Truly one of the best books I've ever read. I highly recommend it, whether you are Asian American or not.

"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. This country insists that our racial identity is beside the point, that it has nothing to do with being bullied, or passed over for promotion, or cut off every time we talk. Our race has nothing to do with this country, even, which is why we’re often listed as “Other” in polls and why we’re hard to find in racial breakdowns on reported rape or workplace discrimination or domestic abuse. It’s like being ghosted, I suppose, where, deprived of all social cues, I have no relational gauge for my own behavior. I ransack my mind for what I could have done, could have said. I stop trusting what I see, what I hear. My ego is in free fall while my superego is boundless, railing that my existence is not enough, never enough, so I become compulsive in my efforts to do better, be better, blindly following this country’s gospel of self-interest, proving my individual worth by expanding my net worth, until I vanish."

learned a lot!

I read parts of this book for class, though reading it all through on my own of my own desire is much sweeter. Truly makes one think of about the meaning to the Asian American identity, and how Asian Americans move through the world, especially if the reader falls under that identity.

I read this in a matter of days. There’s so much here in this collection of essays about the Asian-American experience, that I feel like it’s almost impossible to distill it all here. This is a book I’ll probably read a few more times. I highly recommend.

• “while i may look impassive, im frantically paddling my feet under water, always overcompensating to hide my devouring feelings of inadequacy”
• po-ethnic cleansing 
• l appreciated hearing her transition to stand up comedy, and how that allowed her to reflect ain’t her identity and how to talk about it! stating she can’t hide her identity on stage 
• blackness is often restricted to one story to tell, a story of oppression that plays on liberal guilt. and their stories can only be heard by whites 
• “minor feelings occur when american optimism is enforced upon you, which contradicts your own racialized reality, thereby creating cognitive dissonance. you’re told things are so much better while things are the same. youre told asian americans are so successful while you feel internal failure. american ideology reveals 
• “we put our minority feelings out of the way to protect white feelings” 
• an american doctor tested double eye lid survey on korean sex workers to encourage more western eyes. 

This is brilliant and important. Cathy Park Hong offers a lot to think about in simply exquisite writing.

Appreciated her definition of “minor feelings” and ability to voice some of my similar struggles while bringing to light seldom recognized Asian American stories