Karimas story is indeed one of the most striking ones in the book. I am sure she is not the only one that had such an experience with the broader spectrum of the undoubtedly sincerely solidaric radical left in the first world. The way the story is told explores the underlying dynamic in a unique fashion. While you seem to have a judgement ready ('what they did with her was wrong'), none of the like can be found in text.
Conversely, it shows the insurmountable incompatibilities of expectations of all actors involved without shunning away from breaking the many taboos (on either side for that matter) that cover up the often fraught and awkward relation that radical left communities have with people from very different cultures.
I asked a greek comrade who is involved in an radical LGTB social center in athens where they run a refugee solidarity project, how they deal with homophobic sentiments in the group they are working with. The answer illustrates quite well how things are usually handled in practice: 'Of course it exists, but we do not talk about it at all. Our solution was to raise the price of coffee from free to 50 cts to keep away non politicized types'.
Just judging such an attitude as 'wrong' and doing similar stuff at the first possible occasion does not make things better. Addressing what really causes the awkwardness _without_ judging might.
Karimas story is indeed one
Karimas story is indeed one of the most striking ones in the book. I am sure she is not the only one that had such an experience with the broader spectrum of the undoubtedly sincerely solidaric radical left in the first world. The way the story is told explores the underlying dynamic in a unique fashion. While you seem to have a judgement ready ('what they did with her was wrong'), none of the like can be found in text.
Conversely, it shows the insurmountable incompatibilities of expectations of all actors involved without shunning away from breaking the many taboos (on either side for that matter) that cover up the often fraught and awkward relation that radical left communities have with people from very different cultures.
I asked a greek comrade who is involved in an radical LGTB social center in athens where they run a refugee solidarity project, how they deal with homophobic sentiments in the group they are working with. The answer illustrates quite well how things are usually handled in practice: 'Of course it exists, but we do not talk about it at all. Our solution was to raise the price of coffee from free to 50 cts to keep away non politicized types'.
Just judging such an attitude as 'wrong' and doing similar stuff at the first possible occasion does not make things better. Addressing what really causes the awkwardness _without_ judging might.