Sharmila Sen

A valuable and rare statement from a Bengali-American woman who came to the US in 1982, her family retreating from a deteriorating economic situation in Kolkata. As Sen looks back on her immigration, she notes that as a middle class, Catholic school educated Brahmin, she went from being an elite who could easily ignore and shun the slums of her city to Cambridge, MA, where she joined the ranks of The Other. In a most painful revelation, Sen acts as a Bengali-to-English interpreter for Muslim men who are going to be deported. Her shame for her status as part of the government's case against them marks her forever. This is a book of anger, and every person of color will nod their heads, while white people will hopefully listen and absorb.

Quotes: "The greatest division in a society is one that makes an entire group of humans simply invisible to us."

"When I tried to pass as white, or silently accepted the badge of honorary whiteness, I was trying to proclaim to our neighbors that I was Not Black, that I was Not Hispanic."

"Anti-black bias is present among Indians in the home country as well as in the diaspora. In some cases, as in the British West Indies, it was a result of social engineering by the European colonial masters as slaves were replaced by coolies on the sugar plantations. In the US, the anti-black racism that many Indians bring with them from the subcontinent - a mixture of homegrown color bias and Made In Europe racism - is hardened by the prevailing myth of the model minority."

"The customs of the country, as I learned them, were in actuality the customs of the white people I wanted to emulate."

"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, color, texture, sound, and color."

"Imagine a world where every word and concept you would apply to yourself has been created by people who see you as inferior, as threatening, as other."

"By acting white, I was flattering the dominant culture. And by remaining Not Quite White I posed no threat to white elites."

"Loving lots of exotic cultures is part of advanced DIY whiteface curriculum."

"Muslim Bengalis were the problem - the reason why immigration is bad for America. I was the solution - the reason immigration is good for America."

"In the US, there is no need to name the male, the white, the Protestant because these are attributes of the normative. When we who are not those things choose to name them, we risk sounding like people with grievances - angry, shrill, dangerous. We don't need to call the first forty three presidents "our white president" or "our male President" or "our Christian president" because that is exactly what all presidents are supposed to be. Only divergences need to be pointed out. A Catholic president. A Jewish president. A black president. A female president. They require the armature of adjectives."

"When a person who is Not White names whiteness, ordinary talk turns into race talk."… (more)