The Non-United States of Asian America

Self Evident tells Asian American stories — but that term itself, “Asian American,” can mean many different things to different people. In this episode we present three stories from our listener community to explore the ways “Asian American” reflects both representation and exclusion, empowerment and stereotyping, under the diverse umbrella of Asian American identity.

Share your story and keep the conversation going!

We want to hear from you! Do you identify as Asian American? Why or why not? Email your story to community@selfevidentshow.com, or share with us on social media @SelfEvidentShow, with the hashtag #WeAreSelfEvident.

Resources and Recommend Reading:

Key Facts about Asian Americans research from the Pew Research Center

“Who Is Vincent Chin? The History and Relevance of a 1982 Killing” by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang from NBC Asian America

Census Suppression podcast episode of “In the Thick,” with Hansi Lo Wang from NPR and Dorian Warren from the Center for Community Change, for more discussion about the upcoming Census

The Asian American Movement, a history book recommended by Marissiko Wheaton

Activist Amy Uyematsu Proclaims the Emergence of “Yellow Power,” a 1969 article recommended by Marissiko Wheaton

Shout Outs:

In addition to the nearly 100 community members who shared their perspectives with us for this episode, we want to give a special shout out to everyone who sent in voice memos and had conversations with us about how they felt about the term “Asian American”: Akira Olivia Kumamoto, Alana Mohamed, Andrew Hsieh, Julia Arciga, Kelly Chan, Maha Chaudhry, Marissiko Wheaton, Mia Warren, Nicole Go, Sharmin Hossain, and Veasna Has.

This episode was made possible by the generous support of Noah Berland and the rest of our 1,004 crowdfund backers.

Credits:

Produced by Julia Shu and Cathy Erway

Edited by Cheryl Devall and Julia Shu

Tape syncs by Mona Yeh and Shana Daloria

Production support and fact checking by Katherine Jinyi Li

Editorial support from Davey Kim, Alex Laughlin, Managing Producer James Boo, and Executive Producer Ken Ikeda

Sound Engineering by Timothy Lou Ly

Theme Music by Dorian Love

Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound

Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP.

About CAAM: CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.