Rinku Sen

Rinku Sen is the president and executive director of Race Forward and publisher of Colorlines.com.

A leading figure in the racial justice movement for the last 20 years, Rinku has positioned Race Forward as the movement’s national home for media, research, and activism. She has extensive practical experience on the ground, with expertise in race, feminism, immigration, economic justice, philanthropy, and community organizing. Over the course of her career, Rinku has woven together journalism and organizing to further social change.

Rinku is also the vice chair of the Schott Foundation for Public Education and is a board member of the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity. She is the chair of the Media Consortium and sits on the boards for Restaurant Opportunities Center-United and Working America. Additionally, she is a Prime Movers fellow through the Hunt Alternatives Fund.

Rinku is a highly sought-after speaker on a broad range of racial justice topics. She is the author of The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization and Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing. Rinku has regular columns at Colorlines, the Huffington Post, and Jack and Jill Politics. Additionally, her commentary and work has been featured in Forbes, The San Francisco Chronicle, Market Watch, International Business Times, TomPaine.com, AlterNet, Racialicious, The Root, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, and the Windy City Times, among other media outlets.

As the Pressure to Act Like ‘Real’ Americans Mounts, Let’s Not

Rinku Sen

I can feel already the pressure to be more conventionally womanly than I am. To be quieter. To be more accommodating. To smile at men I don’t know. I can feel already that women who look like me will try to stick out less. To look more “American”; to abandon our bindis, our hijabs, our salwaar kameez; to be safe and survive.