The Buddha of Suburbia

Racial tension and acts of racial violence permeate Kureishi’s depiction of 1970s London. Jamila and her family live in a neighborhood where the National Front regularly terrorizes individuals and firebombs or throws pigs’ heads through the windows of businesses. Karim lives with the daily threat of physical abuse for his appearance, and he reports daily acts of verbal hatred and physical contempt, such as spitting or peeing on him when at school.

English culture as a whole, not just right-wing neo-fascist groups or school children, demonstrates racism and hostility toward people of color through examples such as Haroon’s inability to receive promotion at work and the stereotypes Karim confronts in the theater. Kureishi depicts the pervasive nature of racial oppression, coming from many different groups in English society.

Further, Kureishi speaks to the complex relationship between race and culture. Karim is culturally an Englishman but racially, appears to be Indian. The inability to resolve the tensions between Karim’s two identities drives him into a deep depression. He can only heal when he decides to stop trying and lets his identities coexist, without forcing them into a false, inauthentic reconciliation.