While this was a good stepping stone and primer into more research about colorism I felt there could’ve been more of a defined overarching context. I felt like it was a lot of similar instances and while that shows how widespread the issue of colorism is, it just felt like that point kept being driven home. Thankful though that books like this exist or else it would be easy to act like this doesn’t exist within the world.

"Featuring contributors of many ages, nationalities, and professions, this compelling collection covers a wide range of topics, including light-skin privilege, aspirational whiteness, and anti-blackness. From skin-whitening creams to cosmetic surgery, Whiter amplifies the diverse voices of Asian American women who continue to bravely challenge the power of skin color in their own lives."
A beautiful and timely collection - really looking forward to reading.

Such an insightful and personal treatment of the widespread issue of colorism. This is an issue that I'd never learned about growing up, and it is so helpful to have this nuanced overview.

This anthology explores colorism in Asia by sharing the voices of those who have experienced it first-hand, including biracial and albino perspectives. For those who deny that white-skin/light-skin privilege exists, I would ask them to read more books like this.

Good read. Very informative on colorism among Asian American women.

The examples and citations brought up easy to remember references to better illustrate the points made by the editor.

This could serve as great material to be further dissected and discussed in a book club or classroom.

I wasn't aware of this issue until the early 90's. as a young, white woman, I never really gave color a thought. My first encounter was with women I worked with who were horrified that I spent time working on my tan on days off! One was Puerto Rican and the other Thai. it was just astonishing to them that us white women tanned! Whiter was better to both of them and they stayed out of the sun so as not to turn brown. Then a few years later, I discovered the same issue among children in our Black community. I spend much time trying stop the insults the darker children endured. Just so sad. This is the first book I've ever seen written on the subject and I am just dumbfounded by it! In recent weeks colorism has become a subject in the news and protests around the world are bringing the issue to the foreground for many people. Whitening products are being removed from shelves around the world it seems. At any rate, Nikki Khanna's book is a real timely book and a must read. Kudos to the Ms. Khanna!

This fascinating, well written, and well referenced scholarly book is an anthology of colorism. The contibutors are women of Asian descent living in the U.S. who have both a scholarly interest in and a lived experience of being judged by the color of their skin. I am familiar with colorism in India, and I learned a lot from this book about similar experiences with prejudice and dissatisfaction in China, Japan, the Philippines, and Cambodia. I liked most the contributions of multiracial women--which probably means I should read the editor's earlier work on being biracial!--as well as a singular essay by an Indian woman with albinism. These essays feel authentic and reflective, and they help build understanding. Recommended for all readers.

I really liked what this book was trying to achieve, but the way it was done didn't convince me the way I was hoping for. There has been just example after example with very similar experiences, that are of course all important, but in this amount just too redundant to read. Also I'd wished for something that put all the things these women were talking about, into a bigger context. The induction was trying to achieve this, but was too long and it would have been better to put all the informations as a background in between all these stories. But I really appreciated the insight that this book gave me.

An extremely topical anthology reflecting many different facets of women's lived experience. I did a long interview with insightful editor Nikki Khanna and featured her and the book “Whiter: Asian American Women on Skin Color and Colorism” in the newspaper's weekend section.

Considering the sensitive subject, I expected to like it more, but several things prevented me from giving it a higher rating.

Only the introduction represented about 20% of the book, presenting the topic and giving a too detailed summary of the essays. Even more, each and every part started with such a summary from the editor, often citing parts of the essays themselves - I found this terribly redundant.
Also, the material in the essays kept repeating and, if at first I was very impressed about the importance of the nuances and depth of color of the skin for the writers, after several mentions of 'my mother told me not to play in the sun', 'my aunt/uncle/auntie told me I'm too dark', 'commercials for skin color lightening are everywhere', unfortunately these tended to lose their big impact from the beginning.

I don't mean to downplay the importance of these facts in the writers' lives, just to mention the impact these repetitions in the book had on me.

Ironically, I remember when I was little I used to pull the corners of my eyes as I was looking in the mirror and wishing I had slant eyes and darker skin, as my skin was quite pale and it tended more to burn than to tan.
Even as a white female, you are exposed from an early age to tons of beauty standards, in movies, commercials, magazines, etc: slim body, long legs, perfect skin, perfect hair, voluptuous lips - most of the girls will not meet one, or several, or maybe any of them.

I saw a lot of different women in my wanderings and lots of the non-white ones were really beautiful, I’m so very sorry to hear that so many of them have such insecurity issues, but so do many of the white women.

Outside beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and we all are beautiful to someone, but inside beauty is much more important, and we must always remember this.

Throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, skin-whitening advertisements promising “ugly duckling to swan” transformations are pervasive. While they are provocative, controversial and racist they are extremely effective in marketing and sharing the widespread belief that ” light skin is beautiful”. It is on this premise that Nikki Khanna dissects colourism in Asian culture with a focus on Asian-American women.

In Whiter, Asian-American women share their experiences with colourism, these beliefs were passed down through their families, more so by the women in their families, they also note the role of colonialism, culture, media in propagating these harmful beliefs and stereotypes. Khanna notes that there is a lot of literature on colourism among African-Americans but fewer studies have been done among Asians.

She notes that term colourism was first coined by Alice Walker in 1983 and refers to light-skinned people being privileged over dark-skinned people- both between and within racial communities. Qualifying “tests” such as the paper-bag tests have been used to control memberships or access to various privileges among people of colour.

The book also highlights the false equivalency better tanning and skin-whitening practices because it ignores the power dynamics that make light skin desirable for people of colour. Social advocate Sabina Verghese calls tanning a “social luxury” for white women. Tanning (whether from the beach or from a spray can) is seen as a “healthy glow” or evidence of a great vacation. Light, white skin is powerful and is associated with increased opportunities and privilege; tanned skin, though a beauty norm in the West, does not hold the same power. They quote African-American comedian Chris Rock in a 1999 stand-up routine:

“There ain’t a white man in this room that would change places with me. None of you. None of you would change places with me, and I’m rich!”

The book highlights the interesting example of the 2018 hit movie, Crazy Rich Asians that was the first film in 25 years to have an all-Asian cast movie in Hollywood. Despite being filmed in Singapore where 22 per cent of the population is Malay and Indian, the movie was criticised for lacking “brown” actors and actresses. Critics noted that it represented a single version of Asia that is ‘palatable’ for Hollywood.

I sense that book was originally a thesis or research project because she introduces every chapter which renders the content a bit repetitive and over-explained. Also, she sampled stories from women mostly in academia which in a sense limits the diversity of professions. Still, that does not diminish the content in any way. In fact, it will help vanquish the stereotypical jobs that are associated with some Asian cultures. Whiter is a timely book and will be a great starter for anyone interested in racism and colourism.

This is a compilation of different personal essays that explore how race, skin color, culture, and appearance have roles in Asian social hierarchies. These were well written but often repetitive.

This is the collection that I wished for when I was in my late teens, early twenties. The editor Nikki Khanna introduces each subtopic with a short passage. Each of Khanna's passages are well-researched and succinct. She references some of my favorite writers, sociologists, and psychologists so maybe I'm biased.

The women who were included in the book have different styles and approaches to colorism in Asian communities. Some were more academic, others focus more on specific memories, and some read like letters to family members. The varying styles helped the collection fresh, even though a lot of the same points were repeated in each essay.

It's an okay book, interesting that it collects statements from a wide array of Asian women.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

This is a great collection of essays. They provide perspectives I hadn't read elsewhere and I finished the book feeling like I'd explored new points of view. My only wish is that it were a tad more conversationally written as I do think people would broadly benefit from the content but might be put off by the academic tone of the book,

Elucidating personal stories of how socialized prejudice shaped personal values of beauty and self-worth. A tough conversation from many viewpoints, but definitely worth the read.

Thank you to NYU Press and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy.

In Whiter, professor Nikki Khanna strives to illustrate colorism in the Asian American society, primarily through essays written by a diverse group of women from Filipina, Cambodian, Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. One of the strengths of this book is that she is able to catch similar trends across all of these informal essays - that Asian American societies are inherently colorist, that lighter skin holds priviledges but can sometimes exclude you from being "authentic" and that there is a closeted antiblack sentiment in colorism. The narratives are fascinating as they are pulled from different parts of American society and different socioeconomic levels. As a first generation Bangladeshi immigrant who was often considered in between shades of brown and fat, I identified with many of these narratives. What resonated throughout the book is how often our notion of "race" in America is situation dependent and often defined by whiteness. For example, when I am with my American or Indian friends, I am considered "desi" but when I am with my Latinx friends, I am considered "Mexican" by white people. While the stories do have a positive note, "embrace your unique skin color", I wish there was more qualitative information. How much do the fashion industries make profiting off of white skin? Who owns these businesses? How is the marketing so prevalent? These are some questions that remain unanswered.

First of all, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. I was really interested to read it because it addresses an important issue that isn't often addressed re: Asian Americans. It fills a gap and that alone drew my attention.
I enjoyed the breadth of the experiences that the editor gathered and the introductions to each section. Though this covers a weighty subject, the book is very readable and can be enjoyed by an academic and a reader just interested in learning more about colorism, or even just Asian culture. It would be a great choice for a class on colorism as there is much to unpack here.

This book is such an eye-opener regarding the facts given from the different perspectives of different personalities apart from what people (including the author herself) in India experience when it comes to the 'fairness' obsession

This is a really interesting and insightful collection of essays told through the lenses of Asian women and their experiences with colorism. As a black woman, I connected with a lot of these stories deeply. I haven’t had a chance to read a lot of non fiction lately, so this was a very welcomed opportunity for me to learn more about a subject that to me is serious but oftentimes glossed over from real experiences.
I think that this book would be great for book clubs and also classroom studies.

This was such an interesting read, as the stories of the women's experiences varied despite the fact that the women were all Asian American. It was interesting to see how these women struggle with their skin color.