Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Empireland
Most recents (6)
Virginia Blackburn accuses me in The Daily Express today of insulting the nation by comparing British Empire to Nazi Germany. Take a look at what I actually say in #Empireland: "It is rarely useful to make a direct comparison between Nazi Germany and British empire..." 
It's almost like she hasn't read the book. But then this crap is routine. Anyone attempting to understand British colonialism will get accused of not being patriotic. When true patriotism is putting in the effort to understand the difficult and complex past. Anyway...
Just learned that #Empireland has been shortlisted for a British Book Award. My gratitude to my many supportive readers, especially the historians and history teachers. This battle to change the way we see ourselves as a country is hard work, but you give me strength and courage.
So the efforts to stop @jessbrammar from being hired by the BBC on grounds that she is too “left-wing”, today take form of reproducing some of her tweets, which include one about #EmpireLand. Without getting into this new McCarthyism, I feel need to make a couple of points….
First, this is the tweet. If opposing racist abuse makes you left wing, then 99% of Britain is left-wing. Moreover, it’s possible to be Conservative and to support thesis of my book. Tories to have reviewed #Empireland positively include Chris Patten, @SayeedaWarsi @edvaizey
Two Cabinet ministers have told me they’re reading it, and, guess what, even THE TELEGRAPH found something encouraging to say about it. You can be left, right, a patriot, and still look at imperial history squarely in the face. Confident countries do this Sathnam.com/empire
Seeing history teachers use #EmpireLand has been thrilling. Didn’t expect it to happen, let alone so quickly. Also amazing that @penguin is now donating 15,000 copies of #EmpireLand to British schools as part of its #litincolour project. 30 for each school sathnam.com/empire
My hope is not to give students a rigid way of seeing empire, but to show them how to talk about empire with nuance, to avoid the basic pitfalls, and to be introduced to a wealth of other history books, some of which I even disagree with. #Empireland
#litincolour aims to introduce students everywhere to writing by writers of colour. I was in final year of university before I read my first brown author, and in my 40s before I started thinking about empire. All too common failure in British education.
Right, this is a highly delayed response to something writer Kavita Bhanot has written about my memoir #TheBoyWithTheTopknot. Was gonna ignore but it was repeated recently in this Guardian review of #EmpireLand, and I find it deeply offensive.
theguardian.com/books/2021/feb…
theguardian.com/books/2021/feb…
"White supremacist"?! I cut my hair, for a bunch of complicated reasons, most of which had nothing to do with race or assimilation. I was one of few kids with topknot in my school, sure, but also I was the only one in my family with a topknot...
... also, I was learning lots about religion and felt I didn't need outward symbol of religion to demonstrate my faith. Also, I was just a shy kid who struggled with looking so different. To reduce this all to me succumbing to "white supremacy" is offensive and, frankly, thick
An hour to go until the first session of our #Humanists2021 Convention!🕑Our Chief Exec, @AndrewCopson will be kick-starting the session to be followed by @Sathnam (Sanghera) & @SamiraAhmedUK in conversation. They'll be discussing Sathnam's Sunday Times bestseller #Empireland!
Just ten minutes to go until session one of #Humanists2021 Convention. We hope you’re ready!
And we’re off 🎉
@Andrewcopson begins by welcoming Convention attendees joining us from across the globe, including from North America & Australia. 🌍
It’s our biggest Convention yet – over 1000 people are in attendance! #Humanists2021
@Andrewcopson begins by welcoming Convention attendees joining us from across the globe, including from North America & Australia. 🌍
It’s our biggest Convention yet – over 1000 people are in attendance! #Humanists2021
Everyone involved in this report, from Munira Mirza (head of policy unit), to Tony Sewell, to Boris Johnson himself, has been critical of concept of institutional racism and argued racism is culture of "victimhood". And guess what it concludes...
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-565855…
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-565855…
Needless to say, just did a @BBCr4today debate with someone (headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh) who has also accused BLm of encouraging a culture of "victimhood". This is a calculated and concerted effort by Britain's right wing to argue that racism is not a problem.
Her argument that "decolonising" curriculums is about deleting great white men is disingenuous. You can teach the cannon and also incorporate brown people and colonial history. It's a failure of education that I didn't study single brown author until final term of uni #EmpireLand
