Reviews

Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics by Shireen Roshanravan, Piya Chatterjee, Lynn Fujiwara

marianatole's review

4.0

I most enjoyed reading “Decolonizing API: Centering Indigenous Pacific Islander Feminism” and “Race, Reproductive Justice, and the Criminalization of Purvi Patel.” All of the essays in the book were dense for me, but these two communicated theory to me in a way that didn’t feel too academic. I also liked how concrete the proposals were for ways forward re: coalition and solidarity building that went along with the essays’ analyses.

alliej's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

4.5

amyho's review

4.0

Super dense....but great analysis

hilaryreadsbooks's review

4.0

Fujiwara and Roshanravan bring together a set of essays that provides a space to reflect on how Asian American feminist thought has intersected with radical Black, Chicanx, and Latinx feminist theory and organizing and why we, as Asian American feminists, still need to continue to learn from Women of Color politics. While really academic (and thus sometimes not as readily accessible if you don't have certain theoretical backgrounds), I felt like the essays touched on many important themes within Asian American feminisms and guided me to a lot of further readings.

Was particularly interested in Stephanie Nohelani Teves and Maile Arvin's essay "Decolonizing API: Centering Indigenous Pacific Islander Feminism" on erasure of history and indigeneity of Pacific Islanders by ignorantly including the "PI" in API and Ma Vang's "The Language of Care" on Hmong refugee activism, as demonstrated by healthcare interpreters (largely women) who are not just able to translate language but also worldviews.

Would recommend to anyone who is interested in Asian American and/or gender studies.