Against the Politics of Respectability: Writing as Attention-Giving
*Note: This essay was written and delivered as a talk on the online panel of “Writing in the time of COVID-19: Race, Dystopia, and the Humanities in/of Crisis.” The panel was sponsored by EALA, Taiwan, organized and moderated by Professor Andy Chih-ming Wang. My deepest gratitude to Andy, who invited me to be part of the conversation in the first place, and to my co-panelists Jessica Chang and Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose feedback and engagement helped me think with more depth. I am grateful, too, for the audience listening in from different parts of the world and the tech support group for the event.
