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| David Mura |
Poet, critic, and playwright David Mura begins his incisive analysis of the manifestations of Whiteness by sharing his personal story of being subsumed into White Supremacist ideologies. As a Japanese American whose parents and family were incarcerated during World War II, Mura was raised to assimilate into Whiteness and want to be White. Mura’s take on racial identity has been shaped by a lifetime of living in the shadow of racial stratification.
Against this backdrop, Mura shares his awakening into the realities of race and racial conflict in the United States. In “The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself,” Mura deconstructs the creation and perpetuation of White identity in literary, psychological, theoretical, and other realms. In his essays, he analyzes how historical and fictional racial narratives silence and ignore racism, rendering invisible the experiences of Black and Brown folks. Mura illuminates the different ways that Blacks and Whites perceive, think about, and perform their race. The enduring stories of Whiteness define humanity from a Eurocentric lens, purporting to believe in equality, but failing to see Black suffering. Whiteness denies the existential and persistent threat to Black life, undermining a violent past.
When people deny the existence of and impacts of racism, the oppressive system continues. This book is a timely and much-needed retort to the continuing battle for equity and inclusion of Black-centered history in American schools, libraries and knowledge centers. Reading the book from my point of view as a fellow Asian American, it was a powerful realization that such a thoughtful and insightful analysis is written by someone who is neither Black nor White but whose family and personal history are mired in Whiteness anyway. Mura touches on racial epistemologies and ontologies, breaking down the mechanics of decisions about absolute truth and objective knowledge. His writing is engaging, impassioned and anchored in moral, spiritual, and sociopolitical critiques of the harmful impacts of racism.
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