AACRAO's selection for our May Book Club is Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong. Hong is an essayist and poet who fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America.
Binding these essays together is Hong’s theory of “minor feelings.” As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. Her sharp and subversive writing tackles themes of invisibility, voice, language, assimilation and race all within the diverse content of the Asian-American and Pacific islander communities.
The myth of the model minority
The Asian American and Pacific Islander community experienced a surge in hate crimes in the past year. While sparking horror across America, it also revealed the complexity of the AAPI community.
The AAPI Community are not your "model minority." Hong engages a discussion that “minor feelings” occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality—when you believe the lies you’re told about your own racial identity. How do you challenge ingrained assumptions about our identity?
Join the book club discussion
Members of AACRAO’s Asian-American and Pacific Islander Caucus and a special guest from the Asian American Advocacy Fund who works in community based organizing. Topics for the discussion include:
Identity & Otherness
Language & Our Assumptions: How is English used as a colonizing force? How do you subvert that?
Cognitive dissonance of progress versus reality: Are things ok because you’re “better off” than another group? Why do you think that?
Get your copy and register for our May 26 discussion now. Come with insights, questions, and ready to learn.
Get involved. Stay in the conversation and join the upcoming webinars hosted by AACRAO's caucuses - Filipinx Administrative Leaders in Higher Education: Untapped Narratives into Diverse Leadership Approaches and The Women's Caucus - #IamRemarkable Workshop