A review by juliusmoose
The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority by Ellen D. Wu

4.0

This book was in a rather more academic register and I had to draw back on my college experiences to remember how to read books like it, but once I did it was okay. The book discusses the origins of the model minority myth about Asian Americans, tracing the shift from the '30s and before, when they were seen as these inscrutable others, to the '70s and beyond, where they’ve become the "model minority": highly educated, middle class, etc. This book discusses how that shift in popular perception came about. It touches on at the end, but doesn’t go into a lot of detail about, how the model minority myth is problematic itself. This book seems well-researched and accurate but I know almost nothing about this history so it could be all wrong I guess but I expect it isn’t.