Build Something Better: “The Minority Experience” by Adrian Pei Book Review
I’m a Filipino American, born outside of Chicago. I’m biracial with half of my family being white, and I’m married to a white man. Most days, I know I’ll likely be the only, or one of a few, Asian Americans at a given place. This includes Summit. I work at Summit, so much of my day to day life is here. Summit is more diverse than it was when I first visited almost 15 years ago, but it is still very much a majority culture, predominantly white organization.
Adrian Pei’s book “The Minority Experience” is a great read not only for minorities who work and do life in majority culture organizations but also for those who want to better understand and communicate value to the people of color in their lives. I was told I had to get this book in 2018 by an Asian American ministry friend who works in a similar role and environment as me but out in the midwest. At the time, she was going through a crisis of whether she should stay in the role she loved at an organization where she felt invisible. She and I, like many of our Asian American peers, struggle constantly with feelings of isolation, rejection, and self-doubt. She recommended this book, and I do as well, because this was the first time we had seen someone honor the complexity of identity of people of color in environments that don’t even realize they repeatedly dismiss or devalue key components of who we are.
Pei is a second-generation Asian American and a ministry professional who has primarily worked in majority culture organizations, similar to me. Into this book, he weaves his own painful story of never fully belonging, and I hear my story. If you are not a person of color, whether you read this through the lens of a majority culture organization, business, or individual, this book can open your eyes to the often-overlooked perspective and experience of people of color in majority spaces. It also gives practical steps to work toward positive change.
People of color like myself often feel alone in the places we work and do life. Not only do we feel alone, but over time, this repetition of exclusionary incidents coupled with the survival instinct to minimize our hurt starts to feel insurmountable. Worse yet, even if we want to try to influence change, the odds are hardly ever in our favor when it comes to power and voice. We have seen repeatedly that influencing change from positions that are not at the executive level rarely works—and costs those who try dearly.
Pei outlines three dynamics that people of color share when it comes to shaping their identity: Pain, Power, and the Past. Minorities have unique doubts, challenges, and struggles that we face that those in the majority culture do not. There are absolutely extreme hardships faced by white people, but racial disparity and injustice are not part of the burden. The Asian American community deals with xenophobia, which is very scary right now. But as a light-skinned Asian American woman, I’m rarely seen as a threat when out in public. I do not fear for my safety if I seek help or protection. This is not true for people in the Black community. Many are starting to see this reality in a way they cannot unsee.
All of this Pain we carry is a product of disparity in Power. People mistake the terms minority and majority as referring to numbers of people in a group, but these terms are about the economic and political power a group has. We see the pain of those with little Power throughout our Past in a horrible history that is rarely taught but impacts the systems we live with today. Because of how these three are entangled into the here and now, people of color lack access to opportunities when it comes to advancement and influence. We are less likely to have direct personal connections to those in power and who make decisions. This is because the vast majority of corporate leadership across all sectors are white men who statistically are most likely to do life with and live in all-white communities. People of color may be able to reach financial stability and reputational success, but to get there, we pay for the access.
In a process Pei labels “domestication,” he describes something people of color in white spaces will recognize—how we gain access to opportunity and some level of inclusion. People of color adapt mannerisms or may change our physical appearance to fit to a white aesthetic. I tried this in high school with disastrous results after an adventure in bleaching my hair. I still do this in some of the choices I make when in predominantly white environments.
One of the most damaging things people of color also do is absorb microaggressions because we do not want to rock the boat and potentially jeopardize our career or status in a group by creating a conflict that highlights our “otherness.” A microaggression is something that, on the surface, seems like small cultural faux pas that likely isn’t intended to hurt. But these small incidents, repeatedly inflicted, grow more painful each time.
Pei writes, “Every time someone asks me ‘what country I come from’ or remarks on how well I speak English, it’s a reminder that maybe I don’t quite belong.” Imagine a white woman and I, an Asian American, with similar education and credentials both show up to interview for the same job. We are the same on paper, because my name doesn’t read as Asian, so the only difference would be our physical features. In the white woman’s professional interview, she will not receive comments on or compliments about her English, be asked if it is her first language, or be asked if she has a Green Card. I might.
I was. This actually happened to me when a white friend and I both applied for admin positions at the same newspaper outlet about 15 years ago. If that were only one of a few times in my life someone saw me as foreign or exotic, then it’s easy to say those people are terrible. But when it happens every few weeks or more—as it does—it adds to a cancerous self-doubt. Though more rare, it does happen with people I do life with. And when it does, a mixture of betrayal and paralyzing doubt hits me.
For those in the majority culture, understanding how Pain, Power, and the Past affect the people of color in your church, lives, and communities allows you to discover in what ways your own church culture or behaviors perpetuate harm through those lenses. For people of color, this book can help you to articulate more about your identity, and you will see that you are not alone and certainly not imagining the things that create the self-doubt you may struggle with daily. Luckily, for each of us, we don’t have to go in blind as we try to bridge the distance in understanding. Adrian Pei’s “The Minority Experience” gives us a blueprint to build something better.
As Summit learns more about truths obscured from their sight, there is an opportunity to expand the depth of how we live out and are steeped in the gospel. How we love our neighbors changes as we see them more fully. We’ll love more completely. When they are in pain, we won’t be able to choose to look away and abandon them. As we learn about others, we’ll learn about ourselves. We have to honestly reflect on how we got here and if we are part of making things better.
“Ultimately, diversity is about the value and dignity of people—ethnic minorities—whose unique voices have been overlooked or even silenced. It is about restoring beautiful missing pieces of the canvas of history that can enrich our view of the world, and of God.”
Are we building the kingdom of God here on earth at this moment? Are we building it for everyone? I believe in the sincerity of Summit’s desire to do so. I am excited for our church family to start seeing the breadth of God’s beauty and power expressed in communities and cultures they did not realize they were missing from their story. Summit has always said we want to be a place where anyone can walk in and know they matter to God. My hope is that when someone comes to worship with us, they know that they matter enough to Summit that we won’t just make room at the current table, we’ll invite them to change that table and make something new with us.
Elizabeth Cronlund is the Community Development Coordinator at Summit Church.
Find more recommendations of resources helpful for getting educated and joining the conversation on racial injustice here.