Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

Minor Feelings is part memoir, part racial studies and part biography of a past figure. One thing that sticks out to me is that most works attempting to portray the life of an underappreciated minority are typically written from the viewpoint of somebody in a fairly "non-standard" position. The author grew up in a west-coast Korean family, studied art and writing in the midwest and became a published writer and poet. Her parents had a rag-to-riches story of hard-working immigrants. 

In the US, she gets lumped in with the Asian "model minority". This implies many characteristics. She sees white males get special "breaks" and be able to pass off crap as "inspirational" artwork. I find this to be more an indictment of the art establishment than of racism. Successful art is in the eye of the beholder. If something is deemed desirable, it may fetch millions and make the artist extremely wealthy. If not, they may remain starving. The "success" can be due to various whims. You may be able to say "this white cis-male artist" made it big, while these other brown females didn't until they were dead". However, you could also find plenty of white males that didn't make it. (Some of the biggest names in art today died poor.)

The lumping of Asians together is a big issue. There are billions of people from many different countries in a vast geographical area. The American immigration policy has encouraged the most educated and wealthy to come over, thus helping to contribute to the model minority myth. However, there remains a diverse population. (By the same token "white" is also a myth, representing another diverse group of people.) Asians can be stuck in an odd situation where they are not treated as a majority and not as a minority. 

One essay in the book covers the life of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, a Korean-American writer who was raped and murdered.

The author also talks about being offended at the "white tears" shed by a friend that was present when the author suffered from a racially-incited attack. This all gives me a mixed feeling. There were some injustices triggered by "looks" that were beyond her control. The response that people have (on all sides) can make the matters worse. Wokeness has led to another form of "negative relations" where people have hierarchies of offensibility and pandering. Is it possible for a mixed society to truly accept the unique abilities of different people? 

"All the Real Indians Died Off": And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans

What could be a good book gets too bogged down in the contradictions of racial studies propaganda. They assume there is a monolithic "White supremacist" culture that seeks to oppress everyone else. All aspects of this "white" culture oppress the non-white victims. However, they make this argument in the context of "white" academia, and "white" culture. The arguments vacillate between identifying "Indian" concerns and concerns of individual tribes.
The authors even argue that the English developed their colonial oppression methods through the colonization of Ireland. Yet, now the Irish are grouped in the "white" group of oppressors. Huh? Why were they able to assimilate, but the Indians were not? And why can we get away with having "Fighting Irish" mascots, but not "Fighting Sioux". Is this justified because there are a good number of Irish catholics that got to Notre Dame? What about Spartans? Has San Jose or Michigan received permission of the Greeks? Or do they not need to do it because they are all "white"?
There were plenty of wrongs and treaty violation committed against the Indians by the colonizers. However, there were also many wrongs committed against "white" groups also. Trying to focus on us vs. them based on skin color may sell well in racial studies academic circles, but doesn't help in society at large. The irony is that racial studies invokes a very conservative view of the culture in question in a very liberal environment. They expect a majority culture to sacrifice their cultural beliefs and norms so that the minority culture can cling to a very conservative way of life in their culture.
The "indigenous" argument also echos "NIMBY" arguments seen in many communities today. People want a community to remain the same as it was when they moved there. What is not clearly explained is how long the American Indian culture had lasted in its present form before the European colonization. Were some tribes and cultures only recently formed? Had some lived the same way for thousands of years before? Were there some tribes that had annihilated other tribes, only to be decimated by the Europeans. Have some tribal cultures existed longer as minority cultures in a European world than they did originally on their own. These would all be great topics of exploration. Alas, that is not the topic of the book.
The myths here focus more on the "agenda". Some times the arguments are fairly clear. Indian casinos do make great amounts of money for a small number of tribes. However, most tribes barely break even. The government does provide health care for Indians as part of a treaty obligation. However, the funding is quite low.
Other arguments get muddled. The "myth of the drunken Indian" acknowledges that alcohol related crime is high among Indians. However, this is justified as something forced upon Indians by the Europeans. And then arguments are given to say that Indians are not more susceptible to alcohol. There are also discussions about "victimhood" and "wards of the state". The authors try to refute these misconceptions, even as the theme of the book seems to say otherwise.
Pan-Indian identity also gets conflated with tribal identity. Indians rightfully cringe when others attempt to mimic their sacred ceremonies. However, what if another tribe takes it? Tribal identity was said to be fluid in Indian cultures, with those from one tribe being adopted into others. Yet, now there are strict blood limits. And what about adoption into mainstream American culture?
There is a great challenge to keep minority cultures alive. However, the "Racist" approach ends up marginalizing many cultures due to their skin colors. There are many cultures among the "whites" and many among the "Indians". There is a lot we could learn from all of them.