Minor Feelings: A Reckoning on Race and the Asian Condition
Asians lack presence. Asians take up apologetic space. We don’t even have enough presence to be considered real minorities. We’re not racial enough to be token. We’re so post-racial we’re silicon.
Cathy Park Hong • Minor Feelings: A Reckoning on Race and the Asian Condition
“Stinking thinking,”
Cathy Park Hong • Minor Feelings: A Reckoning on Race and the Asian Condition
The American psychologist Albert Ellis is credited with coining the phrase ‘stinking thinking’ to describe the human tendency to persistently engage with thoughts that do not serve us.
There was no reason for me to be depressed. But anytime I was happy, the fear of an awful catastrophe would follow, so I made myself feel awful to preempt the catastrophe’s hitting. Overtaxed by this anxiety, I sank into deep depression.
Cathy Park Hong • Minor Feelings: A Reckoning on Race and the Asian Condition
The first thing I noticed was the size of her face. The therapist had an enormous face. I wondered if this was a problem for her, since Korean women are so self-conscious about the size of their faces that they will go under the knife to shave their jawlines down