I have not experienced that in my life because of the area I'm from in London, everyone looks like me,” she recalls. 'One guy actually pressed himself against me in a bookshop. “It was a huge culture shock that I was experiencing,' she says. Still reeling from the drastic move from London to Scotland, Faridah began to observe microaggressions and outright aggressions for the first time in her life. A lot of them have gotten their wealth and prestige from what they did in the past.”Ī post shared by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (opens in new tab) 'It's kind of interesting how they're all hiding basically what you've been doing. “I think a lot of these institutions, whether it's university or a high school, they often are prestige because they have a history that is rooted in a kind of subjugation of Black people,' she says. I ask her almost immediately what she thought the relationship was between anti-Blackness and so-called prestigious institutions.

It is not simply a cautionary tale of institutionalized racism but actually, a visceral depiction of the acute danger that people of color in white spaces find to be the norm. Her book, like many others that have been published in the last few years, places the subject of racial relations in the horror genre. She’s living back home in London, doing virtual learning for her final year at university-the place that ended up being an unexpected catalyst for her creativity in writing Ace of Spades. $14.99 (opens in new tab) at Amazon (opens in new tab)įaridah and I connect-like so many people do now-over Zoom (complete with technical difficulties) at night her time because she’s a night owl.

Faridah àbíké íyímídé ace of spades