The Loneliest Americans by Jay Caspian Kang

THE LONELIEST AMERICANS by Jay Caspian Kang is about the “desperate need to find oneself within the narrative of a country that would rather write you out of it.” In his introduction, Kang says that the assimilating Asian “wants to become as white as white will allow” and “the loneliness comes from the realization that nobody, whether white or Black, really cares if we succeed.” Drawing on his own family’s experience, Kang reflects frequently on the differences in attitudes and experiences between generations. He comments, too, on the impact of class disparities between a multicultural elite and working-class immigrants and he muses about “a rarely discussed, but overlapping, history of how Jews and Asians have been treated by the elite institutions they hope to join.” Returning to the concept of assimilation he describes an idea that transcends race: “the other paradox at the heart of immigrant strivers is that we work so that our children will become the spoiled children we despise.” THE LONELIEST AMERICANS is a thought-provoking treatise worth reading. Kang, a regular New York Times contributor, has also written eloquently about disinformation, citing a recent Stanford study on the benefits of lateral reading.

Here are links to some related resources: Last month New York Times’ Learning Network published a Lesson of the Day about Asian Americans Grapple With Tide of Attacks. And, like many other organizations, the New York Public Library provides a list of recommended titles for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.