Many scholars have examined the idea of ​​going "beyond black and white" in relation to the construction of American identity of Asian origin. Many arguments have been put forward to explain the possible factors that ultimately lead to the perpetuation of the "model minority myth" and the "perpetual outsider syndrome", as Frank Wu puts it. This essay therefore aims to provide an analysis details some relevant factors that lead to the construction of Asian American identity based on Claire Jean Kim's notion of "racial triangulation." Additionally, the work of Frank Wu, Kandice Chuh, and Stephen Hong Song will be used in conjunction with this idea to relate their arguments to the representation and treatment of Japanese Americans in Otsuka's novel When the Emperor Was Divine . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay In The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans, Kim argues that racial positions are defined by two axes, namely "superior/inferior" and “internal/foreign”. .” This argument is further developed in her article when she highlights the processes that lead to racial triangulation of Asian Americans in relation to blacks and whites. These processes include “relative valuation” and “civic ostracism” (Kim, 1999). By analyzing these two processes, she proposes a definable space in which Asian Americans feel inferior to whites and superior to blacks, while remaining a “foreign and unassimilable” entity in dominant American culture. She goes on to argue that this process has existed throughout history. In fact, she is not the only scholar who has been able to present the construction of Asian American identity in this way; other researchers have provided an analysis based on the same criteria used by Kim. Kandice Chuh provides greater insight into how an identity is formed within a society. She takes “a transnational approach” to understanding the processes by which “Asian-American social identities are constructed” (Chuh, 2003). Chuh therefore aims to trace the arrival of Asians in America, an approach also taken by Kim, who argues that the arrival of the Chinese in America served as a “temporary economic purpose” (Kim, 1999). Chinese immigrants were called "coolies", a term that directly linked them to "black slaves who were part of a degraded and unfree caste" and which "led to the resurrection of slavery in another form" (Kim, 1999 ). It was then that the Chinese were identified as "cheap labor" that it would be "foolish not to exploit", as argued by Stuart Creighton Miller, who added that "the Chinese were not suitable in the American crucible” (Miller, 1969). From this argument, we can see that the Chinese were accepted into America based on what Kim called a "temporary economic objective." In all cases, they were marginalized. Finally, Kandice Chuh cites Neil Gotanda's statement that "American nationalism has repeatedly denied or 'cancelled' political citizenship by creating 'Asians' different from 'Americans'" (Chuh, 2003), emphasizing that Asians could never belong to America. Frank Wu goes on to provide a clear picture of how an Asian American is marginalized in mainstream American culture using a child's perspective. Readers of “East is East; East is West: Asians asthat Frank Wu's Americans are capable of feeling what an Asian American child usually feels when he realizes how his own classmates make him feel different from them just because he is Asian. In this case, we can say that the racial construction is created through social discourse, that is, daily interaction. While children can understand racial differences, racism is indeed a serious social problem that does not stop at school. Even at work, racist comments are made by people who claim not to be racist. Popular culture further tends to portray a stereotypical depiction of an Asian American, which is Johny Sokko, who usually plays a negative character. Yet, as a child, Frank Wu's character fails to notice the problematic portrayal of his favorite character. In fact, Keith Osajima writes: "The year 1986 marked an anniversary of sorts: twenty years earlier, the first articles proclaiming Asian Americans as ''a 'model minority'' appeared in the popular press » (Osajima, 2005). Stephen Hong Sohn focuses his analysis on how literature uses a dominant narrative to depict racial stereotypes by providing a hierarchical representation of characters; he argues that minor characters often tend to serve “clarifying functions of the comparative and asymmetrical nature of racial exclusions” (Sohn, 2012). Popular culture and literature, accessible to the greatest number of people, play an important role in the construction of racial stereotypes which are easily assimilated by the public or the reader. This is perhaps one reason why Stephen Jay Gould argued that "our thinking, conditioned by the European ethnological frameworks of past centuries", is "subject to visual representation, usually in clearly definable geometric terms" ( Gould, 1996). on the subconscious mind by constantly representing a minority discourse that perpetuates stereotypes. The conflict between ethnic and national identities still reverberates. Ethnic identity becomes a way to cope and combat these constructed discriminations, because they contain a sense of belonging that opposes racist ideas. produced by the dominant society (Mossakowski, 2003). Returning to the work of Frank Wu which tends to describe how racialization operates as a means of definition and discrimination, we see that racial constructions have become a common process which, unfortunately, plays a major role in shaping people's lives. an individual: “Even though I didn’t consciously see him – or myself – as Asians, they saw it clearly. They considered me both more or less than Johny” (Wu, 2002). On top of that, he was given "many masks to wear", including "worker", "saboteur", "kamikaze pilot", "obedient servant", "tyrant intent", and "enemy", among others. (Wu, 2002). These terms tend to give a negative image of being Chinese, which leads the child to question his parents: “Why are we Chinese? » (Wu, 2002). These terms also reflect stereotypes that unfairly generalize the entire Asian American subject. Something similar happened after the attack on Pearl Harbor. All Japanese Americans were considered enemy aliens. They were identified on the basis of their race. In light of this problem, Julie Otsuka wrote When the Emperor was Divine to describe how Japanese Americans must pay a heavy price for being Japanese. Even though it was only a small group of Japanese who attacked.