I wanted to have a body of work behind me before I wrote about racism.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of experience and knowledge before addressing complex topics like racism.
Malorie Blackman's quote reflects her belief that to write authentically and insightfully about racism, one must first accumulate a substantial body of work that provides the necessary context and understanding of the subject. This underscores the idea that genuine expertise is crucial when tackling sensitive social issues, ensuring that the discussion is nuanced and informed rather than superficial.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion panel on addressing social justice in literature.
What I wanted to do was use literature and different kinds of stories and poems as a springboard, tapping into the creativity of our teens - I wanted teenagers to come up with their own creative responses to literature - using books themselves as a starting point.
I remember going into a bookshop, and the only book I saw with a black child on the cover was 'A Thief in the Village' by James Berry, and I thought, 'Is this still the state of publishing?' Then I thought, 'Either I can whine about it or try to do something about it.'
I hope to instill, in every child I meet, my love and enthusiasm for reading and stories.
Children will go with any story as long as it's good, but white adults sometimes think that if a black child's on the cover, it is perhaps not for them.
History should belong to all of us, and it needs to include people from different cultural backgrounds. Otherwise, it risks becoming irrelevant to children, who could then become disenchanted with education.
I read a lot of highly unsuitable books for an 11-year-old. I was desperate to read as widely as possible. I thought, 'There are so many places I am never going to get the chance to visit, but I can if I read them.' And I did. I could go anywhere in the world - and off it - by reading.
Too many of the conflicts which are caused today are caused by the problems that emerge from people who are in poverty.
You meet folks who are funny and really smart and persistent and loving that are confronting this thing we call poverty, which is just a shorthand for this way of life that holds you underwater. And you just wonder what our country would be if we allowed these people to flourish and reach their full potential.
We have failed to fully appreciate how deeply housing is implicated in the creation of poverty.
I don't want to sound Pollyannish about this. I understand that poverty is never just poverty. It's often this collection of maladies, this compounded adversity. I'm not naive about the problem. But I think that stable, steady housing is one of the surest footholds we could have on the road to financial stability.
Today it is fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately, it is not fashionable to talk with them.
The news media's silence, particularly television news, is reprehensible. If we knew as much about Darfur as we do about Michael Jackson, we might be able to stop these things from continuing.
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