White Teeth by Zadie Smith is now being added to my private list of "Books all of humanity should read". To the students of TCU, this required reading should be done on Dr. Allison Layne Craig's watch, in her classroom, under her Major British Writer's course direction...but to the rest of the world, it just needs to be read carefully and thoroughly. Complicated, difficult, a little all-over-the-place are just a few descriptions for this book, but a more precise understanding would be "a real life account of the complexity of our world, our relationships, and the swift, but inevitably everlasting effect of those dynamics." (Why yes, I did just quote myself. Sue me.) So what does a book about two unimpressive men and their entangled worlds have to do with RGMM? Simply everything.
"Gay-friendly mosque to open in Paris" was a small ticking headline running near the bottom of MSN's homepage. HOLY ALLAH. I literally did a double-take to make sure I hadn't officially lost my mind. Europe--specifically Paris, my most favorite city in the world, nonetheless-- is now home to a gay and lesbian friendly mosque where transsexual and even transgender Muslims can sit SIDE BY SIDE in prayer. HOLY ALLAH, once again. I am stunned at the amount and degree of taboos that this one mosque is finally putting its' foot down against. This is monumental. This is a political, religious, worldly feat and my heart swells with hope at our future. But despite, my general understanding and slight education of the ways of the Muslim world, this headline would have not struck my fancy quite as intensely had I not currently been in the midst of studying Smith's White Teeth. The domination of Samad, the submission of his wife, Alsana, the achingly painful clutching to roots, to tradition, to cultural stability and routine that is all found in the novel actually make this article so much more relevant.
Moments like this are when I sadly, desperately pray that I am to be blessed with the opportunities to be well-traveled throughout my life. Had I not taken Craig's class on a whim, hoping it would satisfy my literature sweet-tooth, had I not fallen in love with Smith's adventurous novel, this article on MSN would not have really stuck as crucially important to the media world. Being well-versed, well-travelled, educated, and worldly are the attributes that set apart good journalists from ground-breaking journalists. Anderson Cooper is one of the best and it is because of his knowledge, understanding, and appreciation for the rest of the world. He is incredibly intelligent, well-read, and respectfully conscious of the ENTIRE world.
*Herein lies my point in all of this: Maybe the problem isn't that the media doesn't like minorities enough or isn't paid enough to give equal media space to each and every element of our world population... but maybe, in fact, the reality is, especially in America, we don't know enough about the rest of the world to actually care. Maybe we don't know enough about women and blacks and cultures and people that are (plain and simple) just really different. We don't know enough to care, to report and not piss someone off, so we just don't. We do our jobs and hope that whoever feels underappreciated will pick up the slack...and they do. And while that Band-Aid feels so good, so reassuring, so secure, it is only a crutch. It is the media's responsibility to employ people that know enough to care...until that happens, we are at a stand-still of segregated media. Lord have mercy though, when the day arrives that there are more people that know and care than those who don't and can't; that will be the day that we change the world, for better, for once, and for all.
" To Samad, as to the people of Thailand, tradition was culture, and culture led to roots, and these were good, these were untainted principles. You would get nowhere telling him that weeds too have tubers, or that the first sign of loose teeth is something rotten, something degenerate, deep within the gums. Roots were what saved, the ropes one throws out to rescue drowning men, to Save Their Souls."- pg.163, White Teeth; Smith, Zadie.
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