So Kind Yet So Cruel
The Reawakening of Peoplehood
- Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
- Publisher: Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2026
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Publisher's Description
What does it mean to be an American? Today, the answer is under debate and up for grabs. Carlos Bulosan, a Filipino poet and writer, asks a pointed question: Why are Americans so kind yet so cruel? Taking up Bulosan’s telling question, Fumitaka Matsuoka probes the meaning of American peoplehood in a time of stark division and polarization. Matsuoka explores how how Americans read and understand their history and how they treat their neighbors given the oppositional stances now consuming their culture and society. Arguing for the very soul of America, Matsuoka considers the habits of the heart that move people, the beliefs and practices that shape character and give form to social order. These are often expressed as liberty, equality, and justice. But to truly achieve a better version of these ideals, Matsuoka maintains that Americans now desperately need “counter-habits of the heart,” to be learned not least from “minority” American ethnicities who are too often treated as unaccustomed strangers. Americans are people of contradictions, both kindness and cruelty. Only when they acknowledge their history and life of contradictions can they genuinely appreciate and reclaim their soul of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Endorsements (3)
“Fumitaka Matsuoka writes with the fire of a prophet and the tenderness of a pastor. He unmasks America’s kindness and cruelty, weaving neglected stories into a new fabric of peoplehood. This luminous book summons us to honesty, courage, and hope—an indispensable guide in such a time as ours.”
“This passionate, courageous analysis of American peoplehood facilitates some much-needed soul-searching, unearthing what many of us have taken for granted in relating to ourselves and others across race. A titan of Asian American theology, Matsuoka gives current and would-be leaders and activists—who are floundering for footholds in our polarized society—incisive gems about power, racial identity, and history as well as prophetic vision for a way forward.”
“By illuminating the US’s history of contradictions, Fumitaka Matsuoka reveals the grace, strength, and creative energy that dwells within the suffering and defiant hope. Thank you for the deep listening to the symphony of diverse voices, calling forth the dissonance and harmony that continues to birth our peoplehood. Relationship across difference can be a gift. ‘We breathe together’ (ch. 1).”
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