Taking Up Space

Taking Up Space

by Chelsea Kwakye & Ore Ogunbiyi

4 out of 5

Synopsis
As a minority in a predominantly white institution, taking up space is an act of resistance. Recent Cambridge grads Chelsea and Ore experienced this first-hand, and wrote Taking Up Space as a guide and a manifesto for change.

FOR BLACK GIRLS:

Understand that your journey is unique. Use this book as a guide. Our wish for you is that you read this and feel empowered, comforted and validated in every emotion you experience, or decision that you make.

FOR EVERYONE ELSE:

We can only hope that reading this helps you to be a better friend, parent, sibling or teacher to black girls living through what we did. It's time we stepped away from seeing this as a problem that black people are charged with solving on their own.

It's a collective effort.
And everyone has a role to play.

Featuring honest conversations with students past and present, Taking Up Space goes beyond the buzzwords of diversity and inclusion and explores what those words truly mean for young black girls today.

Review
Chelsea and Ore let you see through their eyes, the UK educational system, and all of its consequences.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The narrative loosely follows Chelsea and Ore in the formative years they spend at University. It also features further statements from other black women, cementing that the ongoing struggles are  widespread.
As nothing is truly isolated, the book also looks at the societal effects; the lack of support, the lack of knowledge and understanding of the establishments we trust. The fact that there are few black women at Oxbridge becomes almost a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Then there are the recurring consequences and limitations for British BAME citizens.

The authors arguments are solid and well-founded. Their narrative is passionate, but logical; they explain every step of the process. They aren't just railing against the system, they are offering constructive criticism and examples of colleges that successfully encourage and support BAME students throughout their educational careers, giving them the strongest platform for what comes next.

As a student from a Working Class background, (I couldn't rely on my parents for financial support and put myself through uni) a lot of this resonated with me. It was only when I moved away, did my Yorkshire accent become a barrier; and I discovered the low regard people had for my hometown (it turns out that Donny is the awkward chavvy cousin in the Yorkshire family).

Still, I'm as guilty as anyone, for not being aware of all the issues facing a BAME student.
I'm guilty of comparing the UK to the awful racial tension the the US and thinking "we're nowhere near that bad"; but being better than the bad guys is no excuse.
This book is quite enlightening, and the message it carries is important to support black students, and to educate the rest of us.

This book has been written by two women that are clearly educated and intelligent, their passion on the subject is clear, and I could imagine them giving excellent talks on the matter.
As a written piece, the narrative isn't the type I can sit and binge read; and the content is quite repetitive.

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