Brown, white, black : an American family at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and religion
by Mehra, Nishta,
Print Book 2019. |
Available at 3 Libraries 3 of 10 copies |
Summary
Intimate and honest essays on motherhood, marriage, love, and acceptance
Brown White Black is a portrait of Nishta J. Mehra's family: her wife, who is white; her adopted child, Shiv, who is black; and their experiences dealing with America's rigid ideas of race, gender, and sexuality. Her clear-eyed and incisive writing on her family's daily struggle to make space for themselves amid racial intolerance and stereotypes personalizes some of America's most fraught issues. Mehra writes candidly about her efforts to protect and shelter Shiv from racial slurs on the playground and from intrusive questions by strangers while educating her child on the realities and dangers of being black in America. In other essays, she discusses growing up in the racially polarized city of Memphis; coming out as queer; being an adoptive mother who is brown; and what it's like to be constantly confronted by people's confusion, concern, and expectations about her child and her family. Above all, Mehra argues passionately for a more nuanced and compassionate understanding of identity and family.
Both poignant and challenging, Brown White Black is a remarkable portrait of a loving family on the front lines of some of the most highly charged conversations in our culture.
Contents
All-American ethnic girlBlack is the color of my true love's hair
Working the trap
Voluntarily bald
Wrestling with ghosts
Cult of motherhood
The sin of our security
Raising Shiv
Making space
Pretending to be white
(Not) passing
This is what a family looks like.
Published Reviews
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Additional Information
Subjects |
Mehra, Nishta.
Lesbian mothers -- United States -- Biography. Racially mixed families -- United States -- Biography. Interfaith families -- United States -- Biography. United States -- Race relations. Autobiographies. Essays. |
Publisher | New York :2019. |
Edition | First edition. |
Other Titles | Essays. |
Language |
English |
Description |
211 pages ; 22 cm |
ISBN | 9781250133557 1250133556 |
Other | Classic View |