Published in the latest volume of Meridians, 'When my brown got colored: Living through/in the times of white and Brahmanical supremacy' is a testimonial of Sreerekha Sathi's experiences, memories and reflections about becoming a person/woman of colour, discovering and unearthing the meanings of racialization, white privilege and white supremacy in the contemporary United States.
The author gives voice to her new migrant experience as a Brown woman from India, positioning her reflections and learnings amidst the history and politics of colonialism and capitalist development, linking it to contemporary neoliberal academia in the United States.
By sharing some events and encounters in her relatively short stint in Charlottesville, Virginia, between 2016 and 2019, Sreerekha Sahi reviews her attempts to critically analyze concepts like women of colour, diversity, colorism, privilege, invisibility and othering.
The article further connects some of the author’s experiences of racialization in view of the growing politics of casteism and Brahmanical supremacy in India, locating and reassessing herself in the midst of Trump’s hardened propagation of white privilege in the United States and Modi’s Hindutva, both emanating a politics rooted in racialization, exploitation and marginalization of the other.
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Note from the author
This is an autobiographical/testimonial piece that I wrote in 2020, my first and maybe last testimonial piece. A lot has happened and I have travelled too far since! Still, this piece is/will always be close to my heart.