Eduardo Cruz Eusebio asks the audience questions about being Asian American, at the Banyan Asian American Writers Collective event in Oak Park, IL, June 3, 2017. Co-sponsored by riksha.com.

Questions include:

• Where are you from? No, I mean, where are you from, from?
• Where are your parents from?
• Have you ever been told, “You’re not one of the bad ones. You’re one of the good ones.”?
• Do you know of any good Chinese restaurants?
• How many of you have taken advantage of stereotypes to get away with something? Like letting them assume you’re good at math or statistics to land a job?
• How many of you have faked like you know martial arts to avoid fighting?
• How many of you have faked like you know about the culture of your native land to impress someone? Someone hot?
• How many of you have faked like you didn’t know or couldn’t speak English to avoid confrontation?

About the Author
Eduardo Cruz Eusebio is an Editor of riksha.com. A former publisher-editor of magazines and newspapers. He has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Columbia College where he also taught fiction writing and small press publishing. Over the years, he has mentored successful publishers and writers, and is an award-winning fiction writer with publications in literary journals and magazines. The Chicago Reader in their annual fiction edition published his award-winning short story “Disappear”.  Eduardo teaches creative writing inspired by the Story Workshop method, in the ongoing Riksha Writers Workshop, at the Midwest Buddhist Temple. His non-fiction essay “My Life of Sin” also appears in this issue of riksha.com.