Racism Explained to My Daughter - Hardcover

Ben Jelloun, Tahar

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 156584534X ISBN 13: 9781565845343

Publisher: New Press, The, 1999

Synopsis

Writing to respond to his ten-year-old daughter's questions about racism, the author skillfully distills this complicated issue for a child, offering parents advice on how to explain bigotry to their own children.

About this title

About the Author:

Winner of the 1994 Prix Maghreb, Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in 1944 in Fez, Morocco, and emigrated to France in 1961. A novelist, essayist, critic, and poet, he is a regular contributor to Le Monde. His novels include The Sacred Night, which received the Prix Goncourt in 1987, and Corruption (The New Press). David Mura is a poet, critic, playwright and performance artist in Minneapolis. He is the author of several books, including Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei. Williams Ayers is Professor and Senior University Scolar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His recent books include Teaching for Social Justice, City Kids, City Teachers, A Kind and Just Parent, and To Teach. MacArthur Fellow Lisa D. Delpit is the author of Other People's Children. She holds the Benjamin E. Mays Chair of Urban Educational Leadership at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. Patricia Williams is a professor of law at Columbia and a columnist for The Nation. Carol Volk's most recent translation for the New Press is Tahar Ben Jelloun's Corruption. She lives in New York City and Washington, D.C.

From Booklist:

Jelloun, a French writer of Moroccan descent, wrote this book in response to his 10-year-old daughter's queries about racism. The queries came at a time when France and other European nations were exploring how to absorb--or not--people from their former colonies. Jelloun discusses cultural differences, genetics, and religion, all the things that make us different. He examines the social, political, economic, and psychological aspects of racism. Although the topic is fairly weighty, Jelloun articulates the issues without being pedantic. He tells his daughter, and the reader, that racists are deeply troubled people. Jelloun's essay is aimed at guiding children from 8 to 14 and could help young people appreciate the complexity of racism. Other writers offer their own responses regarding how to explain racism: a black female professor, an Asian poet, a white male professor, and a white female children's author who has adopted a black child. The introduction to this interesting book is written by Bill Cosby Vanessa Bush

About this edition

• Publisher: New Press, The
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 156584534X
• ISBN 13: 9781565845343
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 207