The Silence That Binds Us

I recently finished reading The Silence that Binds Us by Joanna Ho, the same author as the children's book Eyes That Kiss in the Corner, about which I have also written! I am a big Joanna Ho fan; I think she is a courageous leader in anti-racism education through her books and I highly recommend you check this book out if you enjoy Young Adult fiction.

The Silence that Binds Us is about a Taiwanese Chinese American girl, May, grappling with her brother's death by suicide, and navigating the aftermath of racist accusations that her brother did this because of the pressure that Asian parents put on their kids. We follow May as she "wakes up" to the racism around her and truly begins her own anti-racism journey and education.

An element of the book I really appreciated was the relationship between May and her best friend Tiya Marie, who identifies as a Black Haitian. As May's life begins to be affected by the racist accusations aimed at her parents, the dynamic with Tiya begins to change. May slowly comes to realize that Tiya, and other Black students at her school, have always been affected by the racism that was previously invisible to her.

I loved the way we got to be along for the ride of May's 'discoveries' and realizations anti-Black racism and systemic racism; Ho paints May as very ignorant of these issues, and I think that lends a lot of sympathy to the reader, who may also be largely unaware of the existence of the racism in which we are daily steeped.

We also watch May wrestle with the dichotomy of finding her voice and speaking up against racial injustice, or keeping her head down and making as few waves as possible. This is definitely something I could relate to; I've always had a passionate voice for social justice - but only very recently have I found my voice for racial injustices. And I'm definitely still a work-in-progress. It has been a terrifying process of learning to talk about race and racism, let alone encouraging others to talk and learn about it, too. It felt deeply personal to cheer May on as she pushed through her fears and found her courage.

Lastly, I am grateful that I got to learn some new things myself, by reading this book. A large theme in the book was Asian-Black solidarity (or lack thereof), and I learned the name Yuri Kochiyama, a Japanese-American civil rights activist and contemporary of Malcolm X. I had not previously thought much about Asian-Black relations before but this book has definitely got me thinking about it more, and is an area I'd like to further my education to see how that history may influence any beliefs or biases I may hold. My biggest takeaway from this book was tied to this theme, and the idea that Asians as the model minority was a divisive device:

1. It has gotten Asians fully subscribing to the myth of meritocracy because of course, we want to believe our success was fully earned and it wasn't just some privilege granted to us by the [white] powers that be.

2. It blames BIPOC if they haven't "succeeded" in life because look, the Asians were immigrants and they've been successful - so it must be YOU. It has nothing to do with systemic racism.

3. It pits minority groups against one another so we don't try to join forces.

Thank you Joanna Ho, for adding more North American Asian stories to the narrative and bringing forth such important topics to the next generation. While I was reading, I could feel a younger version of myself just reveling in the fact that there was finally a YA protagonist I could relate to - especially the food-pushing mama!