Small Acts charts the emergence of a distinctive cultural sensibility that accomplishes the difficult task of being simultaneously both black and English. Ranging across the field of popular cultural forms, Paul Gilroy shows how the African diaspora that was born from slavery has given rise to a web of intimate social relationships in which African-American, Caribbean and now black English elements combine, conflict and intermingle with each other in ways that defy the idea of purity and the concept of fixed, immobile roots. Discussions of Spike Lee and Frank Bruno, record sleeves, photographs, film and literature from Beloved toYardie are used to show how new and exciting possibilities have arisen from the transnational flows that create cultural links between diaspora locations. Small Acts changes the terms on which black culture will be understood and debated.