Customer Reviews

Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White

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I have read most of Frank Wu's popular columns and legal articles over the years, so I thought I knew what to expect when I opened the covers of his new book, "Yellow."

Instead of the lawyer, raconteur, social critic, and historian I had thought I knew, however, I met a philosopher poet on par with an Emerson or Thoreau. Weaving back and forth between legal decisions, Shakespearean dramas, SAT scores, and recollections from his childhood, he has produced a masterwork that will shape discussions of race for years to come.

Right from the first chapter, Professor Wu lays out the dilemma of being Asian in America in terms that are spare but evocative: "I remain not only a stranger in a familiar land, but also a sojourner through my own life....I alternate between being conspicuous and vanishing, being stared at or looked through. Although the conditions may seem contradictory, they have in common the loss of control. I am who others perceive me to be rather than how I perceive myself to be."

Not content to be an idle observer or a pawn in someone else's social drama, however, he draws on a lifetime of involvement in the great issues of our times to write thought-provoking and well-researched analyses of affirmative action, racial profiling, immigration restrictions, anti-Asian violence, interracial marriage, and much more. The beauty of Wu's writing, like Stephen Jay Gould's celebrated "This View of Life" column in Natural History magazine, is that a person who is at once a leader in his field and a person with a strong point of view can take the time to explain how he got to his position by bringing in history, statistics, biography, current events, and popular culture.

Despite his mastery of many bodies of knowledge, Professor Wu brings a humility to his endeavor that is refreshing in this era of the know-it-all television pundits. "I am a fraud," he says on page 37. "I am unqualified, because I cannot speak for all Asian Americans." Behind this humility, however, also lies an awareness of the enormity of his task as a person who will be called upon by the media to speak "for the race." Later in the same paragraph, he says, "I doubt that any imposter could do any better or would desire to try that impossible task. I suspect, however, that at every appearance after I give my usual disclaimer, my audience continues to see and hear me as a spokesperson on behalf of Asian Americans."

"Yellow" is worth the price simply for its cyclopedic reviews of the model minority myth, the perpetual foreigner myth, and the myths of merit and colorblindness in the debates over affirmative action. Not content with rehashing the same tired sources that appear in many scholarly and popular works on the topics, he has delved into out-of-print treatises, vintage Hollywood films, and speeches by Samuel Gompers, John Adams, and other historical figures. The Notes and Index sections of his book take up almost 50 pages, with the Notes providing avenues of scholarship for future writers on these topics.

Like the law professor he is--the first Asian American at historically-Black Howard University Law School-- Wu leaves us with more questions than answers. But, as he points out in several places in his book, that is precisely the point. "I aspire to provoke people to think for themselves rather than persuade them to agree with me," he says on page 16. Twenty-two pages later, he expands on that theme: "Each of us who has the opportunity to make an appearance at the podium or to see a byline in print should remember that if we do not speak for ourselves, someone else will speak for us--or worse, we will be ignored. We must give voice to our many views."

Building on the work of Helen Zia, Gary Okihiro, Ron Takaki, and others who have placed the Asian American experience in the context of a broader racial dilemma, Professor Wu challenges Asian Americans and the broader society to cast aside a simplistic two-part model of race: "On each of these divisive topics, Asian American examples can enhance our awareness of the color line between black and white, rather than devalue the anguish of African Americans, because Asian Americans stand astride the very color line and flag its existence for all to see. If the color line runs between whites and people of color, Asian Americans are on one side; if the color line runs between blacks and everyone else, Asian Americans are on the other side. The line, however, is drawn in part by Asian Americans, and in turn can be erased by us. Asian Americans can be agents of our own destinies, insisting that we are ourselves and refusing to be either black or white."

While the dayglow yellow cover of Professor Wu's book is a gantlet thrown down to those who would hold onto a stagnant bi-polar view of race, he acknowledges inside the book that his purpose is to get us all to see shades of gray. By the end of the book, while exploring interracial marriage and the importance of multi-racial coalitions, he reminds us that "civil society either founders on factions or is founded on coalitions. We all share a stake in the healing of the body politic. We must keep the faith."

With Frank Wu's help, we can keep the faith--and start to make that faith a reality.

I admit a love-hate relationship with books about Asian-American issues. Too often, they recycle the same points - the Yellow Peril, the Japanese-American internment, the Vincent Chin murder, the "model minority" myth, the L.A. riots - and, too often, they offer much discussion but little solution. Let's face it: we live in a nation founded by displaced Europeans and driven primarily by greed and marketplace. It's unlikely that anyone who doesn't fit easily into the mainstream can or will succeed fully, no matter having a claim to moral high ground.

As a group, Asian Americans have done better than some others, but not without significant barriers, and in a country where the fire of national debate on black and white issues is stoked routinely by self-serving pundits, politicians, and pop stars, the tribulations of Asian Americans are considered trivial. The irony, of course, is that worldwide, Asians are the majority, and despite NASA's assertion on the Voyager probe that Earth men look like the da Vinci drawing, the reality is that most men look like Wu. Or me, half-Asian though I am.

So, while there is a place for books like Wu's, I'm just not sure where it is. Wu is a good writer, even if many of his points are the same ones I've heard since entering college in 1986. His premise that Asian Americans historically and routinely face discrimination, even violence, is an important and all too real one. But I don't know who he's writing to. Is it other Asian Americans? Unless we're in denial or brain dead, we already know the score. Is it non-Asian Americans? Oddly enough, there's a similar problem. Those people thoughtful enough to care have probably heard the issues before. Those who aren't don't want to. Of course, I'm exaggerating here, but without a national platform, all the books in the world about Asian-American issues won't make much of a difference. And there is no national platform to speak of.

I say all this having been born the same year as Wu, grown up a stone's throw from him in Toledo, and faced much of the same bigotry that he did (and still does). I probably watched Johnny Sokko with him on WXON-TV, Channel 20, though I remember the show being in color. I recall my parents teaching their children the right values, and more importantly, actually living them. I'm even an academic. As nostalgia, Wu's book makes a connection for me, and perhaps this is its greatest value: allowing people who've had similar experiences to realize they're not alone. But that gives it more therapeutic than pedagogical or political value. After all this time, I'm ready for the latter.

If you have the reasonable expectation that the author of any book on race is unlikely to share all your views, then I'd recommend that you read this book. I like this book because it provides one viewpoint that is unique in many ways and is therefore a good addition to any person's collection of thoughts on race relations (whether you agree with Wu or not). By the way, Wu's opinions are his own, as he points out himself, and do not represent THE "Asian" viewpoint (there's no such thing). The following arguments are particularly interesting:

1. Wu argues that Asian-Americans ought to support affirmative action for underrepresented minority groups even if they themselves are not included, saying that this will put the needs of the nation at large ahead of self-centered gain. (Contrast this with the writings of K. Anthony Appiah, Dinesh D'Souza and Shelby Steele, for example, for 4 incredibly disparate views of affirmative action by 4 people of color).
2. Wu also presents a case against racial profiling in spite of the fact that he thinks it is sometimes both rational and non-racist (!)
3. Wu dissects the question "Where are you really from?" and explains how it reflects the "perpetual foreigner" stereotype of people of Asian descent.

Overall, this book was a thought-provoking, sometimes troubling, always interesting read.

My only claim to understanding Asian-American racism in the US is being a victim of it. I am no scholastic expert in the field, not even a closet scholar. My father immigrated from Taiwan. My mother suffered the indignity of the internment camps during WWII. But I didn't learn about my ethnicity, or racism, from them. Born in the US, I learned as many of my generation did- through experience. So from this perspective, Professor Wu has done a magnificent job of accomplishing two great tasks in a single, readable book: he has outlined a superb historical account of Asian-Americans in America with respect to racism, and effectively defined and explained the complex manifestation and quandaries of racial issues for Asian-Americans.

There is, of course, an accounting of the most egregious cases of racial bias and outright bigotry in the history of our country. But even more importantly, Professor Wu effectively summarizes the history of Asians and Asian-Americans in the US to help explain how the model minority stereotype is a two-edged sword that actually in many ways exacerbates the problem and in some ways enables the problem to proliferate, particularly by playing such a stereotype off against the stereotype of Afro-Americans. Make no mistake, Professor Wu strongly espouses coalitions among not only Asian-Americans, not only all minorities, but all peoples. It is, he argues, the only way to bring resolution. But the conundrum of racism, as he effectively describes it, is truly one of color and the perception of color. Being white in America is perceived by many as the ideal, the epitome.

For example, when the issue of my ethnicity came up in my office, recently, one of my staff, attempting to be gracious, remarked: "I never noticed you weren't white." (Firstly, the fact that I am not white is obvious.) Unintentionally, and without any malice, she was inferring that being white was, if not the expected standard, at least the preferred state. Wu explores this phenomenon in some detail, with numerous examples. To me, it became equally important a concept as the more overt examples of discrimination and bigotry, and I concur with Wu that in some ways this perception is more dangerous, because it is more prevalent and insidious-- and in many ways it is true. Which is part of the problem.

Wu continues by exploring cultural traditions and and perspectives, and how those differences can lead to both misunderstanding and contribute to the phenomenon of the "glass ceiling" faced by some Asian-Americans. He also discusses the phenomenon of assimilation-- and particularly here draws upon the histories of all immigrants to our country-- as part of the equation. In summary, the conflict is balancing integrating into the "American" culture (something which is itself evolving, if ever so slowly) and maintaining one's own native cultural identity.

I got a little bored as Wu delved into the intricacies of the differences between "pluralism" and "multi-culturalism" and other such semantics. But I took his meaning.

I enjoyed his personal exploration of his own immigrant parents' perspective-- that their dreams and expectations and cultural background would have shaped their perception of racism somewhat differently than mine and those of my generation. It helped me understand my parents better, and that is a true gift.

Finally, I was also intrigued by his expounding on the blending of Asian-Americans; not only the implications for the future, but the fact that in inter-racial relationships, the Asian culture tends to become submerged, whether the non-Asian partner is white, Afro-American, or other. Witness Tiger Woods-- who is by percentage genetically more Asian than Afro-American. Culturally and in appearance, we tend to forget this.

All I can say was that I found this book the perfect introduction to the history and the concept for me-- just someone looking for more insight, some answers. It generated substanial profound thought, in addition to the expected outrage and mourning... it has dramatically improved my awareness. And made me appreciate my parents, and understand more my role as a parent to Asian-American children.

Thank you, "Mister Frank."

I can honestly say this: I will never, ever be able to listen to a racist comment about Asian Americans again - even an unintended one -without thinking of what I've learned in this book. There were times I cried while reading, considering the life-long "otherness" foisted on Asian Americans by white Americans, including myself.

A few chapters into this book, I was sitting in an exit row on a plane that was getting ready for take-off. The flight attendant came down the aisle to ask the perfunctory questions of us in those seats, of our willingness to die for the cause and all. The flight attendants are required to get a verbal `yes' from each passenger in the exit row. Sitting across the aisle from me was a middle aged Asian American business man, dressed impeccably, clearly a frequent flier (as most people in the exit row are). After explaining the situation, the flight attendant turned to this man and asked, "do you speak English?" he responded, "yes", with the complete lack of accent only available to a 2nd or 3rd (or longer) generation Asian American. I almost jumped out of my seat, with my new awareness of what it would be like to be asked questions like this (and worse), have assumptions made, and be treated as "other", and "not us", for your entire life. (I actually turned to the man, and a bit shaky with my brand-new righteous indignation on behalf of all Asian Americans, said, "I apologize for the stupidity of Caucasians." He gave me the odd look I deserved.)

Here's the rub: how do I - how do we - engage in this critical conversations without somewhat perpetuating or adding to the "otherness" sin against Asian Americans? By the very fact that I am trying to figure out how to be a part of change - in my own heart, first, and in our culture in some way - I am concurrently, and by necessity, bringing attention to the uniqueness (read: otherness) of the Asian American experience. How can I pursue the friendship I think I would really enjoy with the Asian American youth worker in san diego I met through all this mess, have conversations about stuff like this, and yet still not treat him as my token Asian American friend, as my personal guilt-assuager, or as my "project" - all positions that do violence to him.

The book actually addresses this tension, explaining (at length) why the ideal of "colorblindness" doesn't work. but, either I didn't quite understand that part, or I thought the final conclusion of "live in the tension" wasn't quite satisfying enough.

Anyhow. I really do recommend this book, especially for anyone who would like to grow in their understanding of the Asian American experience and the issues that continue to surround the racism we don't tend to talk about in America.

This is an incredible eye-opener on the civil rights movement as it pertains to Asian Americans. Professor Wu covers the breadth of the Asian American movement, highlighting the immigration patterns of our forefathers from the Asian continent. He also delves into the civil rights issues of not only the past, but the modern era as wel--such as affirmative action and the perpetual foreigner syndrome afflicting those of Asian descent.

Frank Wu, a descendant of Taiwanese immigrants and a Howard University professor, has here made a serious contribution to the ongoing conversation on race in America. And we must all be grateful to him for the crispness of his thinking and the passion, which he brings to the ideas he presents here. Although, if I may say so, being Asian American, in a way necessarily means that he has entered the mostly black-white discussion through a "side door." Yet he has nevertheless done his homework and knows from whence he speaks. And although he is retreading much already covered ground, he does so with fresh eyes and ideas, new concepts, a fresh dense perspective, his own examples, definitions and terms, and with a considerably nuanced analysis. This is of course all very, very refreshing.

I am especially impressed with the way he introduces the Asian dimension into the analysis as sort of straddling the black-white racial divide, and the attention he gives to sidestepping familiar black-white tropes to steer his analysis off in new hopefully more productive directions, parsing and teasing out along the way the many complexities that lay at the base of the multi-ethnic, multiracial, multicultural social grid that constitutes the American social process. However, after about half way thorough the book, I fear that I had detected a familiar problem in his analysis: The complexities just kept expanding, never contracting, until in the subtext, they began to subtly overwhelm the analysis? Then I skipped ahead to the final chapter to see the ending of this movie. And there I saw the old familiar trope of "multi-racial power coalitions." Indeed, in the end this may be the best we can do. This may be the final, if not the only answer. I do not know? What I do know is that that formula has been tried and tried again and seems not to work, usually for all the same deeply embedded structural reasons. Remember how Bill Clinton's discussions on building racial coalitions simply blew up in his face? I witnessed this fiasco at close range.

It has been my experience with problem solving that when there is an analysis as "clean" as professor Wu's is here, and it still comes up with fuzzy ambiguous answers, a paradigm shift in thinking is usually required. Put simply, there are conceptual ways to structure the problem of race in America that will allow us to understand (rather than dodge) the complexities on the American social grid -- going beyond just the dichotomy of either "oversimplification" (that is, through caricature and stereotyping, using stale logic, familiar tropes, etc., which Dr. Wu, studiously avoided) and a kind of "parsing the race issue into an infinite expansion of its complexities" (which I fear Dr. Wu seemed unable to avoid). When this happens, what T.S. Kuhn has suggested that we do in such situations is to look for a paradigm shift up at the next level of abstraction or generalization. In simpler terms, that means that the reality of race and racism in America has its own logic and its own internal structure just above the discrete details that this book has analyzed so exquisitely. The missing variable that the new paradigm must involve in an equally careful discussion is: the role of white people and their fetish with race. Any discussions about the relative weights of various minorities without taking this "white fetish with race" fully into account, experience proves, is just doomed to failure.

In the end race is a complex social psychological problem infecting white people, not a minority problem at all, no matter the color, race, ethnicity, or culture. And accordingly, there is a level at which, as irrational as it may be, the white fetish with race and racism all begins to make sense. In fact, I would argue, that it is this level of reality that cannot be avoided. In other words, unless the level of analysis in which the "white fetish with race" can be introduced as an independent variable, then the parsing into more and more tribal subgroups and calling for more coalitions among them is like so much grasping at straws. In the end, like its predecessors, it too will be ineffectual because it does not take into account the "Rosetta Stone" of racial reality in America "the white fetish with race."

The social psychological "construct" that does take this factor fully into account I believe is the notion of a "social drama." The only way to efficaciously understand the logic of racism in all its aspects is as an "American drama of white male heroism." This is the key that unlocks everything else: the hatred, the violence, the sensitivity, the deep investment in racial and cultural rules of paternity and hegemony, the racial myths and theories, and the "steady state" persistence of racist notions over time -- and all this despite the clear immorality and irrationality of it all. Unless there is a paradigm shift up to this level of analysis, I fear that excellent efforts such as this one are doomed to follow many other unsuccessful ones that preceded it.

But clearly for its many insights alone, this is a five star effort.

Wu is the first and only Asian-American professor at Howard Law School. I was first introduced to his work in the great political commentaries he has written for A.Magazine. In "Yellow", he mentions that he has been writing this book all his life. So I am not sure if this book is just a gathering of all his previous articles or something new. Wu is a cool guy and I would have loved to have a guy like him as a law professor. He shows his depth of knowledge in literature, history, and pop culture: non-legal readers should not fear this text in the slightest. However, this book is long and drags in many places. Talking of model minorities, perpetual foreigners, etc. has already been beat into the ground in Asian-American writing. As much as Wu wants Americans to break the black-white binary (another tired topic), his inclusion of South Asians and Latinos in this large book is sorely noticed. (However, I admire that he is very Jewish-inclusive.) I wish Professor Wu many years of success. Still, I preferred Angelo Ancheta's and Helen Zia's recents texts on Asian Americans much more than I did this one.

If americans keep on pestering me, telling me im a foreigner, ill probably blow a gasket and beat them up; something most white americans wont expect from an asian (hence, we're called the 'Model Minority').

My only concern with this book was that it felta little dragged out, like perhaps a better editor would have made it more concise. Nonetheless, I managed to make my way through the entire thing and it was well worth it. While I don't have the energy to write a very intense and long review, I must say that his chapters on the model minority myth (coming from a victim of the stereotype and one who believed it to be true) and on the dangers of rational discrimination are both extremely enlightening. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a book that doesn't leave non-blacks or non-whites a little left out of racial discourse in America.