Minorities in America

Although I'm dealing with mostly African-Americans in my student teaching (about 99 percent), I found the chapter on Asian-Americans very interesting. What really grabbed my attention was how the author described the media as portraying Asian-Americans as "good" while African-Americans are portrayed as "bad." It was interesting how often, like the case of the teacher in California, Asian isn't included on some research and even in district assessments of teachers. In these cases, they stated that there wasn't enough asians to make up their own category which ultimately lead to a Japanese-American teacher losing her job because of the overwhelming amount of "white" teachers. It seems that the dominant white culture basicaly assimilated the asian culture into their own, unbeknownst to the asian-americans in the group. Were they included into the white race division because they were considered "good enough" for our culture?
Another part that got me somewhat upset was how many americans often view asians from just one region and culture, not many regions and numerous cultures. One of my good friends is an immigrant from South Korea and i know he would be upset if he would be considered the same as someone from Vietnam, because it's taking away part of his self-identity. If someone said to me, "Your white, your family came from Europe," I'd be somewhat angry. I don't really consider myself Euro-American but identify myself from my families specific countries of origin.
I also like the contrast the book made between chapter 20 and 21. While chapter 20 discussed how society often portrays black men as violent, aggressive beings, chapter 21 discussed the stereotype of asians being very quiet and studious people who have worked extremely hard to fulfill the american dream. They're often viewed as well behaved people who act "normally" (aka more like whites) than other races and don't have social problems other minority groups have like poverty, illiteracy, etc.