2023-06-23 06:04:20
Bernardine Evaristo, the daughter of a Nigerian and a white British woman, became the first black woman to be awarded the prestigious Booker Prize for her novel ‘Woman, Girl, Others’ and admits she relished every moment. She was 60 years old, an “incredible age to suddenly break into the front line”, because she believes that if these things happen to you when you are younger, it is sometimes very difficult to handle: “At my age I am very sure of who I am, of I know my relationships, I know my creativity, I know how I work. I can handle that abrupt change in my career from one day to the next.”
The British writer remembers the moment when a BBC journalist mentioned the award, but said it had been won by “Margaret Atwood and another writer.” “The internet caught fire. People were so angry about me, and rightfully so,” she says, wondering why she forgot her name: “It was again getting into a discussion about the struggles you face as a black woman in this society. Suddenly I had become invisible. I was just another person. I didn’t even have a name,” he comments, although he clarifies that both he and the chain apologized and “everything calmed down.”
Regarding equality, he highlights that “some men understand it as discrimination, so when women achieve goals they feel they are going to be marginalized.” Something that, according to her, is magnified if you are a person of color because “you also have to live in a racist society.” “If you are a woman and of color you have two systems to deal with, but despite all of this, you have to keep fighting, deal with the structures and succeed,” she says.
#systems #deal