Racism as I explain it to my daughter

Author's name: Tahar Ben Jelloun

Children are curious. They ask a lot of questions, expecting precise and convincing answers. Their questions cannot be dealt with equivocally. This book was born when ten-year-old Miriam asked her father, Tahar Ben Jelloun, about racism the day she accompanied him to a demonstration against a draft immigration law. Ben Jelloun attempts to answer his daughter's questions, directing his book to children who have not yet formed prejudices and are seeking understanding. As for the adults who will read it, he hopes it will help them answer the questions their children ask them, which may be more embarrassing than we think. "More than ten years after my interview with Miriam, I wanted to share my conversations with children I still meet from all over the world. Together, we have come to the conclusion that racism has not declined, but has spread and, in some cases, worsened. We are trying to understand some of its new manifestations, such as the rise of anti-Semitism, fear of Islam, the types of discrimination faced by immigrants, and the emergence of the issue of national identity.