Sajid Javid's Personal Memoir Confronts Childhood Racism and Political Irony
The publication of former Home Secretary Sajid Javid's memoir The Colour of Home has sparked considerable discussion, offering an intimate portrait of his childhood while raising profound questions about his political career. The book traces Javid's journey from a frightened child experiencing racism in 1970s Rochdale to becoming a senior figure in the Conservative Party, creating a narrative rich with personal reflection and social commentary.
Childhood Experiences in Racist Britain
Javid's opening chapters paint a vivid picture of the racism he encountered growing up in northern England. The memoir describes ubiquitous skinheads, racist graffiti on his father's shop windows, and the constant taunts of "Run, Paki, run" that followed him through his school years. These scenes establish the hostile environment that shaped his early life, with racism appearing both continuous and targeted throughout his childhood.
The book provides particularly moving accounts of his parents' struggles and resilience. His mother, despite being illiterate, demonstrated fierce commitment to her sons' education through spotless uniforms, regimented homework routines, and regular trips to Rochdale Library. Meanwhile, his father emerges as a man of energy but limited luck - a bus driver who repeatedly launched small clothing businesses that almost always failed.
School as a Site of Trauma and Transformation
School emerges as both a site of trauma and intellectual ignition in Javid's narrative. He does not airbrush the brutality of playground racism, recounting incidents including a boy trying to "rub the black off" his own arm with sandpaper. Perhaps most painfully, Javid describes his own shame-soaked rejection of a black classmate in an attempt to fit in with his peers.
Alongside these difficult memories, the memoir tells the story of intellectual awakening. Javid recalls the tutor who continued to teach him for free, discovering abandoned copies of the Financial Times on buses, and developing the belief that reading could provide a reliable means of escape from his circumstances.
Political Contradictions and Conservative Party Alignment
The memoir becomes particularly compelling through its refusal to tidy away political contradictions. Javid notes how his father moved from scepticism about Margaret Thatcher to eventually voting for her, even as his own life was crushed between property developers, debt, and deregulated markets. This personal history sits disturbingly alongside Javid's own rise through Conservative Party ranks.
Reading his story in the context of recent Conservative governments illustrates how his party has exploited narratives of immigrant success while implementing policies that have brutalised people who resemble his own parents. The memoir raises difficult questions about Javid's political decisions, particularly his role in maintaining the "hostile environment" approach to immigration enforcement during his tenure as Home Secretary.
Immigration Policy and Racialised Harm
The book's publication invites reflection on how Conservative immigration policy has developed in recent years. The "hostile environment" approach, initiated by Theresa May but maintained by subsequent Home Secretaries including Javid, fostered racist practices and contributed directly to the Windrush scandal. Javid later claimed he disliked the term "hostile environment" but nevertheless defended and maintained the structures that perpetuated it.
This pattern continued with his successors. Priti Patel's posture as a child of immigrants "taking back control" functioned as political cover for policies that coerced people into destitution. Similarly, Suella Braverman's tenure saw the fusion of identity politics and punitive policy taken further, marrying the image of a British Asian woman in high office with apocalyptic language about "invasions" of small-boat arrivals.
Structural Analysis and Political Omissions
Critics have noted that Javid's narrative sometimes minimises structural barriers, suggesting minorities simply need to work harder to succeed - a perspective that can sound uncomfortably like an "Uncle Tom" narrative to some readers. His decision to concentrate primarily on his early years while writing little about his rise through the Conservative Party represents a significant omission, leaving readers curious about his perspective on the inner workings of the now-imploded Tory government.
Perhaps most importantly, The Colour of Home demonstrates how racist rhetoric and policy have become defining features of mainstream British politics. Recent reporting about Nigel Farage's time at Dulwich College underlines how little distance exists between elite education, racist language, and political success. Taken together with Javid's scenes of playground racism, these testimonies show continuity rather than rupture in British society.
A Warning for Britain's Future
In this context, Javid's portrait of a boy learning to survive and outthink a hostile environment - and his insistence that education, solidarity, and institutional self-scrutiny are the only real antidotes - feels less like a nostalgic political origin story and more like an urgent warning about the Britain that comes next. The memoir suggests that the casual dehumanisation of Jews, black people, and Asians remains embedded in British institutions and political discourse.
While Javid's prose may not be that of a natural writer - described by some critics as a bit "Jack and Jill" in style - the memoir succeeds most powerfully when it occupies the Dickensian domestic precariousness of his childhood. These short, vivid chapters carry a clear narrative that raises important questions about meritocracy, racism, and political responsibility in contemporary Britain.
