In my State of the TBR – April post, I set the intention to read two books from my collection I saw as a good pair to read together – both written by Black men who were part of a viral social media storm in 2020, both for taking actions that made them stand out, but one in the UK and one in America, one straight and one gay – different enough but alike enough to be interesting. And I’ve managed it – my review of “Better Living Through Birding” by Christian Cooper will be out in a few days, and here’s Patrick Hutchinson’s powerful letter to his children and grandchildren. I bought this book in May 2022 after seeing it mentioned on Hayley from Rather Too Fond of Books’ blog and out of the four print books acquired that month and shared here, I’ve actually now read and reviewed three!

Patrick Hutchinson with Sophia Thakur – “Everyone Versus Racism: A Letter to Change the World”

(29 May 2022)

If I can promise anything, it is an honest reflection of what it has meant to exist in the twenty-first century – as a black person in a world that celebrates black suppression. As a black man in a world that seems to crave black men’s blood. As a black person who is certain that compassion is the only solution to the deadly tale of racism. I am not saying that we should forgive and forget. But I believe that in our fight to move forward, we must arm ourslves with as much empathy as we do energy. (pp. 1-2)

On 16 June 2020 there was a Black Lives Matter march in London, but also a planned counter-demonstration by the EDL (the English Defence League – a far-right organisation). After the protests became mixed and tense, an image came out of a Black guy carrying a White guy to safety. What we probably didn’t know until / unless we read the book was that that Black guy – Patrick Hutchinson, father of four and grandfather of four – had headed into London with five friends, all trained in martial arts, to protect the BLM marchers and try to ensure violence that could cause further division and the movement being brought into disrepute didn’t ensue.

They did their job, having already saved a car load of EDL demonstrators from being sat on or worse, they rescued a man from almost certain death who never got in contact to say thank you, and then Mr Hutchinson was afforded the opportunity to write a book, which he did with writer and poet Sophia Thakur, which was published in 2020. In some ways, it’s the autobiograpy of an ordinary man – but when before the outpouring of publishing of global majority people’s words and lives did we get to read about an ordinary, decent Black man’s life?

Written in the form of a letter to his descendents, he envisages a post-racism world but also runs us through the realities of life as a Black guy in Britain – stop and search, racism, health inequalities, Covid inequalities, carefully placed through his own history. But he’s also big on compassion, restraint and doing people a good turn, on how a baby’s smile can cheer a whole crowd of people. In an interesting echo of “Biracial”, he shares that his joint English-Jamaican identity gives him more of everything and he talks about the good in Black British culture, the supportive atmosphere of the barber’s, of community and family.

He shares about small social movements for good, from the theatre organisation offering cheap seats to the organisation he jointly set up with his friends, UTCAI (United to Change and Inspire) to help young people in his area of South London. Here’s where it sometimes doesn’t pay to read books a while after they were published or I bought them (though I partly do it with social justice books to keep sharing after the initial fuss and wellspring of publishing has died down): when I went to make a donation to UTCAI, noting it was because I’d read this book, the current team returned my donation, advising me that Mr Hutchinson was no longer associated with it. Of course I then returned my donation to them for being so incredibly decent!

Anyway, an inspirational and interesting book, showing the tangible good that can come from a viral social media post.

This is Book 27 in my 2024 TBR project – 114 to go!