
Asian American Is Not a Color
Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $21.84
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Cindy Kay
-
By:
-
OiYan A. Poon
About this listen
A mother and race scholar seeks to answer her daughter’s many questions about race and racism with an earnest exploration into race relations and affirmative action from the perspectives of Asian Americans
Before being struck down by the US Supreme Court in June 2023, affirmative action remained one of the few remaining policy tools to address racial inequalities, revealing peculiar contours of racism and anti-racist strategies in America. Through personal reflective essays for and about her daughter, OiYan Poon looks at how the debate over affirmative action reveals the divergent ways Asian Americans conceive of their identity. With moving sincerity and insightful study, Poon combines extensive research with personal narratives from both herself and a diverse swath of individuals across the Asian American community to reflect on and respond to her daughter’s central question: What does it mean to be Asian American?
Poon conducts interviews with Asian Americans throughout the US who have been actively engaged in policy debates over race-conscious admissions or affirmative action. Through these exchanges, she finds that Asian American identity remains deeply unsettled in a contest 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.
Poon uses these contrasting viewpoints to guide her conversations with her daughter, providing a heartfelt and optimistic look at how understanding the diversity and nuances of the Asian American experience can help us envision a more equitable future.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Asian American Histories of the United States
- Revisioning History
- By: Catherine Ceniza Choy
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Original and expansive, Asian American Histories of the United States is a nearly 200-year history of Asian migration, labor, and community formation in the US. Reckoning with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in anti-Asian hate and violence, award-winning historian Catherine Ceniza Choy presents an urgent social history of the fastest growing group of Americans. The book features the lived experiences and diverse voices of immigrants, refugees, US-born Asian Americans, multiracial Americans, and workers from industries spanning agriculture to healthcare.
-
-
Great book
- By Ryan Juguan on 03-11-25
-
Emergent Strategy
- By: adrienne maree brown
- Narrated by: adrienne maree brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, here is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. Change is constant. The world, our bodies, and our minds are in a constant state of flux. They are a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, Emergent Strategy teaches us to map and assess the swirling structures and to read them as they happen, all the better to shape that which ultimately shapes us, personally and politically.
-
-
Great book. Too many footnotes.
- By Moon 🌙 on 09-09-23
-
The Making of Asian America
- A History
- By: Erika Lee
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the past 50 years, Asian Americans have helped change the face of America and are now the fastest growing group in the United States. The Making of Asian America tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day.
-
-
Great content, terrible narration
- By Mrs. Rdz on 10-24-15
By: Erika Lee
-
Black Reconstruction in America
- By: W. E. B. Du Bois, David Levering Lewis
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 37 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This pioneering work was the first full-length study of the role black Americans played in the crucial period after the Civil War, when the slaves had been freed and the attempt was made to reconstruct American society. Hailed at the time, Black Reconstruction in America has justly been called a classic.
-
-
The textbook you should have had in high school.
- By Saleh on 05-06-18
By: W. E. B. Du Bois, and others
-
Imagination
- A Manifesto
- By: Ruha Benjamin
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagination: A Manifesto offers visionary examples and tactics to push beyond the constraints of what we think, and are told, is possible. This book is for anyone who is ready to take to heart Toni Morrison's instruction: "Dream a little before you think."
-
-
Namaste 🙏🏾
- By Lance on 03-18-25
By: Ruha Benjamin
-
Where I Belong
- Healing Trauma and Embracing Asian American Identity
- By: Soo Jin Lee, Linda Yoon
- Narrated by: Jeena Yi, Catherine Ho, Will Dao
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Coauthors Soo Jin Lee and Linda Yoon are professional therapists who witnessed firsthand how mental health issues often went unaddressed not only in their own immigrant families, but in Asian and Asian American communities. Where I Belong shows us how the cycle of trauma can play out in our relationships, placing Asian American experiences front and center to help us process and heal from racial and intergenerational trauma.
-
-
exellent
- By jeri on 04-21-24
By: Soo Jin Lee, and others
-
Asian American Histories of the United States
- Revisioning History
- By: Catherine Ceniza Choy
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Original and expansive, Asian American Histories of the United States is a nearly 200-year history of Asian migration, labor, and community formation in the US. Reckoning with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in anti-Asian hate and violence, award-winning historian Catherine Ceniza Choy presents an urgent social history of the fastest growing group of Americans. The book features the lived experiences and diverse voices of immigrants, refugees, US-born Asian Americans, multiracial Americans, and workers from industries spanning agriculture to healthcare.
-
-
Great book
- By Ryan Juguan on 03-11-25
-
Emergent Strategy
- By: adrienne maree brown
- Narrated by: adrienne maree brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, here is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. Change is constant. The world, our bodies, and our minds are in a constant state of flux. They are a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, Emergent Strategy teaches us to map and assess the swirling structures and to read them as they happen, all the better to shape that which ultimately shapes us, personally and politically.
-
-
Great book. Too many footnotes.
- By Moon 🌙 on 09-09-23
-
The Making of Asian America
- A History
- By: Erika Lee
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the past 50 years, Asian Americans have helped change the face of America and are now the fastest growing group in the United States. The Making of Asian America tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day.
-
-
Great content, terrible narration
- By Mrs. Rdz on 10-24-15
By: Erika Lee
-
Black Reconstruction in America
- By: W. E. B. Du Bois, David Levering Lewis
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 37 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This pioneering work was the first full-length study of the role black Americans played in the crucial period after the Civil War, when the slaves had been freed and the attempt was made to reconstruct American society. Hailed at the time, Black Reconstruction in America has justly been called a classic.
-
-
The textbook you should have had in high school.
- By Saleh on 05-06-18
By: W. E. B. Du Bois, and others
-
Imagination
- A Manifesto
- By: Ruha Benjamin
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagination: A Manifesto offers visionary examples and tactics to push beyond the constraints of what we think, and are told, is possible. This book is for anyone who is ready to take to heart Toni Morrison's instruction: "Dream a little before you think."
-
-
Namaste 🙏🏾
- By Lance on 03-18-25
By: Ruha Benjamin
-
Where I Belong
- Healing Trauma and Embracing Asian American Identity
- By: Soo Jin Lee, Linda Yoon
- Narrated by: Jeena Yi, Catherine Ho, Will Dao
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Coauthors Soo Jin Lee and Linda Yoon are professional therapists who witnessed firsthand how mental health issues often went unaddressed not only in their own immigrant families, but in Asian and Asian American communities. Where I Belong shows us how the cycle of trauma can play out in our relationships, placing Asian American experiences front and center to help us process and heal from racial and intergenerational trauma.
-
-
exellent
- By jeri on 04-21-24
By: Soo Jin Lee, and others
Critic reviews
“This book goes there—taking on race and racism within the Asian American community. In these catastrophic times, Dr. Poon’s patient analysis of competing worldviews shows a way out: respectful listening across differences. Not because ‘all sides’ are equally valid but because human beings can change and grow. Fighting for justice sometimes requires walking with those whose steps don’t quite match ours. This lovely amalgam of qualitative research and memoir shows how to walk that walk.”—Mari Matsuda, coauthor of We Won’t Go Back: Making the Case for Affirmative Action with Charles Lawrence
“Bravo! This is that rare scholarly volume that will capture the imagination of additional readers (parents and teachers) looking to explain the complex and difficult problems of race to inquisitive youngsters. Poon’s approach is brilliant, engaging, and long overdue!”—Carl A. Cohn, Professor Emeritus in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University
“Asian American Is Not a Color is a fast-paced, dynamic book that pulls us into challenging conversations about what we should do in a society riven by deep racism. Few books are as sophisticated but also as accessible in exploring Asian American racial identities as they’ve been made, and also as Asian Americans are remaking them today. A fabulous must-read!”—Ian F. Haney López, author of Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism & Wrecked the Middle Class
What listeners say about Asian American Is Not a Color
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Drsalomon
- 11-03-24
Excellent research and book!
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the AAPI community.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!