Friday, April 8, 2016

White Racism Is Apparently Universal

A devastating op-ed in the Sunday New York Times. Bangladeshi-British writer Zia Haider Rahman laments his inability to integrate fully into British society. Even though he holds two British passports (he goes into why he holds two of them), doesn't speak Bengali, and has been honored in European writers' societies, he is still considered a foreigner.

When Mr. Rahman was invited to be on a panel for the Man Booker Prize, the other two judges were noted for their credentials as artists. Mr. Rahman was listed as "a Bangladeshi banker turned novelist," despite the fact that he is of British citizenry. The nationalities of the other judges were not listed.

He meets a sommelier in Amsterdam of Egyptian nationality. The sommelier confides to him that though he was born in the Netherlands and speaks Dutch fluently, he has never been accepted as Dutch by the white people.

Mr. Rahman ends with a plea, "After all, how much more can I integrate? What more is it you want from us? To be white? To be you?" The feeling of alienation and rejection by people of color is apparently equally strong on both sides of the Atlantic.

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