JohnnySwims

    Minor Feelings  by Cathy Park Hong changed my perspective on the importance of literature and writing about race. Before reading Minor Feelings  I felt a bit of distance between the literature that I had previously read on the Asian experience in America. The stories were always told by children of non-immigrant Chinese parents, growing up in the Chinatowns of America.The idea of having a generational barrier between the kids and the parents, and the divide between unfamiliar American ideas and the familiar Chinese tradition was bogus. However, Minor Feelings  was a fresher take on the Asian experience, with Cathy Park Hong immediately echoing a lot of the doubts I had about Asian literature in America. It introduced a flavor of the Asian experience that I had grown up with, immigrant parents who weren't always fully integrated into American pop culture and customs.          The book also sparked a conversation I had with my sister, ...

     An interesting portion of The Best We Could Do is on page 286 when Thi’s parents are allowed to take classes as part of a government program to earn certificates for future employment. This would help them replace the degrees they had earned in Vietnam that employers wouldn’t recognize. They would take various classes on computers, programming, math, etc. excelling at all of them and earning the credits. Later in their life, these classes were critical for them to gain jobs as part of the American workforce and help them support their family. The question posed by this section is in what way did taking these classes truly benefit them when looking for a job?      Traditional thinking says this: the answer is obvious, of course taking those classes helped them earn a job by teaching them new skills and improving their knowledge. Education is one of the determinants of the productivity of labor, an economic concept that measures the value of the output ...