[sad cat power song]

I haven't lived. I've died a few times.

So, there are 3 major white characters this season. Billy, Clarice and Laura.

It's easy to guess why Billy has to be white. No questions here.

In terms of Clarice, she isn't an actively malicious character. But lots of her opinions come from the place of white privilege and bias towards Muslims and women of colour. She isn't a foe, but she isn't an ally, either. I can understand why she has to be white.

Then, there is Laura, Ayesha's girlfriend. I don't see any reasons why she has to be white. Their storyline is about Laura and her family being non-Muslim. It would also work perfectly if she was, say, a black Christian.

It's because season 2 is all about the larger world, and whiteness. Season 1 there were zero white people because it was all about the diversity within the British Muslim experience. Season 2 is all about that community in relation to British whiteness.

And Laura is representative of the temptation that whiteness presents, in its best form. She offers a refuge, both physically in her parent's vacation house, and thematically, in terms of a queer accepting family.

What does it mean to be attracted to whiteness, and to embrace the comfort it offers, and how much of your own identity might get shaken if you do? What do we do with the good white people?

There are no clear answers, but the questions being asked are very deliberate, very relevent to the PoC in whitelandia experience, and that's why Laura had to be white.