Tyggbar“Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning” is an autobiographical book written by Cathy Park Hong. She is a Korean American author, and it was her first autobiography. The book deals with the emotions of being disregarded in a predominantly white society while being a part of a marginalized society group. The author describes what systemic racism and ecomomic discrimination feel like on a daily basis. It will be a fascinating and educational read for everyone who was born being privileged and wants to find out more about the day-to-day struggles of marginalized communities.
Main themes
There’s a lot to unpack when you are reading this book. The story moves from cultural criticism to personal stories told by the author in a very honest way. If you’ve got to read and analyze this book for your home assignment, keep in mind that some students need help with writing papers for college when book reviews are assigned. Therefore, be prepared to dig deeper and allocate enough time on the writing process. Perhaps, even find an assistant who can help with writing papers for college. This way, you will feel more confident about being able to deal with such a complex issue.
Speaking about the main themes discussed in this book, they are as follows: the feelings experienced by marginalized community groups (irritation, shame, paranoia and melancholy), racial discrimination, racial awareness within the society, depression the majority of margialized groups have to deal with, racial trauma after growing up in a society that is soo deeply rooted in structutal racism, personal experiences growing up as an Asian-American in a predominantly white society, critique of lack of media exposure when it comes to Asian-Americans, activism, politics, and white supremacy.
How to interpret the book
The book will be full of revelations and discoveries for all those readers who don’t know much about systemic racism or tend to ignore the issue. What is interesting to highlight is that the author herself did not want to write about her Asian identity. Cathy Park Hong felt that it would be hard for her to find the right form to describe what her experience growing up as an Asian-American in the United States of America was like. Another important thought to highlight is that the author wanted to attract attention to the issue in question, as well as to shed light on some of the most dramatic aspects of racism, but had no intention of showing the life of Asian-Americans as heartbreaking.
The best thing any reader can do when reading and interpreting this book is trying to understand what it would feel like if they represented one of the marginalized groups. In other words, it would be useful to try to walk in someone else’s shoes even though we all understand that it’s not quite possible to do that when you are a privileged member of society.
However, there’s another significant question that arises: how are those Asian-Americans who didn’t experience racism supposed to feel like? Should they feel ashamed? Are they more privileged than others? The answer is not obvious to anyone, including Asian-Americans themselves. However, the most important lesson any reader should learn after reading “Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning” is that everyone else’s life path is different. They have tons of their own struggles which people around them may not even be familiar with. For this reason, it is vital to treat them with respect, as well as work harder to eliminate any forms of racism in order to make our society truly inclusive and safe for everyone, not only for the privileged ones.
The autobiographical book by Cathy Park Hong was one of the best books of the year by The New York Times. What is more, it became the finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Apart from that, it won The National Book Critics Circle Awards in 2020 for the best autobiographical book of the year. Check it out and allocate enough time for reading as there is a lot to unpack, especially when you are completely unfamiliar with the issue in question. There’s no doubt that you will find the book interesting, impressive or even shocking.
