Glennon

You say, Ocean, that your mother's advice about how to survive as an Asian boy in America was to disappear, to be invisible, to not stand out because you already had one strike against you, being Vietnamese. It seems she was trying to protect you from racism by warning you ahead of time and trying to tell you to stay small so you'd be a smaller target.

You say, Ocean, that your mother's advice about how to survive as an Asian boy in America was to disappear, to be invisible, to not stand out because you already had one strike against you, being Vietnamese. It seems she was trying to protect you from racism by warning you ahead of time and trying to tell you to stay small so you'd be a smaller target.

You say, Ocean, that your mother's advice about how to survive as an Asian boy in America was to disappear, to be invisible, to not stand out because you already had one strike against you, being Vietnamese. It seems she was trying to protect you from racism by warning you ahead of time and trying to tell you to stay small so you'd be a smaller target.

I think about that all the time, every day now, because like your mom, I raised an Asian boy. a Japanese boy in America. And recently, only recently, he bravely shared with me a truth of his childhood, which is that I did not warn him nor protect him at all.

I think about that all the time, every day now, because like your mom, I raised an Asian boy. a Japanese boy in America. And recently, only recently, he bravely shared with me a truth of his childhood, which is that I did not warn him nor protect him at all.

I think about that all the time, every day now, because like your mom, I raised an Asian boy. a Japanese boy in America. And recently, only recently, he bravely shared with me a truth of his childhood, which is that I did not warn him nor protect him at all.

I looked at him every day of my life and his life, and I just assumed somehow, subconsciously, that my whiteness was his whiteness and would protect him without him having to learn to protect himself. But it didn't. He dealt with racism in every school and every town we've ever lived in, but he just dealt with it alone because he didn't have a guide like your mother who understood it.

I looked at him every day of my life and his life, and I just assumed somehow, subconsciously, that my whiteness was his whiteness and would protect him without him having to learn to protect himself. But it didn't. He dealt with racism in every school and every town we've ever lived in, but he just dealt with it alone because he didn't have a guide like your mother who understood it.

I looked at him every day of my life and his life, and I just assumed somehow, subconsciously, that my whiteness was his whiteness and would protect him without him having to learn to protect himself. But it didn't. He dealt with racism in every school and every town we've ever lived in, but he just dealt with it alone because he didn't have a guide like your mother who understood it.

You say in every mixed race family, things are complicated, right?

You say in every mixed race family, things are complicated, right?

You say in every mixed race family, things are complicated, right?

Mm-hmm. You decided not to disappear. It's amazing that all of this protection, warning about disappearing, and then you become an artist, which is sort of all about appearing. Um, you said it is so easy for a small yellow child to vanish. The real work is to be known. And one of the best ways to be known is to be an artist.

Mm-hmm. You decided not to disappear. It's amazing that all of this protection, warning about disappearing, and then you become an artist, which is sort of all about appearing. Um, you said it is so easy for a small yellow child to vanish. The real work is to be known. And one of the best ways to be known is to be an artist.

Mm-hmm. You decided not to disappear. It's amazing that all of this protection, warning about disappearing, and then you become an artist, which is sort of all about appearing. Um, you said it is so easy for a small yellow child to vanish. The real work is to be known. And one of the best ways to be known is to be an artist.

Can you talk to us about art as a way to exist and to insist on appearing?

Can you talk to us about art as a way to exist and to insist on appearing?

Can you talk to us about art as a way to exist and to insist on appearing?

Ocean, the way that you do write about and around your mother is so beautiful and so honest. And there was so much love and beauty and power. And there was also some abuse. You say of the women in your family, the poison of war entered them. They passed it down to me. You also, I've heard you say in an interview, not in your writing, I don't think, but this is our species-wide endeavor.

Ocean, the way that you do write about and around your mother is so beautiful and so honest. And there was so much love and beauty and power. And there was also some abuse. You say of the women in your family, the poison of war entered them. They passed it down to me. You also, I've heard you say in an interview, not in your writing, I don't think, but this is our species-wide endeavor.