Brown Threat: Identification in the Security State

224 Pages·2016·2.28 MB·English

by  Kumarini Silva

Brown Threat
Brown Threat
Identification
in the
Security State
Kumarini
Silva
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis | London
The Introduction is derived, in part, from “Brown: From Identity to Identification,” Cultural
Studies 24, no. 2 (2010): 167– 82, available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/
10.1080/09502380903541597.
Copyright 2016 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Printed in the United States of America on acid-f ree paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Silva, Kumarini, author.
Title: Brown threat : identification in the security state / Kumarini Silva.
Description: Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2016] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016003053 | ISBN 978-1-5179-0002-1 (hc) | ISBN 978-1-5179-0003-8 (pb)
Subjects: LCSH: Racism—United States. | Islamophobia—United States. | Group
identity—United States. | Citizenship—United States. | Internal security—United States. |
Terrorism—United States—Prevention.
Classification: LCC E184.A1 S598 2016 | DDC 305.800973—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016003053
To David and Ruby with much love and thanks
for hearing the music and
for always keeping rhythm with the mad dancer
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I will call my children Mestiza
Because they will be called mixed, biracial, multiracial,
racial, racial, racial
I could call them Sudda, which we now think is affectionate
Sinhalese for whitey, but fifty years ago we spat
It out onto the tarred roads the British built for us
I could call them “buck and tan” like my uncle does to
anyone who is “half and half” after the dark brown and
Light brown oxford shoes he had as a child
I will call my children Mestiza because their white father
And their brown mother don’t believe in categories
— KUMARINI SILVA, EXCERPT FROM “I WILL CALL MY CHILDREN
MESTIZA,” IN IMAGINING OURSELVES: GLOBAL VOICES
FROM A NEW GENERATION OF WOMEN
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Contents
Introduction America’s Move from Identity to Identification 1
1 What Is Brown? Theorizing Race in Everyday Life 25
2 Un- American: Surviving through Patriotic Performances 53
3 Expulsion and What Is Not: Defining Worthiness of 87
American Citizenship
4 Blackness in Brown Times: The Medicalization of Racism 129
Conclusion Wielding Identity to Organize Warfare 161
Acknowledgments 175
Notes 179
Bibliography 195
Index 209
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