A frank and necessary look at being a Black journalist in mainstream media.
Exposing racism in society, in the newsroom, and on the printed page.
In this slim volume, Younge tackles an enormous question: How does a Black journalist navigate the white-dominated world of British media? Younge speaks from long experience. At the Guardian for almost three decades, he covered stories as far-ranging as police brutality, Nelson Mandela’s presidency, and Hurricane Katrina. Though less than half of his pieces were about race, he was dubbed by one columnist as “the Guardian’s black journalist who writes ‘black stories.’” Ironically, his first column for the paper, about Bosnia, was spiked because the editor wanted him to add an “ethnic sensibility.” Born in Hertfordshire to Barbadian parents, Younge knew very few Black people. “When I entered a pub in most Scottish cities or any rural area in Britain, there was always this fragment of silence as I single-handedly integrated the space.” Starting out in journalism, he says, felt like going into one of those pubs. Two decades later, Black journalists made up only 0.2% of staffers at British outlets. Younge is highly critical of mainstream media that have few Black decision-makers but put Black journalists in front of cameras, mistaking photo opportunities for equal opportunities. Invoking wisdom from James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Shonda Rhimes, he acknowledges that while he aims to speak to the Black community in a relevant voice, “I hope I am never deluded enough to think I can speak for it.” He insists that though he may not represent Black people, “it’s important that I don’t misrepresent them. For it would also be reckless to contribute to an atmosphere in which relatively vulnerable people were made more vulnerable by my work.” After all, being Black in Britain means one is more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, incarcerated, unemployed, underpaid, or homeless. By honestly reflecting on the complex challenges of his career, Younge hopes “to broaden the space for what we all might write.”
A frank and necessary look at being a Black journalist in mainstream media.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780571396610
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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