Racism Explained to My Daughter [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The topic is, of course, timely, and as acclaimed a writer as Ben Jelloun is perhaps more prepared than most to take on the task. He proceeds step by step with his clarifications, defining difficult terms in often sensible ways, all the while using a form of prose that has very long roots as an expository genre: the dialogue. This format allows the daughter's voice to anticipate the very questions and demands for greater clarity that are simultaneously arising in the reader's mind. And her father is happy to simplify.

And that's just the problem. Racism is not a simple thing. Ben Jelloun is to be commended for his attempt, but there is strength in not knowing, and greater strength in admitting that one doesn't know-just ask Socrates, the ancient master of the dialogue. Socrates would have paled trying to explain racism. To his credit, Ben Jelloun includes numerous critiques (letters sent to him from readers, things said by students during his tour of schools in France and Italy) of the earlier edition of "Racism Explained" and, while these afford an opportunity for showing the real complexity of racism, they also reinforce the poverty of his own argument.

And what's wrong with his argument? Ben Jelloun wants to break things down very carefully and be fair, and he gives every appearance of doing so, but it is only an appearance. The problem with this project ultimately revolves around the fact that, in order to discredit racism, Ben Jelloun relies on the same reductive worldview that causes racism in the first place, the same lack of vision that only sees things in opposed pairs: black/white, good/bad, us/them. Thus can his daughter, at the book's end, declare that "racists are b**tards [salauds]." She has learned well how to ignore multifarious causes and use instead blanket judgments. Substitute any sub-group for "racists" in her equation, and you've got the beginnings of hate: for Hitler, it was "Jews," for Falwell it's "homosexuals," etc. Racists are many things, but not all racists are one thing.

Ben Jelloun once said of James Joyce that Joyce's work is so revolutionary because it "works on language," and Ben Jelloun's own novels have performed this revolution often over the last decade. Sadly, when a fine author decides to take on social issues at a more explicit and obvious level, the humanity and nuance fade, and all we're left with is a choice between two worldviews: that of the reductionist explainers, and that of the racist b**tards.

Precisely because of its pretensions to fairness, sober-mindedness and tolerance, this could very well be one of the most dangerous books I've read. It gets three stars for the discussion that forms around the critiques included at the end (the only sustained dose of reality in the book) and for the discussion I hope it will provoke here in the USA.