#3: Phoebe Bui's American Constitutive Story

In this episode of American Constitutive Stories, ⁠Harris Mylonas⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Andrew Thompson⁠⁠⁠ ask Phoebe Bui—an independent consultant currently evaluating racial equity programs—to share her understanding of our common identity. As a second generation Vietnamese-Filipina-American, and based on her research, she argues that race plays the most crucial role in core group membership. According to Phoebe, we need to begin to think about how we are going to be American, instead of who gets to be an American. She suggests that we need to first recognize the contradictory nature of how the government and individuals define American identity, and then cultivate an informed, proactive civic life as a tool to bring about a broader, more inclusive definition of American membership.