Cover image for Not quite not white :
Not quite not white :
Title :
Not quite not white : losing and finding race in America / Sharmila Sen.
Title:
Not quite not white :
Author:
Format:
Books
Physical Description:
xxvii, 191 pages ; 20 cm
ISBN:
9780143131380
Production / Publication Information:
New York, New York : Penguin Books, [2018]
Contents:
The mask that grins -- Enter the dragon -- The first remove -- The autobiography of an ex-Indian woman -- Heart of not whiteness.
Summary:
At the age of 12, Sharmila Sen emigrated from India to the U.S. The year was 1982, and everywhere she turned, she was asked to self-report her race: on INS forms, at the doctor's office, in middle school. Never identifying with a race in the India of her childhood, she rejects her new "not quite" designation: not quite white, not quite black, not quite Asian, and spends much of her life attempting to blend into American whiteness. But after her teen years trying to assimilate, watching shows like General Hospital and The Jeffersons, dancing to Duran Duran and Prince, and perfecting the art of Jell-O no-bake desserts, she is forced to reckon with the hard questions: What does it mean to be white, why does whiteness retain the magic cloak of invisibility while other colors are made hypervisible, and how much does whiteness figure into Americanness?
Language:
English
Personal Subject:
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