The Good, the Black and the Boujee
On sale
30th July 2026
Price: £22
A landmark portrait of modern Britain, The Good, the Black and the Boujee is an ode to – and a provocative reckoning with – black ambition.
From broadcasters, lawyers and ‘attention economy’ entrepreneurs to footballers, actors and authors, black Britons have become leaders of Britain’s most visible, profitable and culture-defining industries. Still, a new wave of young and educated black Brits have felt and stated it clearly: Britian’s racism is entrenched and rising to the top has never been harder. So, what barriers remain? How have some jumped them? At whose expense?
Award-winning journalist Symeon Brown has undertaken the largest known data study of Britain’s black middle class and elite. 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, Brownrenders 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.
From broadcasters, lawyers and ‘attention economy’ entrepreneurs to footballers, actors and authors, black Britons have become leaders of Britain’s most visible, profitable and culture-defining industries. Still, a new wave of young and educated black Brits have felt and stated it clearly: Britian’s racism is entrenched and rising to the top has never been harder. So, what barriers remain? How have some jumped them? At whose expense?
Award-winning journalist Symeon Brown has undertaken the largest known data study of Britain’s black middle class and elite. 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, Brownrenders 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.