Bonus: On Class, Kinship, and Being Bangladeshi in Asian America

06/12/19 • 12 min

Sharmin Hossain, a member of New York’s Bangladeshi Feminist Collective, helps us take a hard look at the roles of class, colorism, and cultural education within the broader conversation about Asian representation in America.

This interview was one of many conversations we had when producing Episode 002: “The Non-United States of Asian America.”

To hear more about the impact of caste on South Asian Americans, check out friend of the show Sonia Paul's Code Switch piece, "When Caste Discrimination Comes to the United States."

This interview was one of many conversations we had when producing Episode 002: “The Non-United States of Asian America.”

To hear more about the impact of caste on South Asian Americans, check out friend of the show Sonia Paul's Code Switch piece, "When Caste Discrimination Comes to the United States."

Previous Episode

Share With Us: How did you learn where you come from?

Do you have a story about going to language classes, Saturday schools, religious community groups, clubs, music lessons, or other alternative classrooms where you learned about your culture or heritage? Was it a positive, negative, or mixed experience for you?

We're producing an episode of the podcast exploring the ways that we learn where we come from — for better or for worse. And we want this episode to be based in the experiences of you, our listeners.

So please share your story with us:

Record a voice memo on your phone. Please keep it to three minutes or less. It doesn’t have to be perfect!
Email your voice memo to [email protected]. Include your name, location, and age in the email.

We’re looking for a wide variety of stories and memories, including from people of South Asian, Southeast Asian, East Asian, and Pacific Islander descent; mixed-race folx; adoptees; kids; parents; grandparents; and people who speak a language other than English.

Got an idea for a person or community organization we should talk to about this episode? Please share this bonus episode with them, or email us at [email protected].

Next Episode

The Talk We Were Supposed to Have

Gabe's always felt distant from his parents: not Filipino enough for his dad, not affectionate enough for his mom. But when he moves back to his white-bread hometown to donate a kidney to his dad and work alongside him at the “Fiesta in America,” Gabe is forced to rethink the way he's seen his family, his heritage, and his lifelong struggle to belong.

Share your story and keep the conversation going!

What food or dish reminds you of home? Let us know by writing, or sharing a photo, or even a recipe on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (@selfevidentshow, with the hashtag #WeAreSelfEvident). Cathy and Gabe will kick it off, so watch out for their recipes and memories online!

Resources and Recommend Reading

The 21st annual Fiesta in America will take place on August 10-11, 2019 at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, NJ.

Here's some food for the soul, straight from our team:

And a few articles examining the unique challenges of talking about mental health and accessing mental health resources from an Asian American perspective:

“Don’t Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation About Mental Health,” a diverse collection of essays, lists, comics, and illustrations exploring the meaning and lived experience of mental illness and mental health today
“Overcoming Challenges to Mental Health Services for Asian New Yorkers,” a local study on lack of access to mental health services and cultural competence within those services, released in 2017 by the Asian American Federation
“We’re Fine: What’s Stopping Asian American Millennials From Talking About Mental Health” by Kimberly Truong, for Refinery29

Shout Outs

This story began when Gabe wrote to us to share his deeply personal story and his determination to find meaning in it. Thanks to Gabe, his family, and his friends for allowing us to record these important conversations.

This episode was made possible by the generous support of Cheny Milholand and the rest of our 1,004 crowdfund backers.

Credits

Produced by James Boo and Gabriel Mara

Edited by Cheryl Devall and Julia Shu

Production support and fact checking by Katherine Jinyi Li

Sound engineering by Timothy Lou Ly

Theme music by Dorian Love

Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound

Sound effects by Soundsnap

Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP.

About CAAM

CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.