At a time when disinformation, hate crimes, inequality, racial
injustice, and white supremacy are on the rise, Brown Enough, part
memoir and part social commentary, emerges, asking readers to proudly
put their bodies, their identities, into the conversations of race.
Brown Enough is a roller coaster of finding one's true self while
simultaneously having a racial awakening amidst the struggle to be
"perfectly" Latinx, woke, and as Brown as possible to make it in today's
America.
From world-renowned actor John Leguizamo: "Brown Enough is a
celebration of Brownness and a manifesto about the magic, beauty, and
heartbreak that comes with being Brown in America. Brownness is more
than our skin color or language or where we grew up; it's also about the
common threads that connect us all. I'm excited to see Christopher's
impact continue to grow as one of the key voices of his generation."
Its pages are full of honest explorations of love, sex,
fake-it-till-you-make-it ambition, bad Spanish, color, code-switching,
white-washing, scandal, Hollywood, and more. This memoir navigates these
necessary and often revealing topics through fourteen chapters, each a
distinct moment where Rivas explores his Brownness and how to own it.
Brown Enough opens with a moment that forever changed Christopher
Rivas's life, the night Ta-Nehisi Coates shared, in an intimate
gathering in downtown L.A., the Brown man's role in the race
conversation.
"All I hear is black and white. As a Brown man, a Latin man, where does
that leave me?" Coates took a short breath and responded, "Not in it."
Like a reprimanded child, Rivas took his seat and remained silent for
much of the event. But the effects didn't end there. This conversation
pushed Rivas to contemplate and rethink how whiteness and Blackness had
impacted his sense of self and worth.
"Why is Brown not in it?" became the unspoken question for the rest of
his life and a thread moving through this collection. Eventually, in
every conversation, during every date, at every job, Rivas began to ask,
"What are the consequences of not being in the conversation?" "What does
it take to be in it?"
Brown Enough is the quest to find an answer.
"Brown Enough is a must-read for anyone who wants a more expansive and
inclusive view of race in America. Rivas fiercely asks us to consider
tough questions and offers candid and provocative answers. He lays bare
his soul on the pages." -- Julissa Arce, author of You Sound Like a
White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation
Christopher Rivas is an actor, author, podcaster, and storyteller
best known for his on-screen work on the Fox series, CALL ME KAT. In
addition, he hosts two podcasts on SiriusXM's Stitcher: Rubirosa, a
limited series about the life of Porfirio Rubirosa, and a weekly show,
Brown Enough. He is a Ph.D. Candidate in Expressive Arts for Global
Health & Peace Building from The European Graduate School and a
Rothschild Social Impact fellow. Rivas resides in Los Angeles, CA.
