Dear reader, I come to you today as a white, Irish, heterosexual, middle-aged woman with protruding teeth, greying hair, a minus 7 prescription for myopia, astigmatism and a theology degree. I am informed not only by my sexuality, dental problems, short-sightedness, ethical and philosophical beliefs, but also by the traditions of whiteness, Irishness and growing up with eccentric parents who never let me watch ITV.
I speak to you out of my whole self, including the raised freckle on my left forearm, for moral and ethical integrity will not allow me to bracket my white self in order to be heterosexual, nor my myopia in order to be Irish, nor my theological knowledge in order to be able to finish the outer edge of a piece of toast first. You can’t just take what makes you feel comfortable, you have to take all of me, or none of me (and you can’t say none of me because that’s not Christian and I will cry – hard -and it will be all your fault!)
