'...reducing race to simple signifiers can have terrifying consequences. The constant thrum of warning—to paraphrase UPS, "What will brown do to you?"—has made anyone whose natural skin color is in the darker range beyond beige a potential threat. You may be American-born and educated and patriotic to the core. But if you "look Latino" or "look Indian" or "look Arab," you may as well be a thuggish illegal, a job-stealing visa parasite or a terrorist sleeper awaiting final instructions. Meanwhile, with fear of China and North Korea at a contemporary peak, the flattening of Asian identity into a set of slanted eyes is similarly striking caution in the hearts of those who know how quickly the seeds of the schoolyard—"Can you even see through those things?"; "Wow, you could use dental floss as a blindfold!"—can blossom into full-fledged hate-mongering propaganda...' — Jeff Yang, SFGate
