Cherrypicker | Literature
So much everyday racism

In her evocative young adult novel, Kathrin Schrocke writes about pervasive racism, white privilege and the typical adolescent thought processes of a 16-year-old.

Writing about white privilege as a white author of books for young people is what Kathrin Schrocke had in mind when she set out to write her latest book. She began by thoroughly researching white fragility and her own deep-seated racism. The author is convinced that due to their social conditioning white people can’t help but be racist. Schrocke packages her findings in a book for young people that be used in the classroom or be read in a single rapt sitting. In Weiße Tränen (White Tears), the author simply yet poignantly tells a story of friendship, love, life, death and everyday racism.

Welcome to the “school without racism”

The protagonist of the book is Lenni, a white 16-year-old who meets a new classmate at his grammar school after the holidays: Benjamin, the “blackest boy” Lenni has ever seen. Benjamin is already fed up with the school after only a few days. After receiving an exuberant welcome from the headmaster (“We are very proud of the different nationalities of our pupils here”), being asked where he “really” comes from and whether he’s a good dancer, Benjamin loses interest in the so-called “school without racism” and openly denounces the discrimination. When Serkan, Lenni’s best friend and the only non-white in the drama club, is given the role of the ape in King Kong, Benjamin declares that the drama club and especially its director, Mr Prasch, are racist.

Lenni doesn’t know what to make of this at first. After all, racists are bad people and Mr Prasch is his favourite teacher; one of the greatest teachers of all. And yet his best friend Serkan seems to agree with Benjamin’s criticism. He suddenly describes Lenni’s life as an Ikea ball pit and accuses him of never having considered his privileges. Serkan’s sister Elif also tells Lenni how openly racist the reception of her headscarf is at school.

“It was just about King Kong...”

Written in the first person, the reader follows Lenni’s thoughts, which is probably what makes the story as good as it is. Although Lenni is only 16, as a white person you feel caught out by many of his thoughts: the explanatory “she meant well” with which Lenni suddenly tries to defend white strangers. His feeling of wanting to tick the subject off and annoyance at how it suddenly seems to be cropping up everywhere. Not wanting to realise his own privileges and not being able to reflect on the fact that the incidents that BIPOC talk about are perhaps not a coincidence after all, but structural racism.

As Lenni slowly learns more and more about racism and becomes increasingly aware of microaggressions towards BIPOC, the reader is also immersed in the world of a typical teenager: Lenni constantly thinks about women (especially Elif), spends boring Sundays and argues with his embarrassing parents, who run a funeral parlour.

It’s striking that the whole book is centred around Lenni. But that was precisely Schrocke’s intention. Because racism, as she writes in the epilogue of her book, is a white problem. Schrocke didn’t want to place Benjamin at the centre of the story, but Lenni, a white person. Because, according to Schrocke, racism starts with white people and affects the lives of non-whites. The author writes aptly, “While Benjamin sits at home, the machinery continues to run without him.”

Who’s learning from who?

Just as Lenni learns about racism in the story mainly from Serkan, Elif and Benjamin, Schrocke owes her knowledge mainly to Black researchers. Her epilogue therefore concludes with recommended readings and podcasts that are intended to educate people about racism. In doing so, Schrocke seems to be trying not to take space away from BIPOC and to point out her own privileges.

Thanks to the easily accessible language and the comprehensible narrative threads, Schrocke has succeeded in writing a novel for young people that can definitely be recommended to adults as well.