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Conditional citizens on belonging in America

"The acclaimed, award-winning novelist--author of The Moor's Account and The Other Americans--now gives us a bracingly personal work of nonfiction that is concerned with the experiences of "conditional citizens." What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and...

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Main Author: Lalami, Laila, 1968- (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: New York : Pantheon Books, [2020]
Edition: First edition.
Subjects:
Citizenship > United States.
Naturalization > United States.
Discrimination > United States.
United States > Emigration and immigration.
Summary: "The acclaimed, award-winning novelist--author of The Moor's Account and The Other Americans--now gives us a bracingly personal work of nonfiction that is concerned with the experiences of "conditional citizens." What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. Tapping into history, politics, and literature, she elucidates how accidents of birth--such as national origin, race, or gender--that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still cast their shadows today. Throughout the book, she poignantly illustrates how white supremacy survives through adaptation and legislation, with the result that a caste system is maintained, keeping the modern equivalent of white male landowners at the top of the social hierarchy. Conditional citizens, she argues, are all the people whom America embraces with one arm, and pushes away with the other. Brilliantly argued and deeply personal, Conditional Citizens weaves together the author's own experiences with explorations of the place of nonwhites in the broader American culture"--
Physical Description: 191 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 9781524747169
1524747165
Author Notes: Laila Lalami was born and raised in Morocco. She is the author of the short story collection Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and the novels Secret Son and The Moor's Account. Her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in several publications including the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Guardian, and The New York Times. She is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside.

(Bowker Author Biography)

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