Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America by Laila Lalami
What's It About?
"Propulsive, fascinating ... Lalami treats this complex, incendiary topic with nuanced consideration and blistering insight." — Booklist starred reviewU.S. citizenship is a birthright for some and a pillar of the American Dream for others. Those who are born with it may take it for granted, but plenty of immigrants dream of the day they will become official citizens. They jump through hoops to fulfill requirements and pass a test—all with the end goal of the naturalization ceremony: that one moment they can stand in front of their fellow countrymen and women and say “now I’m one of you.”
But, as Laila Lalami discovered when she emigrated from Morocco, even fulfilling all the requirements of citizenship can’t guarantee the same rights and protections for everyone in this country.
Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America (Pantheon) by Pulitzer Prize-finalist Laila Lalami offers the literary world an intimate look into what it’s like to become an American, and indeed what it means to be an American at all. This book neatly straddles the line between memoir and essay, broaching a topic that has always been as polemical as it is personal, but is even more relevant to the wider political and humanitarian conversation in the U.S. in 2020.
At the time of the founding of the U.S., the full rights of citizenship were only afforded to white male landowners. Over the years, amendments, laws and the slow evolution of culture have extended more and more of the privileges of citizenship to women, people of color and those too poor to own land, but these little half-steps forward have failed to present equality for all even today.
Lalami, a Muslim woman who was raised in a comparatively poor family, has never fit the image of a citizen that the founding fathers had in mind. Upon arriving in the U.S. as a student, she didn’t even know which box to check for race when asked if she was black or white in the demographic portion of a standardized test.
Lalami discusses issues of race, class, religion, sexuality and gender, citing specific ways in which each can act as a barrier to keep specific groups of people from achieving the American Dream. She exposes systems of oppression in ways that can be eye-opening to those who are not on the receiving end of their effects. She skillfully weaves tales of personal struggles with events that have made national or even international headlines over the last few decades.
Perhaps the most remarkable part of this book is that it manages to expose so many systems of suppression and maltreatment without losing hope. Not every American was invited to take place in the conversations that built these systems, but, as Lalami demonstrates by writing this book, maybe we can all have a hand in reshaping the country we want to live in.
