Is “Asian-American” a viable category?

Why not engage in some utopian thinking? Albert makes the case.

Hello dear friends,

Happy Easter/Passover/Tomb-Sweeping Festival! And hello from another national lockdown! Just as he did in his previous appearances, Macron came across Wednesday as defensive and haughty, unable to take responsibility for his government’s catastrophic pandemic response and inept vaccine rollout over the past couple of months. France had 46,000 new COVID cases yesterday and hospitals are at 140% capacity. It’s grim.  

Since the pandemic began, the Time to Say Goodbye podcast, hosted by Jay Caspian Kang, Tammy Kim, and Andy Liu, has been provocative listening for thinking about Asian America and Asian Americanness, among many other topics. Their recent crossover episode with The Dig was illuminating. In one of its most interesting moments, the host asks about the utility of “Asian-American,” a term for a notoriously heterogeneous group. (A Pew Research report shows that more than twenty million Asian-Americans have roots in at least twenty countries spanning East and S…