Secret Asian Woman
From Dmae Roberts
| 00:28:58
Producers: Dmae Roberts
Secret Asian Woman is a personal exploration of identity and Mixed Race by Independent Producer Dmae Roberts, who has to make a daily decision to reveal her ethnicity. Through her personal story, Dmae charts four decades of a search by multiracial peoples for a name. The politics of calling out racism has changed through the years as has identification. In this half-hour radio documentary, Dmae talks with other Mixed Race Asian women with identities not easily recognized and addresses with humor the complexities involved in even discussing race. This piece perhaps creates some understanding of why people seem confused by Barack Obama's Mixed Race identity.
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4 Comments
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Review of Secret Asian WomanA powerful meditation on race and racism that couldn't be more timely! In the wake of Barak Obama's recent speech and coming up on Asian American Heritage Month in May, this piece is programming heaven. Dmae and the other "secret asian women" sharing their stories are insightful without being too introspective. The results are provocative and charming, angry and amusing, enlightening but never pedantic. I found particularly revealing: The "double-edged sword" of the seemingly benign question "Where are you from?" The "Suzie Wong assumption" that Asian women who married white men were rescued from prostitution. And the role of multi-ethnic "bridge-walker" or peace-keeper in today's troubled times. Timely and timeless, this program should be heard - sooner rather than later. |
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Review of Secret Asian WomanIntensely personal without making me feel like I?m being a voyeur. This program will open a few eyes. Pull back the curtain and we see a life inside our community we would usually look past. |
Broadcast History
Debut piece.
Transcript
Secret Asian Woman
Dmae Roberts
PART ONE- PASSING
DMAE: Not a week goes by that I don?t hear racist things said to my face.
When people find out I?m Asian they will ask me deeply personal questions that turn into interrogation and I?m compelled to defend myself.
All because I have a secret? I am Asian. At least half of me is, and every day is a choice for me to reveal my secret identity: I am Secret Asian Woman.
MUSIC UP
DMAE: There are lots of times when Secret Asian Woman drops cover...when I hear oriental instead of Asian...when someone, usually White, makes a Japanese houseboy comment...when I hear colleagues say they just ran a Chinese fire drill (do you know how many youtube videos feature kids running crazy around a car?) or when an educated businessman at a dinner party asks me if all Asians eat dog. That was just last month.
These are instances of...
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Timing and Cues
What to call yourself when you don't have a name? That's what Dmae Roberts grappled with most of her adult life. In a country that likes to think it celebrates cultural diversity, America still has trouble with multiracial people and trying to have them choose one identity to call themselves. When Barack Obama first entered the presidential race, he proudly called himself Mixed Race. Then you hardly heard him speak that term until recently when he made his ground-breaking speech on the complexities of race. Race and identity continue to be a complex topic and as Dmae charts four decades of history, we hear from her perspective what it's like to be a "Secret Asian Woman."
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Additional Information
- Produced: Feb 01, 2008
- Added to PRX: Feb 14, 2008
- This piece is in English
Jesse Kaysen
Posted on September 29, 2008 at 11:31 AM | Permalink
Review of Secret Asian Woman
Roberts' warm voice conveys important truths re: frustration of not fitting in to neat categories. Brings listener along as she grapples with "racial" definitions, ultimately claiming the right to pay attention when and as she sees fit. Excellent use of humor.