DIASPORA-ISH

An eclectic series of inquiries questioning what it means to belong to a diaspora.

Sethi was born in Tanzania to immigrants from the Punjab, raised in Botswana, and later emigrated to America. With her Hindu name, adopted Bahá’í faith, and Black Muslim spouse, she declares that “every human in every hue who policed my identity taught me to doubt myself.” Sections entitled “Desi-ish,” “African-ish,” and “American-ish” explore her inner tussle, discussing topics such as colonialism and far-flung desi diasporas who labored for European empires. Sethi examines apartheid and oppression alongside “caste and racial hierarchies.” The work also cements her cultural learning of “distinctly African values” such as ubuntu and umoja. Sethi’s sharp gaze pierces America’s model minority myth and white-adjacent behaviors. She sees and names the immigrant’s invisibility and othering and describes universities as places of “compliance, not liberation.” The “Solidarities” and “Revolutions” sections gather steam, moving beyond personal reflection to express kinship with others on the margins. Sethi’s fractured thoughts and half-sentences mirror her unbound identities. Despite some platitudes and generalizations that feel naïve (“in beforetimes, muslims and hindus and sikhs were bound in oneness”), the unconventional combination of free verse, journal entries, and workbook activities supports active engagement. Sethi tackles thorny issues of anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, and white allyship that are often swept under the carpet. This learning resource is best read and reflected on in small doses.

A timely interrogation of individual identities paving the way for collective action.