Week 10_Melanie Manuel_ASA 114 001

Melanie Manuel           

ASA 114 001

27 February 2020

In Regina Lee’s “Theorizing Diaspora,” diaspora is dissected into its limitations and its potentials. Some limitations include the problem of subsuming all members of a diaspora to a set of traits and customs to be a part of said diaspora and the weaponization of diaspora through commoditized multiculturalism (think: United States’s “melting pot” problematic), where ethnic boundaries are reified and customs are celebrated but dark histories are not discussed. Some potentials include the spread of culture through older members of the diaspora teaching younger generations and creation of solidarity through these teachings (though “solidarity” can sometimes become problematic when approached at the wrong angle). 

Lee also mentions the “disconjunction” nature of the hyphen when thinking of identification. Take for example, I am Filipina-American. This hyphen would be a third space of belonging, and thus would be considered a bridge between being Filipina and American. This third space, I would consider then, to be another kind of diaspora for those who participate in its use, because it acknowledges the folks that find themselves at odds with their ethnic and national identities. I remember previously writing a piece to acknowledge this hyphen, because it had been a previous fascination of mine before I moved away from identity politics and its innerworkings. 

For the image, I am including the latest iteration of that poem I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

If the image doesn't render the photo well enough to read the poem then here it is:

Melanie Manuel

1 December 2019

“what a way to live”

what a way to live--

to be caught between worlds,

to be joined together by a simple hyphen

or none at all, 

this space

so vast and profound as the stars above our heads

but unlike those stars and constellations that have a place

in all the textbooks and all else validates their existence (believe me, there’s plenty),

those caught between this world and the next

have no space

in the textbooks and all else that

even with the choice of a bridge, we are

left with a space

as vast and profound as the stars above our heads

here and there

we exist

what a way to live

where a choice is nothing

Works Cited

Lee, Regina. “Theorizing Diasporas: Threes of Consciousness.” Asian Diaspora: Cultures, Identities, Representations, 2004.