Appreciate this niche content (that affects *a lot* of people). I will hopefully be able to source your book here in Australia. I’m not American but I imagine a lot of the issues/principles will apply to other Asian immigrants that have had to assimilate into other cultures, who have experienced chronic racism (often in the form of microaggressions in the adult years) and have lost some or all of our cultural identity along the way. I certainly find an absence of addressing that both in psych content currently available and in the understanding of the therapists available (in my area they are mostly white…). After a lifetime of rejecting my own culture, I now find myself surrounded by friends and even family (my partner is white) who has no idea what I am talking about when trying to explain the complexity of being a racial minority and an immigrant on top of my existing mental health struggles that they are better able to relate to. So thank you for creating content on this as I have needed it for so long. On a related note - I stumbled upon a Latino activist named Julissa Arce who wrote a book called “You sound like a white girl: A case for rejecting assimilation” about her experience as a young Latino immigrant into America and how she lost (then subsequently reclaimed) her cultural identity. I recommend the following interview in case you’re interested… I watched it to try and learn about the experiences of a culture I wasn’t that familiar with but was so surprised and moved to tears after recognising that a lot of the experiences she shared was so similar to mine after migrating to this part of the world as a child. It made me realised that while there are unique differences, the loss of identity and the internalised shame and even self hatred may be quite relatable amongst immigrants of different minority groups.
Keep dropping the facts!
Appreciate this niche content (that affects *a lot* of people). I will hopefully be able to source your book here in Australia. I’m not American but I imagine a lot of the issues/principles will apply to other Asian immigrants that have had to assimilate into other cultures, who have experienced chronic racism (often in the form of microaggressions in the adult years) and have lost some or all of our cultural identity along the way.
I certainly find an absence of addressing that both in psych content currently available and in the understanding of the therapists available (in my area they are mostly white…). After a lifetime of rejecting my own culture, I now find myself surrounded by friends and even family (my partner is white) who has no idea what I am talking about when trying to explain the complexity of being a racial minority and an immigrant on top of my existing mental health struggles that they are better able to relate to. So thank you for creating content on this as I have needed it for so long.
On a related note - I stumbled upon a Latino activist named Julissa Arce who wrote a book called “You sound like a white girl: A case for rejecting assimilation” about her experience as a young Latino immigrant into America and how she lost (then subsequently reclaimed) her cultural identity. I recommend the following interview in case you’re interested… I watched it to try and learn about the experiences of a culture I wasn’t that familiar with but was so surprised and moved to tears after recognising that a lot of the experiences she shared was so similar to mine after migrating to this part of the world as a child. It made me realised that while there are unique differences, the loss of identity and the internalised shame and even self hatred may be quite relatable amongst immigrants of different minority groups.