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Taking Up Space: The Black Girl’s Manifesto for Change by Ore Ogunbiyi and Chelsea Kwakye is a guide by two Cambridge graduates who wrote the book as a means of highlighting different experiences black girl’s will face in the education system, specifically at a very exclusive school like Cambridge. Though primarily following the two women’s experiences, it also includes the experiences of other black women from different backgrounds. The book covers topics of racism, institutional racism, being viewed as a ‘token’ for statistics, differences males and females face as well as economic differences. This book is not only a manifesto for black girls, but it is also an insight into the experiences of black people for those with no experience or knowledge on what they may be.
Going into this, I quickly knew I’d love it because of the informal and casual nature of the book, which is especially effective when listened to as an audiobook. It felt like I was listening in to a conversation between friends because of the nature of the style. The varied perspectives in the book, all voiced by their own voices in the audiobook, broke any wall of awkwardness that might arise in a book of this nature. Throughout, despite its obvious academic and educational purpose, it never once felt like a lecture or a lesson, but an honest conversation of experiences.
I never found any weaknesses with this book, only positives, so I’ll start there! The acknowledgement from Chelsea and Ore about how different people can experience things is very poignant and is reiterated throughout the book. In England, (the main country studied in the book) because of its multicultural nature, black people will inevitably have different experiences of education, racism, job-hunting etcetera. Additionally, because of the divide between state and public schools, black students are inevitably going to see the education system in a different light. Topics within education such as racism, lack of supportive relationships between student and teachers, lack of representation within the curriculum as well as intersectional discrimination (sexuality, class, religion, gender) makes for a complex conversation. Ore and Chelsea manage to not only discuss these topics in a very educational and purposeful manner, but through including the perspectives of other students, it allows for these topics of be discussed organically and naturally. I highly praise the two authors for finding a successful middle ground between casual and educational.
To add to this, it takes a lot of courage, in my opinion, to talk about your experiences publicly, especially when these two women are Oxbridge educated. There comes the tendency to dismiss people’s experiences once they’ve reached a ‘peak’ of privilege, in this case being accepted into Oxbridge, but this shouldn’t be the case. Just because black women have had to work twice as hard as their peers to get into a top-ranked university does not mean that any experience after is negligible. Defying stereotypes does not automatically make people untouchable, but the conception that it does is still prevalent - therefore for Chelsea and Ore to acknowledge their privilege in Oxbridge but to still come out and express concern at inequalities, is brave.
To conclude, if you’re looking to widen your reading, either to read more non-fiction or to read more books by women and black people, then I’d definitely recommend this book. Reading this, people will be able to understand the experience of black people in society, specifically about black girls and in the context of England and the education system. Becoming empathetic to others and acknowledging their difficulties, or lack of, only enhances peoples social skills.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5