Mura's memoirs, poems, essays, plays and performances have won wide critical praise and numerous awards. Their topics range from contemporary Japan to the legacy of the internment camps and the history of Japanese Americans to critical explorations of an increasingly diverse America. He gives presentations at educational institutions, businesses and other organizations throughout the country.
WRITER.
SPEAKER.
PERFORMER.
TEACHER.
In David Mura’s newest book,The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself, out Jan. 31, 2023 from University of Minnesota Press, Mura grounds his work in historical and fictional narratives that whiteness tells society in order to uphold systems of oppression.
Intertwining history, literature, ethics, and the deeply personal, Mura looks back to foundational narratives of white supremacy to show how white identity is based on shared belief in the pernicious myths, false histories, and racially segregated fictions that allow whites to deny their culpability in past atrocities and current inequities. White supremacy always insists white knowledge is superior to Black knowledge, Mura argues, and this belief dismisses the truths embodied in Black narratives.
In his cogent analysis of white historical, fictional (Faulkner), cinematic (Spielberg) and journalistic narratives, Mura points to the persistent trauma racism has exacted; he lays bare how deeply we need to change our racial narratives—what white people must do—to dissolve the myth of Whiteness and fully acknowledge the stories and experiences of Black Americans.
