Robin Young, at wbur, interviews the ever thoughtful and thought-provoking author, Zadie Smith. Smith, London-born, now lives in New York. Remembering her brother’s birthday garden party in England, and the mix of people socialising with ease, she writes:
…that garden represented structures that have been put in place that allow people to live near each other, to go to school together, to expect the same health care at the same point for free, that allowed full relations of equity. Not perfect. There is no such thing as perfect equity in England, in Europe or in America. But that was a deep foundation of that barbecue. No one in the barbecue would have thought that way, but that’s the truth. That’s why they’re all the same. It’s not an accident. Structures allow them to live in such a way that a party like that was far more likely than I’d ever experienced in New York, for example.
Photo credit: Shane Rounce, Unsplash