Racism Explained To My Daughter

Description

When Tahar Ben Jelloun took his ten-year-old daughter to a street protest against anti-immigration laws in Paris, she asked question after question: "What is racism? What is an immigrant? What is discrimination?" Out of their frank discussion comes this book, an international bestseller translated into twenty languages. Ben Jelloun has created a unique and compelling dialogue in which he explains difficult concepts from ghettos and genocide to slavery and anti-Semitism in language we can all understand, and adds an all-new chapter for this edition. Also included are personal essays from four prize-winning writers and educators who are all parents: Patricia Williams, David Mura, William Ayers, and Lisa D. Delpit. Elegant and sensitive, and available now for the first time in paperback, Racism Explained to My Daughter is for all parents and educators who have struggled to engage their children in discussions of this complex issue.

Winner of the 2004 International Dublin/IMPAC Prize, and 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, La Repubblica, El Pais, and Panorama. His novels include The Sacred Night, which received the Prix Goncourt in 1987, and Corruption (The New Press).

"Helps young people appreciate the complexity of racism." - Booklist; "Ben Jelloun's lessons and tools for discussion are invaluable." - Daily News; "Comprehensive and easy to read." - Quarterly Black Review; "Easy to read and provocative. Rare should be the library that does not have it." - Library Journal; "A must-read... Clear, powerful, and right on target." - Elle; "An excellent tool to fight racism. Everybody should read it." - Le Monde des Livres"