Not My White Savior

A Memoir in Poems

Julayne Lee

• Publisher: Rare Bird Books, A Barnacle Book
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781947856578
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

A provocative and furious book about race, culture, identity and what it means to be an inter-country adoptee in America Julayne Lee was born in South Korea to a mother she never knew. When she was an infant, she was adopted by a white Christian family in Minnesota, where she was sent to grow up. Not My White Savior is a memoir in poems, exploring what it is to be a transracial and inter-country adoptee, and what it means to grow up being constantly told how better your life is because you were rescued from your country of origin. Following Julayne Lee from Korea to Minnesota and finally to Los Angeles, Not My White Savior asks what does "better" mean? In which ways was the journey she went on better than what she would have otherwise experienced? Not My White Savior is angry, brilliant, unapologetic, and unforgiving. A vicious ride of a book that is sure to spark discussion and debate.

Korean ICA—Internment Camps
of Abduction

Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.

—Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC

For over half a century we have called ICA

Inter-Country Adoption

international adoption

transnational adoption

a humanitarian gesture

love in action

building happy families

saving children

giving them a better life

Now we must call it what it is

this is a holocaust of children

this is a colonization of a people by their own

this is legalized child trafficking

this is cultural genocide

this is a violation of human rights

this is a war on bodies

this is a war crime

this is ICA

Internment Camps of Abduction

Korea, once occupied

now conducting your own occupation

you are occupying the lives

of two hundred thousand of your own

#10 OECD ranking

equals economic development and prosperity

postwar recovery

on the backs of your children

politicians sit

on their National Ass

profiting from yellow babies

bought and sold

on the open market

to the tune of

fifty million

US dollars in annual sales and profits

and when we return

you offer us

$200 in reparations

Mercedes, Lexus, BMWs

line Apgujeong Road

while boys and girls of all ages

line the wal...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• The Temperature
• The Sound of My Name is Revolution
• I Am From a Revolution
• Asian American History 101
• How Often Do You Masturbate?
• Return to Sender
• The Price of Silence
• More Than Salt Can Hold
• Dear White Family,
• Relinquishment Quiz
• Consider
• Drop Box
• My Body’s DMZ
• Said Child
• For My Mother
• Jealousy
• Mother’s Day Mourning
• Honor Thy Father
• Birthday Surprise!
• My Last Birthday
• See Out of These Slits
• Fuck You, White Barbie
• Eyes Wide Open
• Racist Hair
• Spa Stories
• My Body is Testimony
• 100 Day American
• Dear adopters,
• Assimilation
• Seventh Grade White Men
• Stupid Things People Say to Adopted Koreans
• Are You My Mother?
• The Map of My Body
• Cousinland
• What Language Do You Dream In?
• The Words Don’t Fit in My Brain
• Homeland Insecurities
• What Do You Miss About Korea?
• After I Left
• Dual Citizen
• A Holocaust of Children
• Open Letter to the Korean Red Cross
• KADalicious
• The Plane to France
• Pyeongchang 2018 Charter
• Korean ICA—Internment Camps of Abduction
• North of the 38th or Mr. Obama Please Apologize!
• Teleporting Babies
• Psalm for White Saviors
• My Ancestors Were Royalty
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author