"My Life: Growing up Asian in America”, edited by CAPE and with an intro by SuChin Pak.
"My Life: Growing up Asian in America”, edited by CAPE and with an intro by SuChin Pak.

Social Justice Book Discussions

Our current book study is on “My Life: Growing up Asian in America”, edited by the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) and with an introduction by renowned journalist SuChin Pak.

We are discussing a book that is a collection of essays by 30 Asian Americans in adult professional life.  Their stories about their early lives are illuminating, painful, and thought-provoking.  The book was compiled in the recent past, following some particularly egregious crimes in America against various American people of Asian descent.

We will meet at the Kenmore Hangar at 5:30 – 6:30PM on Mondays, also on Zoom (#835 4885 2934).

Week 1 readings for 23 September:

  • Pg 1       Intro (7 pages)
  • Pg 48     Destiny Manifest (5 pages)
  • Pg 53     Going Country (6 pages)
  • Pg 59     Confessions of a Banana (10 pages)
  • Pg 97     Why We Don’t Always Fight (7 pages)

Week 2 readings for 30 September:

  • Pg 69     Bangla, in Black and White (7)
  • Pg 78     The Ring (6)
  • Pg 89     Fourteen Ways of Being Asian in America over Thirty Six (8)
  • Pg 114   Slingshots of the Ignorant (8)

Week 3 readings for 7 October:

  • Pg 138   On Being Black and Asian (11)
  • Pg 149   An Incomplete Silence (5)
  • Pg 154   Things You should Know about Being an Asian from the South (4)
  • Pg 168   The Question (8)

 

No meeting on 14 October.

 

Week 4 readings for 21 October:

  • Pg 176   Working While Asian (7)
  • Pg 183   Facing Myself (6)
  • Pg 190   Places (7)
  • Pg 197   My First Rodeo (8)

Week 5 reading and panel discussion for 28 October:

  • Pg 205   The Next Draft (13)
  • Pg 227   Afterword (6)

 

Previous books in our study series:

  • “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” by Matthew Desmond