Thoughts on the Peterhouse School extreme reading image

Peterhouse Group of Schools posted the picture below as part of what they called extreme reading.

PIC: Peterhouse Group of Schools Twitter

In it they said:

Peterhouse Boys – Extreme Reading 2019 Peterhouse Book Day 2019 was held on the 23rd of March.
We decided to change it up this year by introducing an Extreme Reading Challenge, where members of staff would encourage their students to read in unorthodox places.

https://twitter.com/PeterhouseGroup/status/1112981647979360257

There has been a reaction. A few to be honest. Some have defaulted to the racist accusation. Others have said they can’t identify what it is, but the whole thing simply does not sit well with them. Still more on the other hand say because overt racism is something far seemingly removed from their generation it is hard for them to see it.

The reality is that it could really be a mix of all of those. The image itself will upset those who say it depicts the blacks as savages while the white reader is portrayed as calm, getting on with life and the works. Arguments around why some white people were not attempting a distraction will be asked.

Ah but then if we had some kids dressed in the traditional wear of their ancestory (so white boy with a gun and khakhis) all trying to cause a distraction would it work? How they would as a united force attack this reader would have still been problematic because it is seen as revisionism. Donning the whites with spears would have also been seen as cultural expropriation.

The feeling that there are racial undertones that some will feel cannot be ignored and is what it is to them. What it may suggest is perhaps the person posting the image is not clued up on the wider implication of the post and where race conversations sit in Zimbabwe.

Just to be clear though, even if you feel that here are racial undertones, it must not mean that Peterhouse Group of Schools is racist (unless there is evidence of that). Often, people will conflate their feelings about an issue into a character description.

That said, a good idea, an awesome one about extreme reading has this image as a distraction. Even those who did not see anything wrong with it will begin to ask questions around it.

The conversation changes.

And by the way, seeing nothing wrong with it should be perfectly fine as well.

What do you feel about the image? Share your thoughts below or on our social media Twitter: @ThreeMenOnaBoat and Facebook.com/ThreeMenOnaBoat