OiYan Poon, author of Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family, in conversation with Suevon Lee
When:
Friday, Jun 21, 2024 7:00p -
8:00p
Friday, Jun 21, 2024 7:00p -
8:00p
Where:
Porter Square Books
25 White St.
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
Event website:
https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/oiyan-poon-author-asian-american-not-color-conversations-race-affirmative-action-and-family
Porter Square Books is excited to welcome OiYan Poon for the release of her book Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family! WBUR reporter Suevon Lee will join Poon in conversation. This event will take place on Friday, June 21 at 7pm at Porter Square Books (25 White St. Cambridge, MA 02140).
RSVP below to let us know you're coming and to receive event updates!
ABOUT ASIAN AMERICAN IS NOT A COLOR
A mother and race scholar seeks to answer her daughter’s many questions about race and racism with an earnest exploration into race relations and affirmative action from the perspectives of Asian Americans
Before being struck down by the US Supreme Court in June 2023, affirmative action remained one of the few remaining policy tools to address racial inequalities, revealing the peculiar contours of racism and anti-racist strategies in America. Through personal reflective essays for and about her daughter, OiYan Poon looks at how the debate over affirmative action reveals the divergent ways Asian Americans conceive of their identity. With moving sincerity and insightful study, Poon combines extensive research with personal narratives from both herself and a diverse swath of individuals across the Asian American community to reflect on and respond to her daughter’s central question: What does it mean to be Asian American?
Poon conducts interviews with Asian Americans throughout the US who have been actively engaged in policy debates over race-conscious admissions or affirmative action. Through these exchanges, she finds that Asian American identity remains deeply unsettled in a contest between those invested in reaching the top of the racial hierarchy alongside whiteness and those working toward a vision of justice and humanity co-constructed through cross-racial solidarity.
Poon uses these contrasting viewpoints to guide her conversations with her daughter, providing a heartfelt and optimistic look at how understanding the diversity and nuances of the Asian American experience can help us envision a more equitable future.
PRAISE FOR ASIAN AMERICAN IS NOT A COLOR
“This book goes there—taking on race and racism within the Asian American community. In these catastrophic times, Dr. Poon’s patient analysis of competing worldviews shows a way out: respectful listening across differences. Not because ‘all sides’ are equally valid but because human beings can change and grow. Fighting for justice sometimes requires walking with those whose steps don’t quite match ours. This lovely amalgam of qualitative research and memoir shows how to walk that walk.”
—Mari Matsuda, coauthor of We Won’t Go Back: Making the Case for Affirmative Action with Charles Lawrence
“While Asian Americans have been central to the debate over affirmative action in education, we have also been all but silenced in it. Here, finally, OiYan Poon—one of our leading scholars—restores the record. With courage and rigor but most of all bottomless empathy and heart, she debunks the false narratives and reveals the complexities of how Asian Americans actually feel about race and the future. An intimate, indispensable portrait of Asian America.”
—Jeff Chang, author of Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America and Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. OiYan Poon is a codirector of the College Admissions Futures Co-Laborative (cafcolab.org). Her research agenda brings together organizational theories and race and ethnic studies to study rejective admission and selection processes, the racial politics of Asian Americans and education, and affirmative action policies. She has received grants from the Gates Foundation, Joyce Foundation, and Spencer Foundation to support her research, and her work has appeared widely in national media outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the New Yorker.
Suevon Lee is the assistant managing editor of education at WBUR. Suevon joined WBUR in May 2022 from Honolulu Civil Beat, where since 2017 she covered K-12 education in Hawaii. She has an extensive background in print and online journalism, with a focus on beat and enterprise reporting and a special interest in community-based journalism. She previously covered courts and legal issues for the Ocala Star-Banner and Law360, served as editor-in-chief of KoreAm Journal, and was a reporting intern at ProPublica. Suevon received her bachelor’s degree in English from University of Maryland, College Park. She has a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a master of studies in law from Yale Law School. Originally from D.C. and now based in Boston, she enjoys hikes, green spaces, the ocean and exploring the local food and music scene.
Event date:
Friday, June 21, 2024 - 7:00pm
Event address:
Porter Square Books
25 White St.
Cambridge, MA 02140
RSVP Form:
RSVP to attend our event with OiYan Poon!
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