Speaker 0 00:00 KPI <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:10 <inaudible>
Speaker 2 00:20 You are listening to right on radio on cafe 90.3 FM and streaming live on the web at <inaudible> dot org. I am Liz <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:30 <inaudible>
Speaker 3 00:35 Tonight on, right on radio. And he talks with dr. Sujin, but a work from orphaned to adopting us empires and genealogies of Korean adoption. As a former professor, as a former professor, excuse me, she has taught courses on U S history and culture through the lens of race, class, gender, and sexuality at various colleges and universities in the twin cities area as a DEI practitioner that is diversity, equity and inclusiveness. She helps company and organism companies and organizations and bed equity into their systems and processes all this and more. So stay tuned to write on radio.
Speaker 1 01:12 Yeah.
Speaker 3 01:23 Thank you so much for joining us
Speaker 4 01:24 Tonight. Thank you for having me. It's super exciting to have you here to talk about a lot of things, but especially your book with the university of Minnesota, press from orphaned Adip D um, and I was wondering if you could just kick us off before our conversation, um, by reading a segment of the book that's important to you.
Speaker 5 01:41 I thought I would begin by just contextualizing this short excerpts that I'll be reading, um, before I dig into the actual book. So my book provides an alternative history and understanding of Korean adoption by rooting it in the U S military occupation of South Korea that began in 1945. And in conducting research for my book, I came across numerous film reels that were created by the department of defense for the sole purpose of marketing, the good work they were doing in South Korea. So this footage became the raw material for us news outlets, such as paramount news Movietone news, and even the Bob hope show to help publicize the benevolent force of the U S military and South Korea. So we see, and the majority of the footage, soldiers handing out candy or donated toys and clothes, as well as throwing Christmas parties for Korean orphans in 1953 alone, 481 Christmas parties were given by army personnel.
Speaker 5 02:43 Wow. So, yeah. Yeah. So and so, um, in this exert, I analyzed one of these parties from, um, my first chapter of the book, these relief goods. So the candy, the clothes and the food, especially the sugary kind. We're not only used to help relieve if only for a moment, but desperate conditions in which the orphans lived, but also to help relieve the image of a ruthless American military, the charitable acts of humanitarianism work to rehabilitate the image of an imposing us Imperial power by not only erasing state violence, but also by propping up American soldiers as the rescuer, rather than colonizer relief worker, rather than occupier the image of the GI as relief worker. However, has women, despite the desire to create the conditions in which a fantasy of rescue can be lived out. There are moments in the film world where we see orphan children shatter the Spanish II via their refusal to see the GI as a humanitarian.
Speaker 5 03:52 For example, although most of the film Niels are silent, a segment of a Christmas party and Dole bond has found in this scene. We're given a rare glimpse into the verbal interaction that took place between American soldiers and Korean orphans. As we see GI passing out candy to the orphan children, we hear a soldier say, huh, number one, huh? We cannot hear the children's voices. However, this question implies that he is most likely responding to the orphans calling out. Number one, according to Paul Dickson in his study of American war slang, number one, which is listed in the chapter, the code of the Korean conflict means the best. It was a common phrase used by American soldiers during the Korean war to cert themselves as a new world power and leader. After emerging from world war II, Victoria of all the English phrases they could have learned it is this one that emerges from the lips of these Korean children, or rather to be more precise.
Speaker 5 04:58 It has this phrase that is repeated by the soldier silent thing, the children's voices, while making the soldiers voice. I'm going to say that again, silent thing, the children's voices while making the soldiers voice audible could be read as another instance of a U S military enacting violence against these children. However, we could also read this as an instance where the excesses of neo-colonial contradiction are dumped on soldier. The best American military domination over the Southern portion of Korea is the very reason why these Korean children are displaced and gathered into orphanages built by us armed forces. In other words, being number one has relegated these children to their orphan status. Furthermore, it is the very domination that created the conditions for the show of charity and humanitarianism dominance provided the occasion for benevolence without dominance acts of charity and other forms of benevolence would not be necessary, but even more than this, the scene reveals that no amount of candy cookies, parties and orphanages can erase the violence perpetrated against these children.
Speaker 5 06:15 Thus, the scene illustrates just how inadequate acts of benevolence are when followed by acts of dominance. The bodies of these children prove the limits of benevolence when it has been paid by the road of state violence, the Shoal soldier wielding sugary sweets, rather than a gun embodies limits of charity work at the children and calling out number one, see him for who he really is. Military power, even though he is trying to pass as a humanitarian, they refuse to enable the U S military to live out its fantasy of rescue after behaving like a colonial occupier by calling him out for who he really is. They shatter the fantasy of the American soldier as a humanitarian. That's it?
Speaker 4 07:07 All right. Well, I think that was a great introduction to a lot of what the book is about and a lot of groundbreaking research that the book puts forth, um, for anyone who, uh, likes it when there is a photo insert in the book. Um, I'd like to point out that there's a really great photo insert near where, um, the expert that Sujin just read is, um, that kind of depicts situations that the children are in, in, um, camp parties in camps in general. Um, just like generally as white adults, uh, invade their space. Um, so yeah, thank you for that great context into your research. Um, so we can start out the conversation. Um, could you let us know how you kind of found and discovered your work about adoption, racism and colonialism? I think you're hitting such an important nexus there, and I'd love to hear how it coalesced for you.
Speaker 5 08:01 Sure, sure. So, uh, yes. Um, great question. So, um, it was the last semester of my senior year of undergrad. When I took a course on the Harlem Renaissance, it was the first course in African American literature that was ever offered in the college's history. And in reading the poetry of LinkedIn shoes and the fiction of their own Neale Hurston. This was the first time that I read literature that actually mirrored how I felt and what I thought about the world and myself, that thing a lot since I was an English major and an avid reader. So this course literally changed the trajectory of my life because I was supposed to graduate and become a high school English teacher and said, I went to Howard university to learn more about this literature that spoke to the very core of my being. And it was at Howard where I learned how intimately racism and colonialism connected to transnational adoption.
Speaker 5 08:59 Specifically, there are two books that helped me connect those dots, and that served as kind of a foundation for my, um, uh, combining of this nexus that you pointed out. Um, the first book is all the black folk by, on web Dubois and reading his, um, thesis on the affects of racism on the psyche of people of color, and especially his theory of double consciousness. It's like he looked into my psyche and articulated for me, the internal conflict. I was experiencing my entire life, a person of color living in a white family and a white community. Yeah. This was really foundational and then an eye opening for me. Um, and then the second book is decolonizing the mind by interview, walking on gold and reading this book is when I first made the collection between adoption and colonialism. This book is what planted in me, the idea that perhaps adoption was a project of colonization because the way he talked about it, mirrored so much of my own experience and this too, um, was a life changing book for me. It's because of this book that I took back my Korean name and formally changed it to, um, to what it is now.
Speaker 4 10:23 Oh, wow. That's fascinating. Well, I hope everyone at home is a, got a pen out to write down their, their syllabus for quarantine reading. Um, if those aren't, if those are books that are familiar to people, um, yeah. And then you,
Speaker 5 10:38 We encourage, especially for those that are trying to undo kind of the societal messages that we're constantly being bombarded with. Um, like, yeah, like you, you need to undergo a process of decolonization and, um, walking angle's book. I highly recommend that along with souls of black folk and, um, black skin, white masks by Fernand.
Speaker 4 11:04 Sweet, great. Um, yeah, I feel like yes, learning by reading is such an important tool for that kind of thing, a space where you can unpack your own whiteness in like a personal space where you can process it more on your own. Um, and then you took, um, you took your, um, adoption racism, colonialism triad, um, and you brought them to a PhD, correct? Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I love the way your work, um, takes a balance of historical research and artists insight. Um, when I was reading the book, I was excited because it would pass between like a historical text or a historical archive, and then say a piece of performance art, um, or writing by contemporary Korean Americans. Um, could you tell me a little bit about how you chose your sources and how you cultivated the right balance for your project?
Speaker 5 12:03 Sure. Yeah. So I'm all about highlighting and prioritizing the voices and experiences of people who've been historically marginalized or left out. So in taking this approach to my research, I constantly ask myself is twofold question on the one hand whose voices are dominant on the other hand, whose voices are missing. So in the context of adoption scholarship, it's dominated by not adoptive voices, primarily social workers, adoptive agents and adoptive parents kind of have taken up that space in the context of the adoption triad and by triad, it's the adoptive parents, the adoptive child and the birth parents. So they create that triangle who are relationship adoptive parents, voice that has historically controlled the narrative about adoption. The adopted child on the other hand has no voice because the adoptive parents or social worker or adopted agent often speaks on behalf of the child and that's for their birth parents. Like they're not even barely present. Like they have historically been silenced. Their voice is typically missing in that, in the narrative. So as an adoptee myself, I was weary of non adoptees speaking for me.
Speaker 5 13:27 Okay. So yes, we're either silent. We were spoken for. So it became really important to me that adoptive voices decentered, which led me to focus on the cultural production of Korean adoptee. So they'll performance art, the films, the memoirs, the plays, um, uh, during the initial phase of my book project, however, because art is never produced in a vacuum, it made sense to provide some historical context around, like around this art, right? And that led me to the national archives to in Maryland. And I will never forget sitting in this dark dusty dank room watching the old, silent black and white newsreels and film footage that was taken by the department of defense. And, um, um, I saw images of children running in all directions with their mouth wide open and a screen images of children wailing in the midst of rubble after a Bonnie images of children sitting alongside the road side, crying as they held everything they owned in a small bundle on their lap.
Speaker 5 14:44 And while these films were completely silent, I felt and heard everything that was shown on their little faces. And I thought of the baby that was growing inside me. Oh, nearly. Yeah. So I was nearly six months pregnant thinking of how no parent imagined this kind of future for these children, thinking about unimaginable pain. The parents must be feeling who are separated from their children and the chaos of war and thinking about what I can do to help protect my child from a similar fate. And it also, you know, thing, these film reels, it triggered in me my own sense of panic when I was forcibly taken away from my aunt, my birth mother. So, so this was, I mean, as you can imagine, an extremely pivotal emotional, like moment for me, and I sat through hours and hours of this footage, um, trying to, you know, to, to subdue my crying as much as possible as other researchers where, you know, in the room around me.
Speaker 5 15:51 And, um, so here's the thing, here's the thing there is this taken for granted assumption that Korean adoption began when Henry Holt adopted eight mixed race babies after the Korean war and did in a ceasefire agreement. And I took this origin story for granted as well. I believe that hook line and certain thinker. However, what I see in these film reels was proof that the conditions that made adoption even possible started long before the war quote unquote ended. So I ended up doing some more research and found that GIS actually adopted orphans prior to Holt. So while Holt institutionalized Korean adoption, the phenomenon of Korean adoption, as I argue in the book began shortly after world war II with a military occupation of the Southern portion of the Korean peninsula and seeing the film, they changed the entire direction as a of my book. I couldn't ignore what I saw nor what I felt. So that's how I ended up with a book that drew on these rich historical resources and, um, the Korean adoptees and artists and their works that you mentioned.
Speaker 4 17:07 Yeah. Well, I think that you've created this truly remarkable combination of very personal stories and, uh, important world history. Um, what conversations in community and education spaces has this book unlocked that you're aware of? Cause I know that it, again, it hits on some really important combinations and really, um, opens up the opportunity for adoptees to speak for themselves.
Speaker 5 17:32 Yeah, yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Um, well I think, you know, um, my book shifted how we think about adoption by questioning this taken for granted assumption that transnational adoption or international adoption is this grant humanitarian project that's totally benevolent done out of the goodness and generosity of kind white Americans. And I say white, um, because transnational adoptions are fueled by white American desires for family making. So why is this a problem you might ask? Well, because framing transnational adoption as a humanitarian act of rescue erases so many things, if he races the violent conditions that would necessitate that act of quote unquote rescue. And I would be remiss if I didn't point out that that violence is usually enacted by some external occupying force. Um, it also erases the enormous trauma for birth mothers. Many of whom were and are continually forced to relinquish their parental rights.
Speaker 5 18:38 And it raises the trauma for adoptees who are stripped from their birth families first country and birth culture in one fell swoop. So by resisting this dominant narrative, my book helps us to understand that transnational adoption is tied to larger forces that are political, economic and social. And that adoption is not just about the gains and the benefits that are accrued, but that there are innumerable losses as well. And I think this more than anything is crucial for adoptive parents to understand, especially those who are expecting their child to be happy and grateful that they were adopted.
Speaker 4 19:18 Well, I think that, yeah, that's really great considerations. Um, and to kind of dive into unpacking, um, sort of adoption colonialism, how they intertwine and how they're separate. Um, I'd like to, uh, bring into consideration, um, the, within, um, within the United States and presumably many other places in the world. Um, there is a combination and I feel like, especially in the United States, because of what you mentioned, um, there's a cultural combination of, um, some adoptions are international. Some adoptions are domestic, um, personally, um, several people that I'm close to were adopted, um, into families, uh, with parents who share their race. Um, so this book was, uh, such a fascinating and eye opening experience for me because much of the second half of the book really resonated and harmonized with those experiences that my loved ones have described. Um, but much of the interracial tension for me was just purely new eyeopening.
Speaker 4 20:21 For me. It was like a very interesting, I feel like, um, just based on circles that I've been in not to make this too much about me, but based on circles that I've been in, I feel like, um, the similarities in the ways that, um, adoption and colonialism overlap truly can't be ignored, but they're also nuances in different ways and places that people are adopted from. So I was wondering if based on your research, you could speak a little to the ways adoption and colonialism share some tenants, um, but are still, um, at their core different projects that can coincide.
Speaker 5 20:57 Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's um, a really good observation. So yes, um, adoption and colonial was on are, are very different. Um, but they're also certainly related. And I think the easiest way to visualize their relationship is to think about, you know, colonialism, um, as an umbrella category under which adoption falls as transnational adoption is a tool of colonization. So when we think about colonialism, it's generally understood as taking over someone else's land and resources and by resources, it includes the very people that land as well. So how do you call Annise a people by physical force? Absolutely. No project of colonization has done without violence, but you can also take over a people by taking over the mind. So, and how do you take over someone's mind by getting them to think like you, and in this case, culture and language become the avenues in which do that.
Speaker 5 22:00 Um, post-colonial cycle analyst fonts went on, who I mentioned earlier in his book, black skin, white math. He States that language assumed culture. And that is why one of the first things a colonizer does is ban the use of one's native tongue and replaced it with a colonizer's language. Um, the quota project also necessitate. So taking away a one identity because it allows the colonizer to define you the power to define is everything. Definitions, organize our thoughts, our realities, how we see and understand ourselves and each other. So what does that look like to define another? Well, it looks like a newly arrived, African being assigned a new slave name. It looks like native children forced to cut their hair and Dawn on European style clothes and take on English, sounding Nate during their boarding school years. And it looks like a little Korean girl named park.
Speaker 5 23:03 Sujin becoming Katie link girl who sounded and acted white. My colonization was so complete that I thought of myself as a white girl and adoption facilitated that process. And when my friends told me, we don't think of you as Asian, we think of you as white. I thought I received the best compliment ever. And many of my Korean adoptee friends have the same exact story. So here's the thing about colonization and also kind of the, um, the, the dynamics that are different from like domestic same race versus, um, transnational or, and, or trans racial adoptions colonized. Well, actually I'm, I'm actually, um, I'm gonna, I'm going to stick to just transnational, not so much the transracial part. So as it relates to transnational international adoption. Yes. So here's the thing about colonization colonized. People are constantly being defined by their colonizers. So when we reclaim our language, reclaim our culture and reclaim the power to define ourselves for ourselves, that's true power and a powerful antidote to colonialism and the colonization of one's mind. And I've tried to incorporate, you know, these learnings in my own life. I've tried to reclaim that power by writing this book, as well as reclaiming my Korean name and to a lesser degree of success. Where are you learning a Korean?
Speaker 4 24:41 Yeah, there absolutely. Um, that's yeah, that's amazing that you've done that. And, um, there's a part in the book that, um, when I th it gave me goosebumps when I read it and still, when I think about it, it sometimes does, um, where, um, uh, Korean adoptee dreams that, um, she was able to learn Korean and able to have interests that are from Korean culture and that she got to meet her Korean Mo mother and that her adoptive mother, um, helped her throw a funeral to honor her birth mother's life when her birth mother passed. Um, and that just, yeah, that just that image really, uh, sticks with me. And I think it's a really good demonstration of, um, like the whole that is created by that, um, sort of eraser.
Speaker 5 25:33 Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 4 25:37 Yeah. Well,
Speaker 5 25:37 It's really what my book is trying to like Luminate, right. Is that there's all these holes and gaps that that's had real, tangible, concrete effects on people, people, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 25:53 When I first heard about you and your work from a mutual friend, um, she mentioned your, um, women of color book club that you've organized. Um, and I was really intrigued and excited, um, to hear about this concept and kind of the space you've created. Uh, could you tell your audience and me a little more about this organization?
Speaker 5 26:12 Sure. I'd love to. So this came from a desire to take care of my mind and spirit. Um, I take self care really, um, personally, uh, as Audrey Lord says, self care is a radical act, especially for those of us and habiting, um, these marginalized identities. And so, you know, our society is inundated with messages that says people of color are less than that. Women of color deserve to be on the bottom, et cetera, these messages morph and the large you in the form of microaggressions at work, walking to the bus, or when you're just minding your own business and you get spat on. So like it's so crushing stuff. And, um, and I remember, you know, like sitting with all this and, and thinking about my time at Howard, being at educated at an HBC youth school was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.
Speaker 5 27:13 Because one of the greatest gifts I received there with the knowledge that books could heal, it could validate, affirm, celebrate, and cherish the lies of oppressed peoples. Prior to that, my experience was books was the complete opposite. People like me were either absent, so we're invisible or totally missing or denigrated as these horrible stereotypes. But at Howard I read books that made me feel like I mattered that I was valuable and that my voice and ideas not only mattered, but were essential and helping to transform our world to be more equitable. So when I remembered the healing power of books by people of color, I started over a book club of my own for women of color. And I only had one rule going in that it was for women of color, including not only the bodies, but also the books themselves. So all the books we chose had to be written by women of color.
Speaker 5 28:16 And it started off with just two people, myself and my friend and ISA. And then I'd run into friends through sounded just like me. We go various isms at work and in life and tired of being the only, or one of few women of color at work, you know, they were seeking sisterhood like me to battle the loneliness that comes from being othered all the time. And so I told them about the book club and eventually two became five. And so I just want to take a moment to give a shout out to my crew who are tuning in a Nissa, Abdul Kadir, Kiana town, Angie Porter, and Sarah Harun. Big up to you. I love you ladies. So we purposely kept the books. I'm small because a, we wanted strong participants. So if you think about it coordinating the schedule to five people is a lot easier than 10 B. We wanted strong, committed participation. So while we don't require that you read the entire book, it's definitely an expectation that we have because we go deep into these books, analyzing them, making connections to our lives and to the other books that we've read. I am a former professor after all.
Speaker 5 29:36 So it's definitely quality over quantity. And because we keep it a small group, our conversations are focused deep and soul stirring. And where we meet is determined by the themes or culture that's represented in the book we're reading. So because we all love food, we either meet at a restaurant or at one of our homes with food and drinks that represent the books that we're reading and we end up. Yeah. So we ended up supporting local businesses of color through our book club as well.
Speaker 4 30:06 Oh, cool. Yeah. That, um, that sounds like an ideal act of self care. Um, I like how you pulled in that Audra Lorde quote a moment ago. Um, when I think about connecting with like minded people over books, I think about it as an opportunity for intellectual growth work, but also, um, an act of self care. Like you said, um, an opportunity to be honest and vulnerable in ways we may not be able to in like a workplace experience or some broader and larger social settings, um, how in your book club, do you find self care and intellectual growth work, balancing, collaborating, or even, uh, clashing, um, in your book club discussions?
Speaker 5 30:48 Okay. Well, yeah, I had the same thought that, you know, like, that's exactly why I started this book club. It's about that self care, right? And I'm bringing together like minded people where we can be vulnerable. You know, there's definitely the sense of release and exhale of sorts that we feel when, where we can let our guard down. And now that we're meeting over video chat, we show up in our head wraps roles, confused days, not performing for each other or for anybody. And we don't have to watch what we say for fear of accidentally offending someone or coming across as a stereotype. We penned those B. Um, and as it relates to the self care part, you know, um, we are very intentional about creating a judgment free space book club. Um, as we use our time together to offset all the hate and indifference that we experience outside of our inner circles.
Speaker 5 31:48 And because of that judgment free space, where we can just speak freely from our hearts, the rapport that we've created, it's such where we can challenge and disagree with each other without taking it as a personal front. So, um, Kiana was saying something similar to this at our last meeting, when she shared this observation, she said something to the effect of, we hold each other with such deep respect and admiration that when our ideas or our perspectives are challenged a bit, we know it comes from a place of love and deep care. So we welcome it because we want to be fierce. And why as a person who sharing that alternative point of view, it ends up like, you know, becoming a love Fest of the most nurturing and healing time. We all leave feeling a bit more healed than when we entered the books, along with the women, they form a sisterhood that acts as Healy medicine, as medicine for our souls.
Speaker 4 32:53 Also, just to me hearing that, that just sounds like an ideal environment for learning like a place where you are able to feel respected and you feel respect towards those you're speaking with, um, where you know, that people are delivering honesty and full attention to you and you feel ready to bring that back. Um,
Speaker 5 33:13 Yeah. And, and, you know, I mean, as like, because like I am so as an educator, I'm so passionate about pedagogy and that's, I mean, that's, that's what it's all about. It's about like, how can we create the conditions in which, you know, in this respect learning connection, vulnerability, like it's easy to do. Right. And, and it's, and, and because, because we've created that space, like we don't, it doesn't mean that we shy off of, um, challenging disagreeing or, or providing pushback. We do that all the time, you know, w w w we're all like, you know, highly educated career women, fear where, you know, we're opinionated. And so we're constantly pushing back at each other all the time, but because there's that Soundation of trust and love and, you know, shared respect and admiration, that's, that's, that's there. Um, it allows us to be like truly our authentic selves and come in with our full honesty.
Speaker 4 34:19 Yeah. That, that sounds like I just, I'm going to say it again. That just sounds like the perfect place to learn and explore new ideas and process new information. Um, I bet a lot of folks out there listening tonight, um, like me are like, Ooh, how can I start a book club where I can feel, uh, truly heard and to truly listen. Um, Susan, do you have any tips for listeners who are interested in starting a book club, especially one where people share an aspect of personal identity that may be marginalized in the area where they live?
Speaker 5 34:53 Yeah. So, okay. I have four things that, um, that I I'd like to share the first is that the purpose? So, and by setting the purpose, answering the question, what's the goal of the book club. So for us, it was to provide healing medicine through sisterhood and by sisters, it's my sisters, we bearing in through the books we choose as well as the actual sisters to make up a book club. Um, the second is to set the expectations. So what are the expectations for the group for us? It was that it was women of color only, um, that we expected nearly a hundred percent attendance. Um, and that you read most, if not all in book, and then finally to actively participate in conversations and I'm setting these expectations is what helped me determine the last two considerations, which is about the size, what's the size of the group.
Speaker 5 35:50 And then the demographics who is the book called floor. Um, I would, I would also, you know, maybe, um, you know, plug in, you know, like maybe create a set of, um, uh, maybe some ground rules or principles or values that you all can like come to agreement with. So for me, it was really important that it's a judgment free space. I want it, I wanted it to be purposely a space where we can fail, where we can make mistakes, where we can try out new ideas with no judgment whatsoever. And that is the kind of environment that like fuels learning that fuels curiosity, and that opens people's hearts and minds. Um, and finally, if I could just make one more final suggestion, um, I, for those of you that are interested in creating your own book club, I encourage you to use your book club as an opportunity to reduce your fear of people who are different from you.
Speaker 5 36:51 Audrey Lord reminds us that it is not different. That's problematic. It's how we respond to difference. That's problematic. And oftentimes most people respond to difference with suspicion or see it as a threat, as something to be feared, which unfortunately it's something that we're, you know, as folks from Minneapolis, twin cities area, we're experiencing that right now. Like we see that the, the ramifications right. Of what that looks like. So the more we can connect with people who are different from us, and as post-colonial scholar, Jackie Alexander advises, the more we can quote, become fluent in each other's histories and quote, the more different becomes normalized and the less afraid we are of people who are different from us. So really kind of, you know, take this time to do your personal work of uncovering your own biases that you have of, you know, of people who are different from you. Because again, you know, how we respond to fear, especially in these negative ways, it ruin people's lives, it harms people's lives. And so whatever we can, you know, so if we can utilize book clubs to help us, um, you know, to humanize not only ourselves, but others, man, that that's, that's going to be a very, um, powerful book club.
Speaker 4 38:23 Yes. I think that's extremely vital. Um, and I think everyone, everyone listening around the twin cities or even around the United States can agree right now that, um, dehumanizing others leads to violence and often leads to death, um, and any opportunity to gather with others and be genuinely open and vulnerable and learn is so important. Um, so after listening to you talk about all the ways you have taken inspiration from your, um, your education to your career, to your book club, um, what things that you're reading or listening to right now are providing inspiration to you that, um, you want to recommend to our friends listening tonight.
Speaker 5 39:06 Oh, that's a great, great question. So our book club just finished this book by <inaudible> called a place for us. Um, it is, um, Oh, it's about this, um, this, um, Indian Muslim family. And, um, it, we all absolutely loved it. Uh, it is, it is inspiring as it relates to, uh, hope and reconciliation and what worm truly looks like. Um, and yeah, so like this is something that, um, I think readers could really kind of like sink their teeth into another one is, um, we recently read Monique J by Laura <inaudible> and, um, one of the things that was so beautiful about this book is that it really immerses you in indigenous epistemologies. So, and I really think that given, um, the, the fishery, the practice and breaks, you know, that endemic is revealing for us. Oh yeah. Going, you know, going back to indigenous ways of thinking, I do relates to how we relate to each other, how we relate to the planet to nature, you know, like these are all things that, um, would serve humanity well, so, so that's something that I would write I would highly recommend.
Speaker 4 40:35 Well, excellent. Those sound great. Um, and then to just end our conversation this evening, um, which has been so incredibly enlightening, um, a little bird told me that you're, uh, you're working on another book-length project. Um, do you want to fill us in a little on that and share anything?
Speaker 5 40:52 Sure, sure. Yeah. Yeah. So I am working on a memoir and, um, so I like, so I think about my memoir, um, in relationship to my first book, um, from orphan to adopt the, in these two ways from orphan to adopt is about the macro politics of Korean adoption. My mom more is about the micro politics and the, like, what does that look like on an everyday level, you know, related to this, this little girl me, you know? And, um, and then, um, I also, you know, and while my first book, I, that book for academia, this book is near and dear and you both are near and dear to my heart, but just memoir really is a book for me. Um, and you can even tell just from the language, right. But the, the tone and tenor of the language that for me and not for academia. So, um, yeah, so I like I have, um, yeah, so I'm, I'm happy to read a little bit if you don't mind.
Speaker 4 42:02 Oh yeah, we could, yeah. Just, um, go right ahead or, yeah. Okay. For sure. We got, we got about, um, four or five ish minutes. Um, so you can, you can take it, you can take your pick. Okay.
Speaker 5 42:16 Yeah. This is just a like three minutes long. So perfect. This comes from, yeah. This comes from, um, the first part of my memoir, right? It was January and the CUNY book province of South Korea. I was five years old. My aunt, my youngest sister, Sue, John and I were in our winter home was the ADL heated forest. We had two, one room houses in our yard, one for the winter and one for the summer, it was snowing. And I was worried because I'm mom was worried. I should have been home from work by now. A mom was sitting by the window, waiting anxiously for his arrival. I went over to join her, hoping that others same figure would appear behind the white blanket that covered the night guy. If I can trace his steps, I think to myself for helps, I can, will him home.
Speaker 5 43:10 I imagine him walking across the ice covered enough down the river that joins the city of Clooney and our village. I loved going into the city during the summer because it meant I got to ride in the paddle boat that carried up to the other side. The winters, however, were cold in Korea, cold enough to freeze the river. So we walked across it to get to the city. Can't walking across it now to make his way back home. He finally arrived on the banks of the river, inclined onto the snowy road. He walks along the Stonewall that leads straight to our house. This wall was my favorite hiding place to surprise attack my friends. I'd hide behind it and jump out as they walked by. He passed into the Creek along the right where during the previous summer a snake slithered toward my face. As I leaned across it to pick a flower for Alma scaring me to my feet, I ran and screamed all the way home until my aunt held me as do the way my fear.
Speaker 5 44:09 Now he turns left following the stone wall that leads to our yard. I have very few memories of my father, but one that stands out is us walking hand in hand, along this wall, after meeting him at the entrance to welcome him home from work ahead. It's an outhouse where I took revenge on my sister by throwing her favorite shoe down the toilet. And along the outhouses are the road bushes that my father planted this spring before they are dusted with Clery white flakes, like the flower that lightly coats, my favorite cream dessert. Right? Okay. He veers off to the right where winter house is located. He sees his wife and eldest daughter sitting by the window. Their faces blurred by the fall created by the breasts. After a long day at work, it warms his heart to know that it's a Wible, it's highly anticipated.
Speaker 5 45:05 He watches his daughter leap up and run to the door to let him in the embrace. And the child can finally go to bed. Knowing that her opera is home safe and sound. The next morning, I woke up near the window where I fell asleep, waiting for my ABA on. Now what's gone. So with DAPA, he must have left for work already. I thought I dropped my little sister awake so we could play. I thought, didn't come home. She didn't come home that night. I waited for him and he didn't come home. The next two evenings ARPA was missing. I kept asking, where is, when is he coming home? What's her only response. And one night I thought on my creep out of my house with a bunch of candles, she was heading to the river to conduct a ceremony for her missing Hudson. I knew then that might help us with never coming back.
Speaker 4 46:04 Oh, the, the pit of my stomach just dropped listening to that. It was, you created such a tangible and present world in such a feeling of childhood. And Ooh, can't wait to read that. Um, well, thank you so much for being on the show tonight. Sujin um, it's really been a joy to have you, um, well, uh, do you have a, um, great. Do you have a website where people can find you?
Speaker 5 46:29 Oh, I'm sorry. I don't.
Speaker 4 46:31 Oh, no worries. Look for, Sujin paid out in the world. Look for the grocery store. Look for on the sidewalk. Well, thank you so much for being on our show tonight. Um, have a good night, take care.
Speaker 5 46:42 Thanks so much, Annie, for having me, it was a really honor and pleasure to be sharing the space with you and your listeners. Well, thank you,
Speaker 2 46:52 You too. Bye <inaudible>. You are listening to right on radio on cafe 90.3 FM and streaming live on the
[email protected]. I'm Liz old and I'm Josh Weber. Wasn't think our guest tonight, dr. Susan Page for being on our show and the listeners who make this show possible, you can find out more news and info about right on radio at cafes.org/program/right on radio plus to recent episodes.
Speaker 1 47:32 <inaudible>.
