In Racial Care, James McMaster studies the forms of care that Asian Americans have taken up to survive the suffering they experience under neoliberal capitalism and white supremacy in the United States. He shows that racialized labors of care can cut multiple ways: sustaining life for its recipients, draining life from its performers. Uplifting examples of this dynamic from Asian American theater, performance art, visual culture, film, poetry, protest, and everyday life, McMaster advances a racialized ethics and politics of care forged from the insights of feminist, queer, and disability theory. He argues that racial care in the Asian American case must respond both to the specific sort of neglect Asian Americans face as a consequence of model minority racialization and to the urgent needs for care that exist among other racialized and colonized peoples. Following the lead of artists and writers like Kristina Wong, Mark Aguhar, Kimberly Alidio, Julia Cho, kt shorb, and Jess X. Snow, Racial Care provides a path forward for all seeking to sustain multiply marginalized Asian American life in times of overlapping crisis.

James McMaster is Assistant Professor of American Studies and English at The George Washington University.

Acknowledgments  vii
Introduction. Racial Care: March 2020  1
1. Revolting Self-Care  29
2. The Racialized Holding Environment  57
3. Racial Emotional Labor  77
4. Dehumanist Care  101
Conclusion. Racial Care: June 2020  125
Notes  135
Bibliography  153
Index  163