free alphabet book teaches children about europe’s violent colonial past and present

Spain-based Peruvian writer Daniela Ortiz’s new book is the history lesson I never got as a child but always needed. The ABC of Racist Europe seeks to expose how Europe’s racist, colonial laws came to be and can still be felt today in xenophobic migrant and refugee policies. According to Telesur, the book began as part of an exhibit showcased earlier this month at The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art in Middlesbrough, England. “Each letter has an imperialist message, for example, the letter K was for King … where the image shows a king imprisoning Africans, an image that today would be unacceptable,” Museum Curator Miguel Amado told Telesur. Ortiz’s book not only exposes the beginning of Europe’s brutal colonization of Africa, Asia and Latin America, it also discusses Indigenous resistance against colonization. It closes with: “How can we forgive the humiliation and violence that Europe inflicted on us? The ZOMBIES of the colonial system, who have created comfort for themselves and suffering for others, deserve to be locked up in a human ZOO.” Incredible!

The ABC of Racist Europe is available online for free.