The Wrong Race

The persistent trauma of extreme, institutionalized racism can be expected to take its toll on anyone. But resilience, instead, is the main theme of Azra Daniel Francis’s latest book, a raw and deeply personal memoir that details his experience growing up in South Africa. Through vignettes of people, places, and institutions that impacted him, Francis’s account details his always being an outsider in his own country. And when he finds no relief from racism and exploitation in his adopted country, Canada, still he persists in demanding the dignity and equality that is his human right. The Wrong Race is an unsettling read, but also a testament to the strength of people who are oppressed to flourish in the face of, and in resistance to, tremendous hardship.