Author David Mura continues to explore, confront ideas of race and identity in new book
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Author David Mura said he grew up often feeling isolated. Some of his earliest memories included learning “how to be white.”
Mura moved to the Twin Cities to study English literature in graduate school. It wasn't until he was in his twenties that he began to explore his identity as a third-generation Japanese American.
His latest book, "Exit, Miss Saigon: An American Memoir," is a collection of essays he's written over the past 30 years.
“The book starts with arguments I had with white artist friends about yellow face casting and the racial stereotypes in the musical Miss Saigon,” he said. “Now, none of these friends would get up today and defend yellow face casting. But back in the day, when I wrote about these arguments and Mother Jones, everybody freaked out.”
One of the topics Mura touches on is how he’d approach questions of identity with his daughter, Samantha Spencer-Mura, as she grew up in Minnesota. Today, Spencer-Mura is the first Japanese-American legislator in the Minnesota House and is now serving her second term in office.
“The fact that my daughter became very racially conscious, the fact that she became very political, makes me enormously proud. And when I wrote about what my daughter became in the book, I almost teared up because I realized all my fears about that she would become so white identified and she wouldn’t identify with my politics or the ways that I look at race — they didn’t come to pass.”
Mura joins The University Club of St. Paul on Wednesday for a book discussion at 7 p.m.
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