Author and journalist Alice Hasters visited us in the Klax School gym to read from her bestseller Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen, aber wissen sollten (What white people don't want to hear about racism but should know). The many questions from the school community of the Upper Secondary School showed how much this reading stirred up.
Alice Hasters was born and raised in Cologne to a white German father and a black American mother. “Where are you from”, ”Can I touch your hair?” The author is often asked questions like these. They are usually not meant in a malicious way, but they are still racist. Racism is so deeply rooted in our system that it often happens unnoticed, says Alice Hasters. It is not enough “to be surprised by racism, but it is important to understand what racism is.”
In her Spiegel bestseller Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen, aber wissen sollten (What white people don't want to hear about racism but should know), published in 2019, Alice Hasters gives a powerful and emotional account of her very personal experiences with everyday racism, traces historical lines of development and points out the deep roots of racism in society. On December 19, 2020, she read from this book in front of around 60 guests - many of whom were pupils from our Upper Secondary School, who had already addressed the important topic of racism in class in the last week before the vacations.
Hanna and Elias from Year 12 moderated the event with great aplomb and their classmates in the audience were also very moved by Alice Hasters' insights. This was demonstrated by the numerous questions following the reading. An impressive discussion developed with many touching contributions from our school community. One pupil wanted to know how to protect oneself from systemic racism. “The problem is that you can't protect yourself,” said Alice Hasters. However, it helps to “build resilience against microaggressions and look for allies.” The growing shift to the right in the center of society was part of the lively debate with the students. The author answered the question about the motivation for writing the book with the rise of the AfD in the 2017 federal elections.
Alice Hasters appealed to the young people at our Klax School to fight back and show solidarity. “You can get further if you don't stay out of it, but stand up for yourself,” she appealed. Solidarity, resistance and education are the key building blocks for improvement.
Our Klax Managing Director and founder Antje Bostelmann was also enthusiastic about the event and especially about the discussion that followed: “It was very important to me because, as an international school, we have to discuss this topic. And with Ms. Hasters, we have someone who discusses it in a way that suits the children. I was really touched by the children's questions.”
What a great and inspiring end-of-year event at our school!
