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MEMOIR Challenging racial truths experienced through deft storytelling Maxine Beneba Clarke. The Hate Race. Sydney: Hatchette Australia, 2016. 259 pp. $32.99. ISBN 978-0-7336-3228-0
In this superbly crafted memoir about growing up black in suburban Australia, Maxine Beneba Clarke portrays the sometimes overt, sometimes subtle ways racism permeated her childhood. Through vivid, poignant, and often funny scenes chronicling her schoolage years, Clarke opens a window into the seemingly inconsequential ways (to the perpetrators of each act) racism pummeled her as she aged.
The Hate Race begins with a short summation of Clarke's parents' meeting and arrival in Australia as a young, black British couple, then quickly settles into Maxine's own experience. Maxine grew up in a middle-class family full of Play-Doh and tadpoles and Cabbage Patch dolls. She lived in a suburban neighborhood where everyone knew everyone and her family was the black family. Clarke takes us through her first day of school and the first crushing realization that being black in Australia might be looked down on. We then follow Maxine through recognizably suburban moments: kindergarten sharing time, gymnastics class, and birthday parties; first kisses, note passing, and high school debates. However, at every turn, these moments are colored by the barrage of racism with which Maxine dealt.
Clarke tackles her young experiences with a clear-sighted reflective voice. When a fellow four-year-old classmate sneers, "You...