This work tackles what it means to be Asian-American in contemporary America. It examines the current state of civil rights in the US through the unique experiences of Asian-Americans and offers a perspective on how changing ideas of racial identity will affect race relations in the new century.

A leading voice in America's Asian community tackles what it means to be Asian American today.. In the tradition of W. E. B. Du Bois, Cornel West, and other public intellectuals who confronted the "color line" of the twentieth century, journalist, law professor, and activist Frank H. Wu offers a unique perspective on how changing ideas of racial identity will affect race relations in the new century.Often provocative and always thoughtful, this book addresses some of the most controversial contemporary issues: discrimination, immigration, diversity, globalization, and the mixed-race movement, introducing the example of Asian Americans to shed new light on the current debates. Combining personal anecdotes, social-science research, legal cases, history, and original journalistic reporting, Wu discusses damaging Asian American stereotypes such as "the model minority" and "the perpetual foreigner. " By offering new ways of thinking about race in American society, Wu's work challenges us to make good on our great democratic experiment.