The Racism of People Who Love You

Essays on Mixed Race Belonging

The Racism of People Who Love You
Samira Mehta
RRP:
NZ$ 86.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 65.24
Hardback
h224 x 145mm - 200pg
10 Jan 2023 US
International import eta 7-19 days
9780807026366
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An unflinching look at the challenges and misunderstandings mixed-race people face in family spaces and intimate relationships across their varying cultural backgroundsIn this emotionally powerful and intellectually provocative blend of memoir, cultural criticism, and theory, scholar and essayist Samira Mehta reflects on many facets of being multiracial. Born to a white American and a South Asian immigrant, Mehta grew up feeling more comfortable with her mother' s family than with her father' s-they never carried on conversations in languages that she couldn' t understand or blamed her for finding the food was too spicy. But in adulthood, she realized that some of her Indian family' s assumptions about the world had become an indelible part of her-and that her well-intentioned parents had not known how to prepare her for a world that would see her as a person of colour. Popular belief assumes that mixedness gives you the ability to feel at home in more than one culture, but the flipside shows you can feel just as alienated in those spaces. In 7 essays that dissect her own experiences with a frankness tempered by generosity, Mehta tackles questions around-authenticity and belonging; conscious and unconscious cultural inheritance; appropriate mentorship; the racism of people who love you. The Racism of People Who Love You lays bare the pain and the love, the blending of practices, assumptions, and the creation of a culture of hybrid identity.
"Thoughtful meditations on identity. " -Kirkus Reviews "Samira Mehta interweaves laugh-out-loud personal vignettes with piercing reflections on life as a biracial person. Drawing also on her multireligious upbringing, she conveys moments of joy and pain in ways that let us all in on the experience. The Racism Of People Who Love You is relatable for all kinds of readers, with especially important insights for all of us who have people of mixed racial and religious backgrounds in our families and social circles. " -Khyati Y. Joshi, author of White Christian Privilege "The Racism of People Who Love You is by turns gripping, challenging, funny, and compassionate, effortlessly entwining personal experience with global, religious, and literary histories. Samira Mehta is an important new voice grappling with the complexity of American identities. " -Peter Manseau, author of One Nation Under Gods: A New American History "Samira Mehta' s The Racism of People Who Love You has the qualities of my favorite writing: insightful, provocative, and revealing. Her unique story provides a window into the common yet underrepresented experience of mixed belonging, and she displays the unique ability to share these stories in ways that welcome the reader to see the world afresh. " -Simran Jeet Singh, author of The Light We Give "We are finally, thankfully, seeing more books that delve into the personal experience of race. Now, with The Racism of People Who Love You, Mehta offers us her perspective on the complexities of experiencing race as a person of mixed race-part white, part South Asian. This work is an important addition to our on-going discussions about race in America. " -Kavita Das, author of Craft and Conscience: How to Write About Social Issues "Samira Mehta' s searching essays have prompted me to think about love and race in deeper, more nuanced, more intimate ways. As a white person in a multiracial family, I know all too well how tempting it is to buy into the myth that love is enough. Samira insists instead that love is just the beginning. " -Briallen Hopper, author of Hard to Love "Moving fluidly between personal storytelling and theoretical analysis, Samira Mehta offers an unblinking examination of the complexities, dangers, and possibilities of being of mixed heritage-not only in America writ large but also within one' s own family. With clear-eyed scrutiny and steadfast charity, Mehta confronts the painful ' casual racism' she experiences among her white family and friends. At once intellectually rigorous, personally invested, and uncommonly well-written, The Racism of People Who Love You is an essential read for anyone interested in negotiating difference, confronting injustice, and extending compassion to those who both love and hurt you. " -Lynn Casteel Harper, author of On Vanishing: Mortality, Dementia, and What It Means to Disappear
Samira K. Mehta is an associate professor of women and gender studies and of Jewish studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research and teaching focus on the intersections religion, culture, and gender, including the politics of family life and reproduction in the United States. Her first book, Beyond Chrismukkah- The Christian-Jewish Blended Family in America, was a National Jewish book award finalist. Mehta' s current academic book project, God Bless the Pill- Sexuality and Contraception in Tri-Faith America is forthcoming from the University of North Carolina Press. Connect with her online at samiramehta. com and on Twitter @samirakmehta.

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