Allison Hong Merrill: How do we stop racism?


Allison Hong Merrill writes in both Chinese and English, both fiction and creative nonfiction, which means she spends a lot of time looking up words on Dictionary.com. She’s a Pushcart Prize nominee and her work has won both national and international awards, including National Championship in the 2010 Life Story Writing Competition in Taipei, Taiwan and the Grand Prize in the 2019 MAST People of Earth writing contest. She’s the inaugural winner of Sandra Carpenter Prize for Creative Nonfiction, first-place winner of the 2019 Segullah Journal writing contest, and first-place winner of 2020 Opossum flash contest, and many more. Her memoir, Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops, was released in September 2021 and continues to receive literary awards.

In episode 257 of the Fraternity Foodie Podcast, we find out why Allison chose Brigham Young University, what the shame and pressure felt like to fit in as a Taiwanese immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1995, how we can stop hatred and racism, not just toward Asians, but towards anyone, what we can learn from the Taiwanese about living a healthy lifestyle all year round, and advice to other college students who have fundamental disagreements with their parents or immediate family members.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THHqnM-MFjM