A first-generation American’s searing appraisal of race and assimilation in the US
At the age of twelve, Sharmila Sen emigrated from India to the US. The year was 1982, and everywhere she turned, she was asked to self-report her race. Rejecting her new ‘not quite’ designation-not quite white, not quite black, not quite Asian-she spent much of her life attempting to blend into American whiteness. But after her teen years, watching shows like The Jeffersons, dancing to Duran Duran, and perfecting the art of Jell-O no-bake desserts, she was forced to reckon with the hard questions: Why does whiteness retain its cloak of invisibility while other colours are made hypervisible?
Part memoir, part manifesto, Not Quite Not White is a witty and poignant story of self-discovery.
Imprint: India Viking
Published: Aug/2018
ISBN: 9780670091331
Length : 224 Pages
MRP : ₹599.00
Sharmila Sen is the author of Not Quite, Not White, which is a first-generation American’s searing appraisal of race and assimilation in the US. In this special piece by her, she talks about what defines belongingness. One of my all-time favorite novels is The Long Winter, the sixth book in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s popular Little House […]