Maybe her punishment was disproportionate to the crime but I found this bit particularly revealing:
>The book that prompted this is Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, her memoir of a 30-year teaching career. Rave reviews and an Orwell prize gave way to mixed reactions from readers: some adored it, others thought she used racial and ableist stereotypes to describe her diverse students. Among the readers of colour I know, reactions were just as mixed: some found her descriptors offensive, others thought they were OK, especially in the context of her honesty about her own naivety and prejudices.
Can she really be seen as *honest* about her own prejudices considering it’s *obvious* she made zero effort to check herself?
>Working class Red Wall voter uses a slur: omg he is such a racist scumbag 🤮
vs
>Middle class author uses multiple slurs: omg she is SO honest about her prejudices, yass queen! 😍
The literary circle is populated so heavily by the white middle class it’s no wonder those “rave” reviews and the Orwell prize judges failed to see the obvious issues in her writing.
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Maybe her punishment was disproportionate to the crime but I found this bit particularly revealing:
>The book that prompted this is Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, her memoir of a 30-year teaching career. Rave reviews and an Orwell prize gave way to mixed reactions from readers: some adored it, others thought she used racial and ableist stereotypes to describe her diverse students. Among the readers of colour I know, reactions were just as mixed: some found her descriptors offensive, others thought they were OK, especially in the context of her honesty about her own naivety and prejudices.
Can she really be seen as *honest* about her own prejudices considering it’s *obvious* she made zero effort to check herself?
>Working class Red Wall voter uses a slur: omg he is such a racist scumbag 🤮
vs
>Middle class author uses multiple slurs: omg she is SO honest about her prejudices, yass queen! 😍
The literary circle is populated so heavily by the white middle class it’s no wonder those “rave” reviews and the Orwell prize judges failed to see the obvious issues in her writing.