This is a difficult situation. As Asian-Americans we'll always be the friendly outsider, part of both worlds yet belonging to none. To Americans we'll be foreigners, even if we've been here longer than they have; to Asians, we'll be raised improperly and disrespectful of our roots and culture, and will have sold out.

The thing that is important is you know who you are, how you stand as an American and as an Asian-American male, first and foremost. That no matter how much white Americans try to pit us against other minorities, telling us that we're practically white, that we'll never be white. We should never want to be white, only Asian-American, whatever identity that is, and we should not be the one-trick pony of whites to trot out whenever that bullshit model minority stereotype is brought out.

Uh... I got sidetracked.

The thing that irks me the most about this story is that he automatically assumed that you weren't American after you spoke to him the way you did. Ignorance and stereotyping at their best, no? And then he had the gall to think that you had abandoned your roots. What is it with white people who think they know everything it means to be different? Perhaps next time you see him you should tell him to pok gai, and that no matter how he tries he can't run away from his whiteness.