Ryka Aoki's Analysis

On Thursday, October 20th, 2016, Ryka Aoki gave an informative lecture on the dynamic of being a minority author and the affects it takes on her writing. Aoki self describes herself as a Japanese-American trans woman of color, making her an extreme victim of discrimination even in today’s relatively socially advanced society. She goes on to describe the struggle of each phase of writing, and how a published novel compared to its intended form. Aoki says that although this may be a problem for most writers—even the big name, brand name authors—it is even more of a challenge for herself due to her minority status. Despite the challenges that Aoki’s may face as both a writer and a minority, her perseverance and determination to create meaningful

Aoki challenges cultural norms, including all of the things she is discriminated for. From identifying as queer to being a trans woman of color, she has a lot of battles to fight, but does so in a way that it does not detract from the meaning of her writing. From having fewer resources available to her to what is expected from writers today, her discrimination is a problem that needs to be faced. Discrimination is still very prevalent in today’s society and attacking it through the form of writing is a peaceful way to make a strong point. Relating Aoki’s struggle back to class, a frequent theme that is seen across various pieces is the role that discrimination plays. It often limits a person by crippling what options and resources are made available to them, which is clearly seen in the case of Aoki. However, despite these limitations placed on her because of the way she identifies, she has a tougher path compared to her colleagues, yet she does it. She persevered and now tours the countries giving lectures and readings in spite of the odds against her. Aoki is just one great example of how despite the odds can sometimes be against—sometimes in more way than one—nothing is impossible if one has the necessary drive and desire to achieve their goal.

As someone whom identifies as a minority in a number of ways, Aoki has been victimized and deals with that in her writing. From dealing with publishing companies to the actual writing she does, Aoki has to be strong and determined at every phase of her process through the end until a novel’s publishing. Every writer face these challenges, but perhaps not to the degree in which Aoki does. Despite this, Aoki overcomes her struggles with publishing and writing what she wants, but keeps her core value of writing meaningful work