Race Scholar Dedicates New Book to Young Daughter’s Question: What Does it Mean to be Asian American?
Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family by Dr. OiYan Poon explores Asian American race relations and education policies
Chicago, IL - April 9, 2024 - Inspired by her young daughter’s questions about race and racism, Dr. OiYan Poon — an educator, race and education scholar, and author — is publishing her latest book Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family. Through personal reflective essays for and about her daughter, Dr. Poon looks at how the debate over affirmative action reveals the divergent ways Asian Americans conceive of their identity and earnestly responds to the central question: What does it mean to be Asian American? Poon is currently touring the U.S. to discuss her book, which is set to release on April 30th through Beacon Press and is available for pre-order.
“When my daughter was just a toddler, she began asking me questions about race and racism that I had a hard time answering in the moment. Her naive observations of our social world challenged me to think in new ways and made me want to continue our conversations. My child’s curiosities compelled me to write this book and respond with stories based on research I have conducted over two decades and a desire to engage in ongoing conversations for mutual learning.” — Dr. OiYan Poon, educator, race and education scholar, and author.
Dr. OiYan Poon with her daughter (photo credit: Anna Cillan )
Affirmative Action Reveals Asian American Divide
Before being struck down by the US Supreme Court in June 2023, affirmative action and race-conscious admissions remained one of the few remaining policy tools to address racial inequalities, revealing peculiar contours of racism and anti-racist strategies in America. In Asian American Is Not a Color, Dr. Poon combines personal narrative and interviews with Asian Americans throughout the US who have been actively engaged in policy debates over race-conscious admissions or affirmative action. These conversations reveal divides within Asian American identities — 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.
“Asian American is not a Color '' is an intimate clarion call for cross-racial solidarity. Dr. OiYan Poon writes to her daughter, and you can’t help but imagine yourself as someone facing your child’s most complex yet simple questions about our positionalities of the world as they ask you, “are we colonizers?” shares Tony DelaRosa, Author of Teaching the Invisible Race. “This book helps us face truths about an Asian American enmeshing to colonial mentality, practices, and systems in education. Through a remix of personal narrative and research, Dr. Poon displays how this enmeshing impacts our potential for a “solidarity dividend” through the case study of Affirmative Action. As a parent, this book gives me the language to teach my multi-ethnic Filipino and Cuban children how to navigate the pendulum of invisibility and hyper-visibility, while fostering cross-racial solidarity in the navigation between.
Dr. OiYan Poon lecture at Colorado State University (photo provided by OiYan Poon)
Engaging Community Through National Book Tour
Dr. OiYan Poon is currently touring the U.S. through the summer to promote her book and engage communities in critical discussions around the racial politics of Asian Americans, affirmative action, and other education policies. Poon is available for speaking events in the fall.
SELECT UPCOMING EVENTS
View the full list of tour dates here.
Tuesday, April 30
Virtual Book Launch: OiYan Poon, PhD in Conversation with Phil Yu (Angry Asian Man)
5:30 PST/8:30 EST
RSVP: www.tinyurl.com/OiYanLaunch2024
Wednesday, May 1
Northside Book Launch and Signing, hosted by Hina Mahmood
In conversation with Lisa Kurian Philip
Women & Children First Bookstore (RSVP)
Chicago
Monday, May 6
Southside Book Launch and Signing, hosted by Sonia Mathew
In conversation with Esther Yoon-Ji Kang
The Seminary Co-op (RSVP)
Chicago
Saturday, May 18
Reading and Signing
In conversation with Anthony Christian Ocampo
Bel Canto Books (RSVP)
Long Beach, CA
Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family is available April 30th. Order a copy here.
For more information, please visit www.publicpedagogy.info.
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About OiYan Poon, PhD: OiYan Poon is a mother, educator, author, speaker, and race and education scholar. She is co-director of the College Admissions Futures Co-Laborative and Senior Research Fellow for Education Equity at the NAACP LDF Thurgood Marshall Institute. Her research focuses on the racial politics of Asian Americans, education access, affirmative action, and admissions systems and practices. Born and raised in Massachusetts to immigrants from Hong Kong, Poon now lives in Chicago with her husband and daughter.