Actor and rapper Riz Ahmed has today topped Twitter's trends with a powerful essay on racism and airport searches. The full essay was published in The Guardian as an extract from The Good Immigrant - a collection of essays from leading and emerging non-white British writers. Edited by Nikesh Shukla, The Good Immigrant features 21 writers of colour including Musa Okwonga, Nish Kumar and Complex UK's very own Senior Editor Coco Khan.
In Riz Ahmed's essay entitled Typecast as a Terrorist, the MC recalls his experience of racially-motivated attacks as a young British-Asian in the 1980's, and of his journey as an actor pushed into terrorist roles.
One particularly powerful moment recalls Ahmed being illegally detained at an airport, ironically on the way back from the Berlin Film Awards.
"My first film was...Michael Winterbottom’s The Road to Guantánamo. It told the story of a group of friends from Birmingham who were illegally imprisoned and tortured in the US detainment camp. When it won a prestigious award at the Berlin film festival, we were euphoric. For those who saw it, the inmates went from orange jumpsuits to human beings."
But airport security did not get the memo. Returning to the glamour of Luton Airport after our festival win, ironically named British intelligence officers frogmarched me to an unmarked room where they insulted, threatened, and then attacked me."
“What kinda film you making? Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?” an officer screamed, twisting my arm to the point of snapping."
You can read the full essay here, and order your copy of The Good Immigrant here.
