True north - book review
True North is a moving and emotional account of Sal Naseem navigating the eye of the storm. He uses the powers he acquired from the numerous racist encounters on his journey; from a little boy growing up in Kilmarnock, Scotland, to overcoming jeopardy in pursuit of his quest. One might draw parallels with a Marvel superhero good versus evil storyline, and in many ways, you would be right.
The storm Sal navigated was in the belly of the beast, otherwise known as the Metropolitan Police Force (Met), during his time as the Regional Director for London at the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) between 2019-2023. This period being the most turbulent four years for the Met overall, with the mounting mistrust of the institution by Black communities.
As the key decision-maker, his team of investigators’ caseload included the racist murder of Chris Kaba; Child Q; the misogynistic murder of Sarah Everard; the racist and disgraceful photos taken by officers and shared of murdered sisters, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman; the racist stop and search of athletes Bianca Williams and Ricardo Dos Santos; and finally, Operation Hotton, investigating the sexist and homophobic WhatsApp culture of Charing Cross Police Station, which finally saw off the Met Commissioner, Cressida Dick.
The evil is the continued denial of the deeply rooted institutional racist and sexist culture within the Met. As with many other institutions, Sal illustrates how the Met’s denial is perpetuated by its “whiteness” and failing to recognise or be willing to understand the harm caused to Black communities by their racist policies and practices.
Sal’s story takes us on a rollercoaster ride, going back and forth, weaving in his highs and lows. These changes in pace allow us to absorb, reflect, and learn from the unfolding testimony that shaped his journey. It chronicles how a little boy of six dealt with the hurt of being called a ‘paki’, defending his dad’s shop from continuous racist attacks and enduring the vile racism visited upon an Asian shop in the roughest part of town. Once in the world of work, Sal soon realised the very same in-your-face street racism was very much in play, but subtle, nuanced, undercover, and supposedly invisible, which needed navigating and responding to on his own terms.
This is not just a tale of overcoming continuous racial trauma, but much more in harnessing one’s agency in confronting the manifestations, consequences, and impacts of a hostile racist institution, building resilience and survival tactics for self-preservation and growth.
There is a constant theme running throughout Sal’s book of doing the best you can, working hard to high standards, doing the right thing, and providing security for one’s family. Being able to do this successfully in racist institutions where you are charged with bringing about meaningful anti-racist change is indeed a hazardous undertaking. In most cases, and especially in the Met and the IOPC, this was clearly the case as success for them was Sal failing in his role. These are well-rehearsed routines, as many who have been in and are currently in similar roles will testify. This includes ignoring you, micromanaging you, questioning your capacity for the role, sidelining you, spying on you, creating distractions and roadblocks, encouraging mistrust, tarnishing your reputation, questioning your character, encouraging grievances against you, and getting both colleagues and superiors to undermine you- all designed to destroy you, put you under psychological stress, and threaten your very existence and livelihood.
During his time in the lion’s den, Sal encountered and navigated all the above and more. Despite the personal cost to him and his family, he maintained a resilient ability to get through it. His response was simply to do his job, initiate change whenever and however he could, without compromise, fear, or favour. The armour he deployed in battle was being guided by his value-led, inclusive leadership style. This provided a framework for staying true to himself by having the fixed point of ‘True North’ to stay on course. Sal’s guiding values are centred on family, faith, and the fight to achieve racial and social justice in all its forms, and as such, points to the balance of what’s important in keeping you grounded in your quest.
Sal’s legacy at the IOPC ultimately rests with how he conducted himself, the stances he had to make, and the embedding of policies and procedures, which will continue to have a cumulative impact by empowering those that remain and those that will follow. I recall my late dad, Avtar Singh Jouhl, sharing with me the importance of acting with the power you have, using the system’s own rulebook, and creating policies and rules where they don’t exist to effect change. Sal did exactly that.
Some might find it curious why Sal decided to write this autobiographical book at the midpoint of his career. To me, it is clear - given his championing of inclusive value-led leadership, he wants to encourage others on similar journeys to share their narratives to grow the learning and understanding, which is admirable.
At the beginning of the book, Sal asks the reader to share one takeaway from the book. Frankly, there are many things that resonated with me, including but not limited to:
There is no point in having power and doing nothing with it. Act when you can.
Map your spheres of influence and use them to the max.
Bringing about change doesn’t simply happen; you must change the systems that oppress us.
Overall, Sal’s story is hard-hitting, doesn’t pull any punches, and is written in an easily accessible style. It’s punctuated with contextual referencing to provide background and aid both learning and further self-exploration. The book can be best summed up by one word: Integrity - in the pursuit of racial and social justice. In addressing the existing inertia that plagues meaningful and impactful real change, the book rightly outlines how things can be different by building working and community environments that are uncompromisingly inclusive, kind, humane, and provide hope for racially equitable futures.
I highly recommend the book to all those seeking racial justice in society and institutional systems.