German / Germany
Weiße Tränen
(White tears)
Schrocke, Kathrin
(text)
München: mixtvision, [2023]. – 219 p.
ISBN 978-3-95854-205-1
Racism | White privilege | School
Reading age: 12+
White Ravens issue: 2024
When Benjamin joins Lenni and Serkan’s class, he causes quite a stir in the leisurely daily life at school. Benjamin is Black, and he is fed up with listening to (more or less) well-meaning comments. So he constantly holds up a mirror to his predominantly white environment, who consider themselves enlightened, empathetic, and free of prejudice. Slowly but surely, the others grow an awareness of the omnipresent (unconscious and structural) everyday racism and of those »white privileges« that Lenni enjoys as a White middle-class boy, while Serkan and Benjamin have completely different experiences. In her novel, Kathrin Schrocke uses her characters to discuss attitudes and thought patterns; however, the book is a far cry from a clumsy educational novel, because the author is a whizz at creating psychological credibility. The many positive reactions to the novel since its publication in summer 2023 show that she has hit a nerve with her book. [IG]