This is a story of white privilege, racisim and death treats to a women who is an immigrant, and coloured. It was interesting when the issue of shop lifted was reported all news reports, mentioned refugee & immigrant. No one mentioned top UN human rights laywer!
Golriz is a refugee arriving in NZ at the age of 9 from Iran. She talks of how her family planned to seek asylum in NZ, walking out of the lounge and down the escalator in Akland airport. It wouldn't be done today.
Golriz & family started life at Chaucer School in West Auckland in a multicultural community where everyone was poor, and you had second hand everything.
Her parents of course aspired for their daughter and she goes to a private intermediate school where white privilege is every much to the forefront. Being poor, an immigrant and coloured, life is tough. You are not wanted. For secondary school her family wanted her to go to a top school, however zoned out Golriz when to Auckland Grammer School for Girls. A very public school in a multicultural zone and to get to school Golriz walks up and down K Road, observing, seeing, and talking to the inhabitants.
What strikes me in this book is the white privilege, still very evident, the keyboard racists and activists who hide behind a computer, and what it really is like for a woman and a woman of colour in NZ and the abuse they suffer. Jacinda is another example of abuse. We have a long way to go despite all the they are us, we are them rhetoric after the Christchurch mosque attack. As a woman, well worth the read. As a white NZ person, an eye opening read. ( )

This took me a week to get through. I spent so much time scrolling Reddit instead of reading, which normally indicates a book is boring. But I think this book just took a lot of emotional effort to be involved in. Golriz is so inspiring and so genuinely good. Her account really hammers home how much hate and racism there is in New Zealand, and also how important it is to speak against casual day to day microaggressions that lead to murders. I know the Christchurch attack last year was a wake up call to me that New Zealand isn't a perfect safe haven. Being better than the US isn't enough. We are lucky to have leaders like Golriz putting herself out there on a regular basis. ( )