Sharmila Sen > Quotes

“We were making a historic leap from one continent to another, yet we were an extremely risk-averse family. Many immigrants carry these twin traits within themselves and some even pass them on to the next generation. As risk takers we leap far from the safety of home. Having left the comforts of home we know all too well that there is no safety net of kinship or citizenship to catch us should we topple. This makes us cautious. We check the lock on the door three times before going out. We save more than we spend. We collect sugar and ketchup packets from McDonald’s and cannot throw anything away. At work, we beat every deadline in the office and never pass up a second gig to make extra money. We tell our children to keep their heads down, study hard, and always look for a bargain. As risk-averse immigrants, we do not rock the boat. If you were a trapeze artist without a net below you, wouldn’t you act the same way? Anything else would be irrational.”
― Sharmila Sen, Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America

“Privilege is a peculiar possession. 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, odor, texture, sound, and color.”
― Sharmila Sen, Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America

“I got race the way people get chicken pox. I also got race as one gets a pair of shoes or a cell phone. It was something new, something to be tried on for size, something to be used to communicate with others.”
― Sharmila Sen, Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America

“To the white population the first-generation Indian immigrant wishes to say, “We are the model minority. The doctors who will heal you, the lawyers who will prosecute crime for you, the investment banker who will make you richer, the geek who will invent new technologies for your pleasure. We are the legal immigrants. Please don’t confuse us with illegal ones. We’re the good brown people. Please don’t confuse us with the bad black ones.”
― Sharmila Sen, Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America

“And anger is no longer a heroic emotion. The age of Achilles is over. Gods and heroes no longer rage as the topless towers of Ilium burn. Now anger is a Third World emotion. Anger is a militant black. Anger is a shrill woman. Anger is a jihadi. Because we know this, many of us also hide our anger behind elaborate masks of comedy.”
― Sharmila Sen, Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America

“I am a seasonal Indian. My complexion is light enough for you to mistake me as Mexican, Greek, Arab, Iranian, Turkish, Spanish, or a Sephardic Jew. On the streets of America, I am often asked, “¿Hablas español?” When my skin darkens in the summer months, you might deduce that I am from the Indian subcontinent. If I wear a sari, line my eyes with kohl, or speak in the accent I once had, then you will see more easily that I am Indian. But I use camouflage frequently to lift the weight of visibility off my shoulders.”
― Sharmila Sen, Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America

“I was a brown woman mimicking a white man pretending to be a brown man.”
― Sharmila Sen, Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America