Lowe and Kurup - 05/11

The 'Tom" section of Kurup's monologue reminded of when I first arrived in the US. I find it interesting that the first thing Americans want to know is the curse words of my language. I think this section captures my experience well of having to teach these words to my classmates and their fascination with learning new words from different languages. Additionally, the "Fat Family" section was something I found interesting. This is because I did not have the same reaction to the overwhelming fast food chains as Kurup had. This could be due to the fact that the Philippines, during my time, was already Westernized due to globalization.

Lowe's reading raised a lot of great points regarding the Asian American identity. She acknowledges the need for unified "Asian American identity" and the problem of falling into the same 'homogenizing rhetoric' that has been associated with Asian American history. It seems to me that this is a very slippery slope that needs to be discussed carefully. It raises the question of how can Asian Americans mobilize as a pan-ethnic group but not disregard the specific needs of different Asian ethnic groups?