Books like Shame On Me by Tessa McWatt
In *Shame On Me*, author Tessa McWatt reflects on her mixed heritage—Scottish, English, French, Portuguese, Indian, Amerindian, African, and Chinese—and the ways society categorizes people by race. Drawing on her family’s migration from China to British Guiana and the colonial histories that intersected on the Caribbean sugar plantations, she explores how labels on census forms and job applications fail to capture the richness of her ancestry. McWatt examines the pain of being judged not “black enough” while confronting broader themes of racism, shadism, identity politics, and the unresolved legacy of colonialism in Canada. Through a personal narrative that mixes historical context, bodily self‑examination, and cultural critique, she asks what it means to be “real” or belonging in a world that still feels deeply divided by race.
First publish date: 2019
Genre: Biography & Autobiography/Autobiography
Authors: Tessa McWatt
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