Yellow: Beyond Black and White by Frank Wu

Book Review by Natalie Martinez

Frank H. Wu , author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, explores the issues of race in America. The book has many accounts of racial discrimination and explains to the reader what it is like to be Asian American during his lifetime. Wu’s divides his book into three main messages: the first being the model minority myth and the foreigner syndrome, the second message addresses the problems in America that is attached to race such as immigration, racial profiling, etc, and the third message: resolution brought on by mixed race movement.
The first section about model minority myth and the foreigner syndrome talks about the stereotypes Asians have accumulated. While reading this section, I learned a lot about the Asian culture and some of the negative views people have on Asians. The myth of the model minority of Asians is that all Asians do well in school, especially in science. I don’t believe the myth that every Asian is good at science because everyone is different. Some are good at science some are good at art, hard work is what makes a person good at it. I believe this is an important myth to address because if people were to believe all Asians were good at science then any jobs taken or success observed it is attributed to Asians. This “they” thought is not good because it brings a threatening feeling to an American who think they are taking over. Asians are not “they”, they are American.
Also in this section he brings up the foreigner syndrome. This chapter reviews American history. Because the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, all Asians were discriminated against fair or not. He explains that Asians are continuously thought as foreigners because of their distinct appearance even though some have lived here for generations. His main argument in this section is that Asians should not be contained between these stereotypes but break from the stereotype to live their own lives as they please.
The second section, about the problems of race in America, talks about many incidences of Asian racial discrimination. He goes to explain how difficult it is to escape the racial discrimination from the time of the Japanese internment period. He talks about a time when he was stopped at a Canadian border because he was a suspect. Some Americans believe that Chinese were passing secret information to China ( phone survey may 2001 pg.12). He talks a lot about his childhood, living in a white community, and not being accepted. There are a lot of violent racial discrimination accounts between blacks and Asians accounted in his book. He explains how immigration laws have been set forth which cause more overt racism to all races. Here he includes that other races are to be in included in the problem of race beyond white and black. Wu doesn’t, I believe, emphasize other races enough being that he focuses on more Asian racial discrimination.
The third section is about resolutions. The book reveals the fact that now in America there is a lot of intermarriage and mixing of races. Many Asians are mixing with whites. He even goes to say that many Asian women marry white men so that their children get a better start in America. Wu is very upset with this and so am I with this allegation. He argues here that if Asians team up with other races for the fight of equality, it will be a better chance at winning. I agree with his argument because Asians are not the only ones fighting racial discrimination in America. Other races are fighting discrimination by becoming popular to the public eye. He mentions that Blacks and Latinos are climbing up on their education and popularity and that teaming up with them can help improve civil rights. His overall argument was exactly this that other races should be included in the paradigm of equality and civil rights.
I did not like the way he delivered his argument. For most of the chapter I felt like he was complaining that the blacks were too much involved in the civil rights movement and that Asians and Latinos should be included. It seemed as though he was jealous that blacks were getting more attention about racial issues than other races. This opinion could be completely wrong but maybe the combination Asian and Black crimes he writes about and his animosity towards blacks having too much control in the civil rights department . I don’t understand this approach because eventually he wants to join them. I believe if you want to join a group, one must appreciate what one has done and just join.
Overall, I liked the message of this book. I did not really like the way he wrote because he overdid the examples of Asian struggles. It seemed kind of winy. I think because of his personal experiences he got to emotionally involved in a political issue that should be strong and backed up with concrete evidence across all of America. I think his experience is a little biased being that he grew up in a all white community. I also think he should of put his and his parent’s background in the beginning of the book instead of the end of the book. This would of given me insight to his complaints. But overall, he is right in wanting other races to be included in the paradigm of civil rights and equality.