kulthoom.reads

First steps are the most difficult, like pushing down a tall fence and scanning a landscape you were unaware of previously. In beginning to understand the various complexities of race, bias, prejudice, intersectionality and white supremacy I've realised that there is so much more to explore. So much learning and unlearning yet to do, and for various reasons I've sat on this for a while but never questioned the fact that it needs doing. Today I sent an email to my daughters' headteacher, in a 100% white staffed primary school. All previous interactions have always been positive, and I hope this doesn't skew this! Within the email was a list of suggested points of action in tackling racism and prejudice (see below). I'm going to schedule a follow up meeting with the head to discuss this and also plan to present this to the school governors. Coincidentally, OFSTED have issued a new framework for schools to be implemented in September. This means they will be pa...

Warning: this is not a light read. It would be much, much better, yes, if I did not have to consider racism, bigotry and Islamophobia. Yet it certainly exists and holds sway, and I would be a lesser mother if I didn't put in the work: to eradicate as well as build the defence system our family needs. This has taken longer for me to realise than I should have, and I am partly ashamed and yet also fuelled by the instinct to now do more. This is how it began: last year, my 6 year old was told by another child in her class that she wasn't from here (England) and didn't belong - implying skin colour and race in the context of majority white school. The school dealt with the matter and logged the incident, I ran into the mother later that day and she apologised, seemingly embarrassed and surprised with the words uttered by her son. My daughter wasn't too bothered, was quick to forgive and happily played with the child the following day. However, I think it was more a matt...

“All their doors remained simple doors, on/off switches in the flow between two adjacent places, binarily either open or closed, but each of their doors, regarded thus with a twinge of irrational possibility, became partially animate as well, an object with a subtle power to mock, to mock the desires of those who desired to go far away, whispering silently from its door frame that such dreams were the dreams of fools.” This has flummoxed me. I am trying to be positive, and not be such a harsh critic of writing (as someone beginning to write herself) but I had such high hopes, and they were completely crushed. Mohsin Hamid is not yet in the ranks of a prolific writer, he has four novels to his name (googling this led to the completely unrelated fact that he once took a class with Toni Morrison!). I've only read his debut, Moth Smoke, and watched a bit of The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Trying to pinpoint what didn't work is a little tricky, as I felt that personally there we...