Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America

In her first book, Sen (executive editor at large, Harvard Univ. Pr.) chronicles her experience immigrating to the United States with her family just before her teenage years, and the journey toward understanding her racial identity as an Indian American in a country based on whiteness. Sen's story contrasts her middle-class upbringing in Calcutta to her working-class life in Cambridge, MA. Her background as an English professor adds to the narrative, which weaves clever quips and literary comparisons; for example, she references James Weldon Johnson's Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, in which the main character tried to define himself in a white-dominated culture by creating an air of superiority. Sen also discusses India's history of caste and colonization, the country's conflicts and contradictions, and the issue of colorism and trying to pass as white. With humor, historical context of U.S.-India migration, and references to the 1980s, this memoir shares the lesser-told Indian experience of assimilation and cultural acceptance into American society. In doing so, Sen provides insights less acknowledged in conversations of race in America.