To Sir with Love

Throughout the novel, Braithwaite presents racism as endemic to colonialism. As a colonial power, England has created a system of governance which requires the subservience of conquered nations, most of which are definitely nonwhite and many of which are Black. As such, the social hierarchy of colonial England necessitates the equation of whiteness with power and non-whiteness with subservience, rendering a society that is unavoidably racist. This racism permeates the thoughts and actions of white English men, women, and children: “It was like a disease.… they were tainted with the hateful virus which attacked their vision, distorting everything that was not white or English” (170). The disease of racism leads to de facto segregation and negatively impacts interpersonal relationships, indicative in the latent hostility evident in the words and actions of white English society.

Braithwaite’s bitter realization of the racism inherent to colonial England represents a larger historical reality: the dissonance felt by many Black soldiers after returning from World War II:

"I had just been brought face to face with something I had either forgotten or completely ignored for more than six exciting years—my black skin. It had not mattered when I volunteered for air-crew service in 1940…. Now, as I walked sadly away, I consciously averted my eyes from the sight of my face(37–38).