Response to Minor Feelings

Less a review and more contemplation

This book was more acerbic in some ways than anything else. The humor didn’t strike me as particularly funny, some of the sarcasm and irony seemed understandable.

I have mixed feelings about the essays shared, along with the right for writers to use others’ stories for their own profit.

Take Helen, for instance. She didn’t consent to having her story in the essays, and she pretty explicitly told the author not to use her information.

Maybe that’s why they say artists often steal.

I wish I was more sympathetic to what she talked about, but the delivery was so brutal sometimes that I couldn’t stomach it well. When she says that topics about race have to be more palatable, I understand where she’s coming from. I do still believe that the message is more important than the medium sometimes.

It’s not that I disagree with what she says. It’s that she spares no mercy in calling out the shit in the world. Maybe we need more voices like hers to advocate for our position.

Times are slowly changing, though. There are a sprinkling of Asian millionaires and CEOs now. But the racial barriers that East Asians face in acquiring leadership roles are all too real.