Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White [Paperback]

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.