Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
Cathy Park Hong has created certainly written unique memoir here. I really enjoy her combination of references to her own life experiences to the wider Asian American experience that she observes on a wider scale. There are so many quotes from this that deeply resonated with me, including the definition of minor feelings itself - "the racialized range of emotions that are negative, dysphoric, and therefore untelegenic, built from the sentiments of everyday racial experience and the irritant of having one’s perception of reality constantly questioned or dismissed."
A couple more that I still think about -
"One characteristic of racism is that children are treated like adults and adults are treated like children. Watching a parent being debased like a child is the deepest shame.”
"Asians lack presence. Asians take up apologetic space. We don’t even have enough presence to be considered real minorities. We’re not racial enough to be token. We’re so post-racial we’re silicon."
"“We keep our heads down and work hard, believing that our diligence will reward us with our dignity, but our diligence will only make us disappear. By not speaking up, we perpetuate the myth that our shame is caused by our repressive culture and the country we fled, whereas America has given us nothing but opportunity."
"When I hear the phrase “Asians are next in line to be white,” I replace the word “white” with “disappear.” Asians are next in line to disappear. We are reputed to be so accomplished, and so law-abiding, we will disappear into this country’s amnesiac fog. We will not be the power but become absorbed by power, not share the power of whites but be stooges to a white ideology that exploited our ancestors."
"I am ashamed of the anti-blackness in that Korean community, which is why I must constantly emphasize that Asians are both victims and perpetrators of racism. But even that description of victimization and incriminalizaton is overly simplistic."
The topic of identity and racism is often difficult to discuss, and can cause uncomfortable feelings to arise in participants of these conversations. It's nonetheless essential to recognize and ponder the multifaceted experiences that come with being a person of colour within North America. I personally think that Hong gives voice to some small, minor feelings that I have had when reflecting upon my Asian identity, as I spent a lot of my childhood in a predominantly white town. Though I was fortunate enough to never be bullied or shunned for visibly presenting as a person of colour, there were always off colour, stereotyped comments that rolled off my skin. It is an extremely common part of growing up Asian, and even when I got older, the off-colour comments became memes and jokes about "social credit" and "bing chilling".
Hong's verbalization of the strange dichotomy between how America treats the one-dimensional Asian identity - as tiger parents, math geniuses, hardworking owners of small nail salons and restaurants, suddenly crazy-rich, and the people responsible for COVID - with the intergenerational trauma and colonization that is deeply prevalent. Her background as a poet is so clear when she retells her personal experiences in a way that makes me feel as if I am there, vibrating with anger and thrumming with sadness when she remembers her grandma being bullied by neighbourhood kids for her bad English and witnessing the aftermath of the Delta Air Lines brutally dragging an Asian man off of his seat.
I recommend this novel for everyone, but I think those, like me, who grew up 2nd generation in North America, will resonate with it the most.
A couple more that I still think about -
"One characteristic of racism is that children are treated like adults and adults are treated like children. Watching a parent being debased like a child is the deepest shame.”
"Asians lack presence. Asians take up apologetic space. We don’t even have enough presence to be considered real minorities. We’re not racial enough to be token. We’re so post-racial we’re silicon."
"“We keep our heads down and work hard, believing that our diligence will reward us with our dignity, but our diligence will only make us disappear. By not speaking up, we perpetuate the myth that our shame is caused by our repressive culture and the country we fled, whereas America has given us nothing but opportunity."
"When I hear the phrase “Asians are next in line to be white,” I replace the word “white” with “disappear.” Asians are next in line to disappear. We are reputed to be so accomplished, and so law-abiding, we will disappear into this country’s amnesiac fog. We will not be the power but become absorbed by power, not share the power of whites but be stooges to a white ideology that exploited our ancestors."
"I am ashamed of the anti-blackness in that Korean community, which is why I must constantly emphasize that Asians are both victims and perpetrators of racism. But even that description of victimization and incriminalizaton is overly simplistic."
The topic of identity and racism is often difficult to discuss, and can cause uncomfortable feelings to arise in participants of these conversations. It's nonetheless essential to recognize and ponder the multifaceted experiences that come with being a person of colour within North America. I personally think that Hong gives voice to some small, minor feelings that I have had when reflecting upon my Asian identity, as I spent a lot of my childhood in a predominantly white town. Though I was fortunate enough to never be bullied or shunned for visibly presenting as a person of colour, there were always off colour, stereotyped comments that rolled off my skin. It is an extremely common part of growing up Asian, and even when I got older, the off-colour comments became memes and jokes about "social credit" and "bing chilling".
Hong's verbalization of the strange dichotomy between how America treats the one-dimensional Asian identity - as tiger parents, math geniuses, hardworking owners of small nail salons and restaurants, suddenly crazy-rich, and the people responsible for COVID - with the intergenerational trauma and colonization that is deeply prevalent. Her background as a poet is so clear when she retells her personal experiences in a way that makes me feel as if I am there, vibrating with anger and thrumming with sadness when she remembers her grandma being bullied by neighbourhood kids for her bad English and witnessing the aftermath of the Delta Air Lines brutally dragging an Asian man off of his seat.
I recommend this novel for everyone, but I think those, like me, who grew up 2nd generation in North America, will resonate with it the most.
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