Simon Lennon

Discovering Race Simon Lennon

Discovering Race is a collection of twelve fictitious short stories about individual Americans around the country who believe the West's new rules about race. They learn they were wrong. A newly graduated Wilmington, Delaware accountant is offered job interviews by firms thinking from her name that she is Chinese. She isn't. A young churchgoer organizes a free Christmas gift stall in Boston, Massachusetts, which a Chechen family exploits. Without thought of race, a woman in Seattle, Washington adopts a Native American baby, but race becomes increasingly important to the growing boy. A New Orleans, Louisiana man welcomes his son's black girlfriend, but she expects his son to abandon their family's whiteness they'd never before appreciated. A father representing parents on a Red Bank, New Jersey panel hiring a schoolteacher presumes the candidates' capacity to teach English is important, and that their race is not. No less naïvely, a young teacher trusts a Baltimore, Maryland school to have reason to be proud of its racial diversity. A Congressman who'd long supported immigration realizes that changing demographics within his district will cost him his seat. An elderly widow in Alexandria, Virginia, hires a Nepalese caregiver, leading ultimately to her needing help from her Christian and Jewish neighbors. A New York retiree considers white America's future becoming a racial minority.