Interior Chinatown

Willis is obsessed with fitting in. He’s a native-born American citizen who speaks perfect English and got perfect grades in school. Even his father, who emigrated from Taiwan, speaks without an accent. Ironically, nobody will give the elder Wu an academic job because he doesn’t sound Chinese. Willis concludes that this trait unnerves Americans. Willis and his father don’t fit the expected pattern.

Ironically, the two men discover that the best way to earn a living is to conform to that prejudice. Inscrutable Asian people who speak broken English are what mainstream America expects to see. Television shows such as Black and White perpetuate this belief by scripting standard roles for Asian people. Willis bemoans that he will never be the star of a show—that scripts will continue to relegate him to the support role of Special Guest Star.

Willis’s limited roles on Black and White function as a microcosm for his disengagement from life in general. Just as he doesn’t believe Asian people can have their own shows, Willis refuses to believe that Asian people can be accepted as authentic Americans. This begs the larger question of what a typical American looks like.

While most people would automatically accept the blond-haired, blue-eyed definition of an American, they have increasingly come to accept the notion of Black Americans too.