“I’ve been privy to a lot of racism and conversations in rooms where I unintentionally disappeared into whiteness…”

“So for me, I’m not so much writing about race as I am writing about America. And to me, the American story is one of race, money and class. We do live in a racialized world, and I’ve spent my whole life in this space. I find it strange when writers don’t address it. I’m almost always assumed to be white. I’ve been privy to a lot of racism and conversations in rooms where I unintentionally disappeared into whiteness. I think there were periods when it was a struggle. But I’m at a place in my life when I’m very clear on who I am, my own story and who I come from.” —Danzy Senna

Donna Owens, “NBCBLK Summer Book Club: ‘New People’ by Danzy Senna,” NBC News, July 14, 2017. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/blk-summer-book-club-new-people-danzy-senna-n782806.

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