As a boy born into a Caucasian family, this was a very difficult and emotional reading for me to digest. I was horrified hearing the things that happened to Asian immigrants and Asian Americans throughout American history as a result of white people’s actions. The America Nguyen describes is a dreadful place, filled with racism and “built on white supremacy.” I was challenged to step into the reality that minorities all over America are being oppressed, not just in black communities, and I was challenged emotionally hearing their cries and their sufferings caused by the effects of white supremacy and racism. He digs deep into the roots of America and its history of racism and labeling Asian Americans as the model minority. Nguyen defines the model minority as a minority of peoples placed in a spotlight of socioeconomic superiority visible to the rest of society. Although getting tagged as being a more socioeconomically successful race may seem like a compliment at first, it is the core of racism towards Asian Americans. This label is dangerous because it affects politics in unreasonable ways. Nguyen reminds us of the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act and internment of Japanese Americans and how they were aimed towards Asians to prevent them from succeeding socioeconomically in America. Americans see the model minority as a threat to their own success. The model minority label serves American politicians an excuse to impose sanctions and travel bans on Asian countries.

Nguyen had been clear when stating “the end of Asian Americans only happens with the end of racism and capitalism” that the name “Asian American” is not synonymous with equality. The interpretation of the name “Asian Americans” others have has been a reminder of Americans’ racist and exploitive nature provoked by the spoils and comfort of capitalism. And in order to defeat that mentality and the American “Asian American” interpretation, capitalism would have to fall with racism.