The Good, the Black and the Boujee: How Black Britain Became Middle Class

Symeon Brown

'A significant piece of work' Diane Abbott
'A rigorous and fearless development and dissection of the Black Middle Class in Britain' Derek Owusu

A landmark portrait of modern Britain, The Good, the Black and the Boujee is a critical reckoning with the pursuit of 'black excellence'.

From broadcasters and lawyers to content creators, actors and politicians, black professionals appear to have become leaders of Britain's most visible, profitable and culture-defining industries. Yet educated black professionals say racism is entrenched and rising to the top has never been harder. So what is going on? How have they ascended? At what expense? And what does the expansion of a black middle class mean for all black people in Britain?

National correspondent Symeon Brown has undertaken the largest known data study of Britain's black middle class and elite to compile a social history and critique of the new black middle class. With style, depth and an incisive eye, Brown unravels the web of class and gender that shapes black Britain today and reconciles the cultural and political conversations surrounding black British identity with the present reality. Whether dissecting the preference of educated black women to be single, the rise of black Conservative power brokers or how the triumph and assimilation of black elites mask the barriers facing the black working class, Brown renders visible the psychological and material cost of class aspiration.

More than a simple portrait of class in motion, The Good, the Black and the Boujee is a forensic study of how race, capital and identity entwine - and what's lost, gained and discovered through social mobility.