The author, Sharmila Sen, immigrates to America from India at the age of 12 with her parents. She finds herself in a new world where she has to learn how to talk, walk and think like an American. So she lives the life of the good immigrant. She is light skinned enough to almost pass for white which should be and probably is an advantage in a predominantly white society. But looking back now on 3 decades of playing the good immigrant she finds herself angry at the fact of the parts of herself she had to deny in the process. The phrase diary of an angry brown woman came to mind as I read it. Some quotes from the book:
The truth is that the opposite of blackface is not whiteface. Blackface is jolly, makes fun of others, is entertainment, is a game you get to play when you are already the winner. Whiteface is sad, demeans me, is deadly serious, is a game we play when we know we are on the losing team.
“We smile,” he tells me, “because it is the only face we can show. If we stop smiling, they will see how angry we are. And no one likes an angry black man.” Or an angry brown woman, I add, silently editing our conversation.
When I stopped smiling like a good immigrant, I risked becoming a bad American, an ungrateful immigrant—an angry brown woman. The smile was my road to becoming American. I did not know I would find anger at the end of the journey.
The book is heavy but worthwhile reading. I saw a book excerpt published on Longreads and that’s how I ended up buying it from Amazon. I give it 4/5 stars.
neon nairobi gal 