont have to be Colin Grants uncle Castus used to tell him For Colin born in Britain to Jamaican parents things were supposed to be different If he worked hard and became a doctor he was told his race would become invisible he would shake off the burden he believed his parents generation had carried The reality turned out to be very different

This is a memoir told through a series of intimate intergenerational portraits We meet Grants mother Ethlyn disappointed by workingclass life in Luton who dreams of returning to Jamaica his father Bageye a smalltime criminal with a violent temper his sister Selma who refashioned herself as an African princess his great uncle Percy estranged from his family through his own pride

Each character we meet is navigating their own path Each life informs Grants own shifting sense of his identity Collectively these stories build into poignant and insightful testimony of black British experience Written the intrigue nuance beauty and wit of short stories and with the veracity and painful revelation of memoir IM BLACK SO YOU DONT HAVE TO BE is a unforgettable exploration of family identity race and generational change

Colin Grant 2022 P Penguin Audio 2022