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A review by ralovesbooks
Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America by Sharmila Sen
5.0
HIGHLY recommended
This memoir/manifesto about race identity and immigration is so good, and I'm so glad I read it. The author's story is incredibly interesting because when she immigrated at the age of 12, she went from being part of the dominant culture in India to being a minority in the United States, and she had to learn about race as part of her assimilation process. There is a lot in this slim volume about the author's growing up in India, and it's really helpful context for how she then took in the complicated dynamics of suddenly being Asian in America. She talks about the model minority fallacy and what wearing whiteface meant to her on a daily basis. I put it up there with [b:So You Want to Talk About Race|35099718|So You Want to Talk About Race|Ijeoma Oluo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1499224833l/35099718._SX50_.jpg|56405219], [b:I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness|35883430|I'm Still Here Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness|Austin Channing Brown|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1510037868l/35883430._SY75_.jpg|57400480], and [b:White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism|43708708|White Fragility Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism|Robin DiAngelo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548478235l/43708708._SY75_.jpg|58159636] as a recommended book in this topic. You should definitely read this book.
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Why do blackface and brownface bother me? Because I have been wearing whiteface for so long. (xii)
... I have spent many decades carefully arranging my words, my gestures, my clothes, and my surroundings so that I do not appear threatening, unnatural, or ungrateful. (xv-xvi)
I did not want to be perceived as the ungrateful immigrant who does not pass her naturalization examination, the unnatural woman who is never promoted at work or paid a salary equal to that of her white mail counterparts. (xvi)
I got race the way people get chicken pox. I also got race as one gets a pair of shoes or a cell phone. It was something new, something to be tried on for size, something to be used to communicate with others. In another register, I finally got race, in the idiomatic American sense of fully comprehending something. (xxvi)
A truly dominant group is unthreatened by minority cultures as long as they can be domesticated, consumed, transformed into an accessory, a condiment, a bit of swag. (24)
Privilege is a peculiar possession. To those who possess it, privilege is weightless, tasteless, odorless, soundless, and colorless. Those who have the least access to it are painfully aware of its mass, density, taste, odor, texture, sound, and color. When I first came to the United States and suddenly became a minority, I felt the weight of a peculiar kind of visibility. Now I could not shake my awareness of the constant expenditure of energy required in everyday life when social privilege is taken away. (145-146)
I avoided watching movies about India ... with white Americans. The sincere conversations ... were dreadful for me. I was expected to discuss human rights, the poverty of slums, the plight of untouchables, child marriage, and widow burning. I had to play the native informant, as well as the assimilated immigrant. ... my cheeks hurt from smiling through it all. (159)
Having been a young immigrant, I already knew that real power lies in being so dominant that you need not be named. The normal needs no name, no special qualifier. (173)
Asian was a geographic term when I lived in Asia. In the United States, I learned that Asian is a racial category. No one can call themselves a person of color without implicitly seeing their color against a backdrop of whiteness. (177)
This memoir/manifesto about race identity and immigration is so good, and I'm so glad I read it. The author's story is incredibly interesting because when she immigrated at the age of 12, she went from being part of the dominant culture in India to being a minority in the United States, and she had to learn about race as part of her assimilation process. There is a lot in this slim volume about the author's growing up in India, and it's really helpful context for how she then took in the complicated dynamics of suddenly being Asian in America. She talks about the model minority fallacy and what wearing whiteface meant to her on a daily basis. I put it up there with [b:So You Want to Talk About Race|35099718|So You Want to Talk About Race|Ijeoma Oluo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1499224833l/35099718._SX50_.jpg|56405219], [b:I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness|35883430|I'm Still Here Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness|Austin Channing Brown|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1510037868l/35883430._SY75_.jpg|57400480], and [b:White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism|43708708|White Fragility Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism|Robin DiAngelo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548478235l/43708708._SY75_.jpg|58159636] as a recommended book in this topic. You should definitely read this book.
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Why do blackface and brownface bother me? Because I have been wearing whiteface for so long. (xii)
... I have spent many decades carefully arranging my words, my gestures, my clothes, and my surroundings so that I do not appear threatening, unnatural, or ungrateful. (xv-xvi)
I did not want to be perceived as the ungrateful immigrant who does not pass her naturalization examination, the unnatural woman who is never promoted at work or paid a salary equal to that of her white mail counterparts. (xvi)
I got race the way people get chicken pox. I also got race as one gets a pair of shoes or a cell phone. It was something new, something to be tried on for size, something to be used to communicate with others. In another register, I finally got race, in the idiomatic American sense of fully comprehending something. (xxvi)
A truly dominant group is unthreatened by minority cultures as long as they can be domesticated, consumed, transformed into an accessory, a condiment, a bit of swag. (24)
Privilege is a peculiar possession. To those who possess it, privilege is weightless, tasteless, odorless, soundless, and colorless. Those who have the least access to it are painfully aware of its mass, density, taste, odor, texture, sound, and color. When I first came to the United States and suddenly became a minority, I felt the weight of a peculiar kind of visibility. Now I could not shake my awareness of the constant expenditure of energy required in everyday life when social privilege is taken away. (145-146)
I avoided watching movies about India ... with white Americans. The sincere conversations ... were dreadful for me. I was expected to discuss human rights, the poverty of slums, the plight of untouchables, child marriage, and widow burning. I had to play the native informant, as well as the assimilated immigrant. ... my cheeks hurt from smiling through it all. (159)
Having been a young immigrant, I already knew that real power lies in being so dominant that you need not be named. The normal needs no name, no special qualifier. (173)
Asian was a geographic term when I lived in Asia. In the United States, I learned that Asian is a racial category. No one can call themselves a person of color without implicitly seeing their color against a backdrop of whiteness. (177)