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No Fats, No Femmes, No Asians: Response to Kris Yi’s “Asian American Experience: The Illusion of Inclusion and the Model Minority Stereotype”

2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 33; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10481885.2023.2160175

1940-9222

Almas Merchant,

Gender Roles and Identity Studies

ABSTRACTThis response to Kris Yi’s paper, Asian American Experience: The Illusion of Inclusion and the Model Minority Stereotype considers the ways in which we are libidinally invested in structures of Whiteness. Using queer theory as well as critical race and postcolonial theory, this paper questions the impossibilities of inclusion and the inescapable seduction of Whiteness. Centering Fanon’s writing on decolonization, this paper argues for the necessity of violence, intrapsychically as well as interpersonally, for structures to fundamentally change rather than seeking inclusion within already existing organizational models that have been informed by exclusivity and whiteness. Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 In popular culture the trope that the queer person will die by the end of the movie/series/book is well established (Jenny Hegel in Late Night with Seth Meyers, Citation2022). Ahmed (Citation2010) describes this as both a necessary compromise formation and an essential way for queerness to assert itself away from the straight gaze. Ahmed (Citation2010) notes for queer fiction to exist, a happy ending was unacceptable in publishing but she also states, “I do wonder whether a queer definition of love might want to separate love from happiness, given how happiness tends to come with rather straight conditions … Queer love might involve happiness only by insisting that such happiness is not what is shared” (p. 100, italics in original). Edelman (Citation2004) offers a parallel idea, positioning queerness in opposition to what he describes as “reproductive futurism.” For him, the queer body must refuse social and political order … and link itself to the force of negativity of the death drive. His argument is to radically refuse homonormativity in the face of a capitalist agenda.2 It is important to note, that as a South Asian woman reading Yi’s paper, I am at certainly interpellated in the model minority myth. However Asian Americans is a term that encompasses people from over 20 countries and while the model minority stereotype creates an illusion of inclusion, the concept of an “Asian American” itself is too broad and experiences can be erased under this. For instance, in the US, I have often been asked why I might identify as Asian, to which I have unironically responded, “because that is the continent on which India is located.” This distinction within the Asian diaspora is important not only to acknowledge our individual differences but also to understand the intragroup dynamics at play, which ultimately affect public policy and the ways in which we direct our resources. Zhou (Citation2021) writes, “While Asian American was a term established by activists in the 1960s as a means to build political power, it’s also been criticized for obscuring the immense diversity among those it purports to cover, centering East Asians and preventing specific ethnic groups from getting the policy support they need. Asian Americans not only have the largest income gap of any racial group but also massive health care, education, and economic disparities … Southeast Asians in particular, are among those who’ve been overlooked: 19% of Cambodians live in poverty in the US, compared to 12% of Asian people and 15% of all people.” Thus, the term “Asian American” flattens experiences and allows for persistent intragroup discrimination and racism to persist.3 I use the word “orient” to refer to Ahmed’s (Citation2008) call to “queer” our orientation.4 Lacanian analysts Sheldon George and Derek Hook (Citation2020) have described the pleasures of hating in their consideration of racism and Hook refers to such investments as a libidinal treasure in their talk for Psychological Humanities and Ethics Programs.5 It is important to note that it is only through Yi’s work in the Multicultural Concerns Committee within the American Psychological Association’s Division 39, the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology and the creation and development of the scholars program and her mentorship, that I have been able to join and flourish within psychoanalytic communities.6 As a graduate student, I was particularly drawn to Masud Khan’s writing and found myself, on multiple occasions despairing in the ways that he had been used as an object of the white gaze and seduced by it rather than exploring his own libidinal investment.7 Fanon has recently been brought back into the fold by contemporary analytic thinkers and unsurprisingly it is authors of color have been the primary drivers of engaging with postcolonial theory. Given what I just stated about the risk of erasure, I am grateful that these powerful voices have begun the work of decolonization (Knoblauch, Citation2020; Sheehi & Sheehi, Citation2022).8 Consider the recent rise to power of the current prime minister of England, Rishi Sunak. His ascent is being hailed as England’s “Obama” moment. And yet, one must contend with the fact that Sunak is not only a fiscal conservative and belongs to a party so anti-immigrant it gave us one of the most complicated political divorces in the 21st century by way of Brexit, but also that “Dishy” Rishy is conventionally handsome and so wealthy that he is referred to as Rishy Rich. Media outlets have hammered these specific facts home over and over again, and I believe that his looks and wealth are compensatory actions for us to tolerate his brown body in the lily white space of 10 Downing Street. Seeing this brown man in the seat of power in a country that has caused mine historical trauma on the basis of race, it is difficult not to be seduced by the illusion – even as I see the ways his acceptance is only possible through his wealth, appearance, and abhorrent politics.9 Fanon’s last book, The Wretched of the Earth, was published while he was in exile from his home. In 1954, Fanon had joined the “Front de Liberation Nationale” while still working as a psychiatrist in a French hospital in Algeria, treating both Algerian anti-colonial torture survivors as well as the French soldiers who carried out the torture. In 1956, he recognized his complicity in the colonial structures and “refused the bribe,” much like James Baldwin. He resigned from the hospital and was later expelled from Algeria. In 1961, The Wretched of the Earth was published and censored by the French government.Additional informationNotes on contributorsAlmas (Ally) MerchantAlmas (Ally) Merchant, Ph.D. is a psychologist and supervisor in community mental health at Sun River Health and in group practice in New York City. Ally’s work focuses on using critical race, postcolonial, and queer theory within a psychoanalytic framework in her practice with children, adolescents, adults, and families as well as in her teaching model.