Of Color

by Jaswinder Bolina

In his debut essay collection, award-winning poet Jaswinder Bolina meditates on "how race," as he puts it, "becomes metaphysical" the cumulative toll of the microaggressions and macro-pressures lurking in the academic market, on the literary circuit, in the dating pool, and on the sidewalks of any given U.S. city. Training a keenly thoughtful lens on questions that are never fully abstract—about immigration and assimilation and class, about the political utility of art, about what it means to belong to a language and a nation that brand you as other—Of Color is a bold, expansive, and finally optimistic diagnosis of present-day America.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Poetry, Asian American, Audiobook

134 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2020

About the author

Jaswinder Bolina is an American poet. He is the author of the chapbook The Tallest Building in America and a book of essays Of Color. His full-length poetry collections are Carrier Wave; Phantom Camera, which won the Green Rose Prize in Poetry from New Issues Poetry & Prose; and The 44th of July.

Reviews

[Book Mitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book.

"My parents already know I'm bereft of their culture, that their son is almost as Frank or Bill as any other American. But they also believe this is necessary. That if their son is to become President, it won't happen while he's wearing a turban. They're willing to surrender their culture in order to assure my success, which means the price of my inclusion here is our alienation from each other."

[Lucía Urquiaga · Rating 4 out of 5]

“When [the man] says, ‘It’s amazing what they did,’ they means the attackers. Both sides of the conflict are they. Neither is we…and when he says they ‘treated us like dogs,’ us means the Indian conflated with the Pakistani, the Pakistani mistaken for the Afghani, the Afghani called an Arab, the Arab undistinguished from the Persian and the Turk, the Shia and the Sunni and the Sikh all taken for one bearded and turbaned body.”

Cuando un poeta hijo de inmigrantes indios en EEUU escribe un ensayo sobre etnias y racismo, de temas que le tocan tan cerca, que siente y vive tanto, inevitablemente también hace poesía.

Jaswinder Bolina nos explica con una sensibilidad impecable y una pluma tan precisa como un bisturí lo profundo que llega a ser el racismo interiorizado y el rechazo cultural hacia lo no occidental, incluso para los propios inmigrantes de segunda y tercera generación. Que todas las decisiones que tomamos tienen un peso político, que la academia sigue rechazando la diversidad y que aún nos queda mucho camino para oír todas las voces con la misma fuerza y claridad.

Por encima de todo lo demás, destaco lo literario de este ensayo. El autor es capaz de emocionar con la belleza de sus palabras y apelar a la emoción mientras habla de realidades, sin inventar personajes, sin montar escenarios ficticios o caer en el sentimentalismo. La poesía es una manera de entender el mundo que nos rodea, pero si sólo unos pocos se pueden permitir ser "poetas", esta visión se mantendrá distorsionada.

[Ally Perrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Not needing to acknowledge wherefrom one speaks, and instead professing to speak from a blank slate. It's the position of no position, the voice from nowhere or from everywhere - and from this, it is godlike."

[Amorak Huey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart, thoughtful, moving essays on race, America, writing, and being human.

[Natalie Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautiful. Simple, raw, honest.

Very relatable. This book is a rare gem.

[Andrea Montan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, drop everything and go read this book. These essays perfectly capture the sentiment that two warring things/feelings/thoughts/philosophies can exist in the same space/body at the same time. These essays perfectly capture the hypocrisies of our (read: white and American) existence. This collection is one that made me think often: “yes, that’s it; that’s exactly what I haven’t been able to articulate.”

[Mbogo J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this small gem by accident and even though the premise was a topic I've been deliberating avoiding I decided to give it a chance. It was a good choice.

The book is small but packs a big punch. Jaswinder is a poet [I've only read one of his] as such he understands the economy of words [David Forster Wallace does not], in addition to this his take on race and culture is nuanced. This is not the pitch fork bearing mob you find online that is looking for some heads to put on spikes. His analysis looks at the time, place, human psyche and general human nature that has us pegged as fallible. There is no self righteousness or the frothing anger usually associated with this kind of writing, his sits on the center left or right and these are the voices that have been driven away by the online vitriol. We are now left with zealots who spew compound terms that have little meaning in themselves other than to create a false sense of intellectualism...I hope the sober voices keep getting more book deals. Highly recommended.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are really smart, deeply considered essays about being an American poet of color. The topics range all around that identity in fascinating ways, some extremely topical to June 2020, but others exploring the weird world of poetry today. I’ve been more and more interested in poetry over the past few years, but have felt that there’s an intimidating academic gate being kept around it. Bolina’s choice to go the academic route in order for better job security at the cost of partially assimilating into the wealthy white culture that it’s built on is very interesting. There’s a lot to consider and this is certainly a book I’ll come back to.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's easy to tell from these essays that Bolina is a poet (and not just because he tells you he is.) The language of these essays is beautiful. It also, interestingly, illustrates some of Bolina's points by engaging the reader in a "non-threatening" way: ie: using "academic" English, as does his use of self-reflection to point out our own hypocrisies and prejudices.

I don't know that either of these things were intentional, but after reading Bolina's insights on assimilation, it's hard not to see it.

Of Color is a small book but like all writing about difficult topics it demands to be read slowly and allowed to percolate.

Definitely a book to share and recommend.

[LYS.]

“[Whiteness is] the position of no position, the voice from nowhere or from everywhere, and in this it is Godlike.”
—page 33, “Writing Like a White Guy”

bolina doesn’t say anything particularly new in my eyes, but that doesn’t mean his voice isn’t worth something. strength in numbers, obviously. it’s always interesting to read essays from us-born children of immigrants, how they navigated their way through the whiteness of the world. bolina’s prose is strong—i would’ve been able to tell he was a poet before he said so. quick read, would recommend. alright, love n light, guys!

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bolina, a poet, shares his experiences with race in America in this collection of autobiographical essays. He describes his frustrations as an artist who wants to write about things other than race but that acclaim might be easier if he centered his identity as a POC in his work. He describes striving to pass as tanned rather than Indian in Miami, wrestling with urges to assimilate and shame for having these desires.

Bolina is a gifted essayist, no word goes wasted. I will definitely be looking into his poetry.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every white person should read “Color Coded,” every creative person should read “The Writing Class,” and, really, everybody should read this entire book.

How to Be an Antiracist, So You Want to Talk about Race, White Fragility and on down are getting all the press, but Of Color teaches more about race and class in its slim 112 pages than any of those still formidable books. Bolina is a poet, and this work is proof positive that we need more of his ilk writing about these topics.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book a lot. The author, a poet, has collected brief essays on color and America and his experience having been born and raised in this country, while seen as an outsider because of his brown skin. Near the end of the essays you discover he has become a father and I wonder how much this played into his thinking of this in all the ways he does and has. It’s a beautiful, well-written, thoughtful essay on life in these United States in these days.

[Parashar B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book hits a little too close to home (except for the poetry/MFA part).

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

How deftly and purposefully these essays move between the personal and the large-scale cultural critique. Highly recommend.

[Hans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and important thoughts, deftly written.

[John Machata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid. Well thought out. Fascinating look at race, art, and culture.

[Rebecca Yang · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Giovanni García-Fenech · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm reluctant to review this book because whatever I write won't do justice to how brilliant it is. I'll just say that it perfectly captures the ambiguous and sometimes contradictory feelings people of color feel about our place in America. It should resonate with those of us who understand things are much more complicated than the discourse currently allows for.