Listen: A Few Stories From (East-)Asian-American People

Now that we've talked through four levels of racism, white-person-to-white-person, it's time to pass the mic to some writers and speakers of color who've excavated and published stories of their painful personal experiences. These are condensed roundups of brief pieces, loosely organized (for better or for worse) by group.

Oh, you know I can't possibly just throw up these links all cavalierly without some OCD caveats, so here we go. 1. Obviously, the people linked to here don't Speak For Their Entire Race, but for themselves and their own experiences. This is just a taste. 2. Just listen (with your chest). Don't oh-it's-not-that-bad. Don't well-here's-how-I-would-handle-that. Don't it's-probably-just. Just listen. 3. We're guests to these pieces; we might not be their intended audiences. That's OK. 4. I'm keeping these lists as short and manageable as possible. If you love other sources, please send them my way!

All right, onward.

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From the Bowdoin Asian Students Association's response to Michael Luo's open letter. Via.

What Goes Through Your Mind: On Nice Parties and Casual Racism
Nicole Chung, The Toast (RIP, sigh), January 2016. Chung is now managing editor at Catapult, and you can follow her on Twitter. NB: The Toast's Race archives are a great resource, too.

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#thisis2016:

An Open Letter to the Woman Who Told My Family to Go Back to China 
Michael Luo, New York Times, October 2016. The author is a Times editor.

'Go Back to China': Readers Respond to Racist Insults Shouted at a New York Times Editor
Soon after publishing the letter above, Luo compiled some of the hundreds of "ME TOO" stories the article engendered.

#thisis2016: Asian-Americans Respond
...and a NYT video in response to the open letter. Absolutely worth the 8 minutes.

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A good blog to follow for more voices: Angry Asian Man, written and curated by Phil Yu.

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I'd sure love to hear how these hit you.