This thread must have happened while I was off twitter last year but I agree w/ every single word. And I really hate that there are so many fantastic books by Asian American authors writing about being Asian Am but this is the one that is being made into a movie. https://twitter.com/naomigiddings/status/1128704083106377729

The thing I hate the most about this book is how much Park, and seriously wtf with that name??!!, hates being Asian - hates looking Asian - wishes he looked more white like his brother who takes after his white father. I fucking hate him and this book.

And every white reviewer who invalidates every AsianAm criticizing this book by saying "It's about the 80s!" As if being set in the 80s gives the author the right to be racist while writing ABOUT a half Korean character who hates looking Korean.

This book won the Printz award for excellence in YA. So lets talk about why awards are given to books that are so offensively racist which continues to keep these books selling and continues to marginalize Asian Am kids in this country. Vicious cycle.

I'm going to say this over and over again, if you want to write POC characters it comes with a huge responsibility to do it right and respectfully. Park from E&P was clearly written without any attempt to getting him or his mother culturally right & that is so enraging.

On top of all this, Park was also a biracial character. A bi-racial Asian character is not the same as a full Asian character. There are so many complex layers in bi-racial identity - and the only one the author focused on was the part about wishing they looked more white.

I don't care that this movie has an Asian director I will never see it bc any promotion of the movie will promote this book & that is just unacceptable to me. I've really had it with how the entertainment industry has no problem with continued racism against Asians.

If we're not whitewashedout, we're mocked, insulted, stereotyped, or just completely erased. I am so done. AsianAms need to be more vocal, more angry, more MORE. We need to make sure they don't ignore our voices anymore. I'm done being nice.

I'm going to add on to this thread bc I want to address the issue of an Asian director. Specifically a Japanese director who is not Asian American. Diasporic Asians have a completely different experience & our issues w/ racism are entirely different.

And even if the author thinks that the film might be where she redeems herself from the racism of the book, let's be clear, the book will always remain the source material and will continue to sell and hurt generations of Asian Americans. So no thank you.