This book is autobiographical, exploring Wu's relationship to American culture as an Asian man.
As a child, Wu says he was misunderstood. Many people teased him constantly about his ethnicity, especially in Detroit, when his family moved there from Cleveland. It wasn't local though, because even in Baltimore at college, or in San Francisco when he began his practice as a lawyer, racism was still a big part of his daily life.
One of the major difficulties for Wu as a child was bullying, especially name-calling. He was often the victim of racially motivated hate speech, and he was called many slurs. They teased him about his culture, about his eyes, about his television shows and his way of life.
So, when he is old and established enough to move wherever he wants, after having successfully attained a career in law, Wu describes his decision to go to California. Culturally, California seemed like an open-minded place, but he says it was a mistake. Turns out, racism against Asians is a major part of Californian society, even today. He did not expect so much racism in a generally open-minded city like San Francisco.
To end, he summarizes his point of view. He feels that white people typically are forced by culture to admit that racist against black people is heinous and wrong, but Wu says perhaps other kinds of racism have gone untreated, undetected, except by the Asian people who are actually made to suffer.
