Book Talk: Asian American is Not a Color with OiYan A. Poon

Event Date: Wednesday, April 30 · 7 - 8:30pm CDT

Join us on Wednesday, April 30 at 7 p.m. to celebrate the paperback release of Dr. OiYan Poon's captivating and timely book Asian American is Not a Color, in conversation with Elizabeth Todd-Breland!

About the Book

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.

About the Author

OiYan Poon is an educator, author, speaker, and race and education scholar. She is co-director of the College Admissions Futures Co-Laborative and a former Senior Research Fellow for Education Equity at the NAACP LDF Thurgood Marshall Institute.

Dr. Poon is a community-engaged research scholar, educator, storyteller, and leader for intersectional racial equity. Her research has focused on the racial politics of Asian Americans, education access, affirmative action, and admissions systems and practices.

Dr. Poon has worked closely in partnership with practitioner-leaders to advance race and class equity in college admissions. In 2019-20, with practioner-leaders from ACCEPT, she co-led the Hack the Gates project, which convened researchers and practitioners in college admissions to begin reimagining college admissions systems.

After earning her Bachelor's degree at Boston College and M.Ed. in College Student Affairs Administration at the University of Georgia, Dr. Poon worked in multicultural student affairs as the first Asian Pacific American Student Affairs director at George Mason University and the first Student Affairs Officer in Asian American Studies at UC Davis. She earned her PhD in Race & Ethnic Studies in Education and Graduate Certificate in Asian American Studies at UCLA.

Born and raised in Massachusetts to immigrants from Hong Kong, Dr. Poon now lives in Chicago with her husband and daughter.

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