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Book Review: The Glass Palace

At the risk of sounding cliche, Amitav Gosh’s The Glass Palace is an important book. It’s importance begins with the subject matter – a one-hundred year span of history that unfolds in India, Malaya (now Malaysia) and Burma (now Myanmar), all countries of which most Americans, myself included, know precious little. The book addresses the impact of colonialism in the region over these one-hundred years by telling the stories of three generations of families whose lives are bound together by political change.

The sweep of history is breathtaking, carrying the reader through two world wars, and the independence movement that … Read more “Book Review: The Glass Palace”

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Blog

More on Asian Privilege

My post yesterday about Asian privilege got me thinking about the complexities of being Asian American. Blog length articles just don’t cut it when it comes to trying to tackle that subject matter. There are always ideas that just don’t fit within my self-imposed 850 (more or less) word limit.

For instance, while I believe Asian privilege is a real thing, it certainly didn’t protect the seven people murdered when a racist opened fire on members of a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin last August. In fact, post-9/11 Islamophobia has imposed an experience of racism on South Asians in … Read more “More on Asian Privilege”