| Description |
xxvii, 191 pages ; 20 cm |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
| 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? |
| Subject |
Sen, Sharmila.
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South Asian Americans -- Biography.
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South Asian Americans -- Social conditions.
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South Asian Americans -- Ethnic identity.
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South Asian Americans -- History.
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Racism -- United States.
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Group identity -- United States.
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United States -- Race relations.
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| ISBN |
9780143131380 (paperback) $16.00 |
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0143131389 (paperback) $16.00 |
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1524705128 |
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9781524705121 |
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