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The Uncomfortable Truth About Racism Paperback – August 16, 2022

by John Barnes (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 390 ratings
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An eloquent and thought-provoking book on racism and prejudice by the Liverpool and England football legend John Barnes.

John Barnes spent the first dozen years of his life in Jamaica before moving to the UK with his family in 1975. Six years later he was a professional footballer, distinguishing himself for Watford, Liverpool and England, and in the process becoming this country's most prominent black player.

Barnes is now an articulate and captivating social commentator on a broad range of issues, and in The Uncomfortable Truth About Racism he tackles head-on the issues surrounding prejudice with his trademark intelligence and authority.

By vividly evoking his personal experiences, and holding a mirror to this country's past, present and future, Barnes provides a powerful and moving testimony. The Uncomfortable Truth About Racism will help to inform and advance the global conversation around society's ongoing battle with the awful stain of prejudice.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Headline
  4. Publication date
    August 16, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    5.13 x 0.88 x 7.88 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1472290429
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1472290427
  8. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Barnes has written a book which reiterates that racism is embedded in society rather than just football.―The Guardian

Barnes has written a book which reiterates that racism is embedded in society rather than just football.―The Guardian

this book certainly feels uncomfortable, but important, too... Passionate, confrontational stuff.―The Guardian

this book certainly feels uncomfortable, but important, too... Passionate, confrontational stuff.―The Guardian

brilliantly written... a genuinely important book―The Jonathan Ross Show

brilliantly written... a genuinely important book―The Jonathan Ross Show

something we all need to be reading... an absolutely brilliant book... a great read for all of us―BBC Radio 2

something we all need to be reading... an absolutely brilliant book... a great read for all of us―BBC Radio 2

an absolutely terrific book―Good Morning Britain

an absolutely terrific book―Good Morning Britain

[John Barnes is] such a clear thinker... well worth reading―Good Morning Britain

[John Barnes is] such a clear thinker... well worth reading―Good Morning Britain

From the Back Cover

John Barnes spent the first dozen years of his life in Jamaica before moving to the UK with his family in 1975. Six years later he was a professional footballer, distinguishing himself for Watford, Liverpool and England, and in the process becoming this country's most prominent black player.

Barnes is now an articulate and captivating social commentator and in The Uncomfortable Truth About Racism he tackles head-on the many complex issues surrounding prejudice with his trademark intelligence and authority.

By vividly evoking his own experiences, and holding a mirror to this country's past, present and future, Barnes provides a powerful and moving testimony.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Racism is a personal and thought-provoking book that will help to inform and advance the conversation around society's ongoing battle with the awful stain of discrimination.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Headline; Reprint edition (August 16, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1472290429
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1472290427
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.13 x 0.88 x 7.88 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 390 ratings

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John Barnes

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
390 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

7
5.0 out of 5 stars Great discussion regarding race and class privileges
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2021
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Have hated the discussions perpetuated by main stream media regarding race and wokeness. These discussions have not added the essential aspect of class. Mr Barnes’ book highlights the connection of class related to racism. His book is the phenomenal for intellectual discourse on racism and classism. It highlights how poor people regardless of color all suffer similar fates. He also highlights clear goals of this discussion rather than the token, vague approaches taken by the woke culture. I’m also very pleased that he includes sexism in the discussion.
This is the book that can bring people together to talk honestly about racism without denying the fact that not all white people have white privilege. Great work Mr Barnes!
2 people found this helpful
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Elyssa Kuttner
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing.
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2022
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Absolutely amazing book, went ahead and paid it forward and sent it to a friend to read!
One person found this helpful
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Adam Fforde
5.0 out of 5 stars Wise reflections
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2021
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Lovely to read a considered and thought-through reflection, not academic, and (so) wise and to be hoped powerful. Good stuff.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

MR D RUSSELL
5.0 out of 5 stars The first piece of fresh thinking in the area of racial issues since the 1980s - a work of genius
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2023
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Please, please, please do not be put off by a bald, vaguely 'in your face' title or the fact that - in these times of information overload induced intellectual, moral and compassion fatigue - such a book seems to promise merely a rehash of ideas we have already heard and (secretly) have about the same emotional energy for as we do for Covid protocols. If you are a person who has EVER felt even one moment of impotent anxiety in relation to race-related questions in modern society (essentially, if you are even one millimetre left-of centre politically), you will be rewarded with a plethora of dazzling and thought-provoking insights for reading this book. It is, hands down, the most incisive, insightful and promising treatment of this amorphous, intractable and elusive subject I have ever encountered. I know what I am talking about as that experience began with the incendiary and consciousness-raising Autobiography of Malcolm X (read as a 19 year old forty years ago) and includes studying Philosophy, Politics & Economics at Oxford University. While there, I wrote a 20,000 word thesis assessing whether the small business route by which Jews had penetrated the English middle class in the past (and East Asians were in the process of doing in the 1980s) was the silver bullet to solve the issues around anti-black racism (I said it wasn't and that has proved to be the case) and - for a term - ran a section called Black Perspectives on Cherwell , the university newspaper. Yes, I am a Liverpool fan who, back in the day, recognised John Barnes as probably the best - and certainly the most exciting - player in British football. This brings me to something of an existential takeaway from the experience of reading this book: weirdly, the level of flair which John Barnes demonstrates in the treatment of his subject matter in this book is kind of on the same level as that with which he differentiated himself on the football pitch. There is actually one set-piece hypothetical scenario , around page 100, involving the Queen, Donald Trump and some ordinary people being stuck in a lift together which touches on genius in the effectiveness with which it illustrates the point he is making. You can tell it is class because you immediately know that the scenario is something which could be developed much further by himself or someone else. What this seems to suggest to me is perhaps that 'genius' is a state of mind or maybe 'way' of mind which does not limit the possessor of that mind to pre-eminence in one given field but will manifest itself in any field subject only to the the possessor of that mind applying him/herself to said field for a suitable amount of time. Interesting.
Also interesting - but not in a good way - are some eminently avoidable errors of grammar and syntax: up to the point I am at (just past page 100) , 'sparring' has been spelt with one 'R', and 'free reign' is printed where, obviously, 'free REIN' is meant. Small things but if I was Barnsey I'd be pulling my hair out at the proof readers at his publishers not picking them up...
Barnsey also makes no bones about the fact that he is going to write as he speaks from the outset. This definitely enhances the authenticity and therefore readability but there is at least one sentence somewhere in the first 50 pages which defeated me comprehension-wise so I just had to move on after reading it about ten times. It was his final point on the topic so I already had the gist of what he was saying so it did not detract from overall comprehension. The other thing which will provide ammunition to the 'haters' which such a forthright, breathtakingly honest, and intellectually courageous work will inevitably draw is the fact that - not having spent 30 years reading around European history like a university graduate such as myself - Barnsey, though essential correct, is sometimes sketchy and over-simplistic in what he says about The Slave Trade and related historical events which seeded the Industrial Revolution, Capitalism and subsequent economic, military and (most perniciously) cultural pre-eminence for Western Democracy.
Again though, that has no bearing on the intellectual freshness, innovativeness, and sheer humanity with which he deals with his subject matter.
In this book, John Barnes shows himself to be among the foremost social theorists on modern British society and certainly the most lucid and compelling. The other most interesting book I have read on British society is 'The Condition of the English Working Class' by Friedrich Engels (yes, THAT Engels! But it is purely descriptive with no dry theory anywhere). Of the many hundreds of books I have read in my life, that was the most horrifying and impactful despite just being social history. I can tell from his book that John Barnes has not read it and I really hope he comes across it at some point because - with his fertile intellect and agile mind - I think that input would give him much to work with in terms of further developing the seminal ideas in his extraordinary book.
2 people found this helpful
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Brododendron
5.0 out of 5 stars Great insights
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2021
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Barnes centres this book on a few key premises: an individual can elevate themself above any negative stereotype that might apply to their race, religion, colour, sex, sexuality or gender (category), but in the event of any failure they fall back to the level of their negative stereotype. Plenty of anecdotal evidence, personal and public, is given to support this assertion. Elevation beyond the stereotype serves no purpose except to elevate the individual but does nothing for their category as a whole.

Secondly, almost everybody exhibits some biases, unconscious or conscious. These are a product of their environment which has imprinted upon them. Barnes urges us to bring about our unconscious biases into the conscious sphere so that we might deal head on with them. The way that racism is dealt with by the media incentivises a superficial approach to confronting our biases, encouraging people to hide thier biases rather than confront their beliefs.

Thirdly, racism is a separate bias from class but together they combine to create a kind of discrimination that is greater than both separately. He uses the case of white working class versus black/eastern european working class effectively to demonstrate this point.

He also asserts that various disenfranchised groups are pit against each other by the elite to weaken their opposition to the status quo and keep the elite in power. If disenfranchised groups are to support eachothers' causes this will work more effectively than pursuing our own causes as separate groups.

My criticisms of the book are two: Barnes prefers to use a multitude of anecdotal evidence to support his views but does not use any statistical evidence. In one passage in the book he disparages the use of statistics by elites/dominant groups to maintain the current power balance. I think the book would be strengthened by the presentation of some statistical evidence.

Finally, the book does not flow well. It reads like a series of short notes or blog posts stitched together. Although the book is divided into distinct parts the themes blend together to a degree that make this structure feel forced.

Overall, this is an insightful book that will encourage you to think deeply about your biases as an individual and reflect on the issue of racism and how it should be dealt with. Barnes has a powerful gift for simply highlighting mainstream biases through anecdotes and adds a fresh perspective that I have not found elsewhere.
31 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Thank you JB!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2023
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Glad I read JB's book. Was deeply insightful. I found that i agreed with about 95% of his opinions. Glad I read the book.
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Kram Ekosum
5.0 out of 5 stars The Reality of Human Prejudice
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2022
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A tour de force from John Barnes, son of a diplomat, retired footballer, former Glasgow Celtic manager. This is such a straightforward exposition from someone who had spoken about race and his experience of racism for 25 years. Despite being the 'black sheep' in his family for not having endured higher education, Barnes comes across as fiercely intelligent, fearless, well read and honest. A few things that he says sound odd when read from the page. It is easier if you have heard him speak live in his half Jamaican accent! However, the vast majority of the pages are simple observations of the World as it is now.
I thoroughly recommend it to everyone who cares about racial discrimination.
5 people found this helpful
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ralphdavis
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 16, 2023
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Very Good
One person found this helpful
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