Asian-American is Not A Color

Educator, author, and race and education scholar, Dr. OiYan Poon joins me to share her insights for engaging in discourse about race, affirmative action and family. She is currently serving as a consultant to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s office on higher education policy. Dr. Poon is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and co-director of the College Admissions Futures Co-Lab. She has focused on the racial politics of Asian Americans, education access, affirmative action, and admissions systems and practices. She is the author of Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family, which explores how Asian Americans are shaping the future of race relations through debates over education policies like affirmative action, using personal narrative and interviews of Asian Americans across the country. Her work has appeared widely in national media outlets including NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker.   This was an timely and informative conversation that will be insightful to many!