I Love Yous are For White People

A family friend takes Pa to the hospital, where doctors perform emergency surgery to remove his infected pancreas. Six weeks later, he is on permanent disability and unable to digest food properly. Pa’s health problems make living with him even more difficult. Su responds by spending more time in his room and with his friends. Determined to win over Javi, Su commits to helping him unseat Trucker, the mystery player who holds the high score in Spy Hunter. A Swahili neighbor gives Su $7 in exchange for allowing her to fondle him. In front of a growing crowd, Su hands Javi quarters until he surpasses Trucker’s high score. The boys retreat to a table to bask in Javi’s victory. Their celebration is cut short when Trucker, a gray-haired Caucasian man, arrives and plays Spy Hunter until he holds the top spot once again. Su sees Trucker slide into the driver’s seat of an ice cream truck. Javi instructs Su to return the next day with more quarters.

Su steals Ma’s food stamps and trades them for cash at the supermarket to finance Javi’s Spy Hunter comeback. Javi is so grateful he invites Su over to his house to show him his basketball card collection. Ma questions Pa about the missing food stamps, but Pa dismisses her concerns. Unable to find more stamps, Su raids his mother’s piggybank, stealing money daily over the course of several weeks. One Saturday afternoon, he goes to the pizza parlor to watch Javi play while Pa visits with a friend. Javi has just beaten Trucker’s high score when Pa appears to bring him home.

Pa beats Su with rulers, tree branches, and an extension cord as punishment for stealing. Su lies when Pa asks him where he got the money to play arcade games, prompting an even more brutal beating with a broomstick. Pa informs Su that he stole a total of $500 before forcing him to strip and locking him out of the apartment. The neighbors, the Kingsley Street Gang, and Javi ridicule him until Pa opens the door ten minutes later. He lectures Su and tries to rationalize the punishment. Pa also informs Su that the money he stole was for his college fund. 

Pa moves the family to Alhambra, a predominantly Asian area east of Chinatown, to protect Su from bad influences. Their new house is nicer than their old, vermin-infested apartment, but Su does not like living among people who remind him of his family. Sharing a language with locals make Pa and Ma the happiest they have been since leaving Vietnam. Su recites Chinese prose from the passenger seat while his father drives up and down their driveway in a red Chevette, the family’s first car. Pa pays Su a rare compliment when he finishes the assignment without making a single error.

Su’s new school is racially mixed, but the Asian and Mexican children do not intermingle. Pa’s strict rules thwart Su’s attempts to meet and date girls. Indeed, he actively discourages Su from dating by reminding him that “girls and education don’t go together” (125). Pa stresses education as a means of improving his son’s place in the world. Su escapes his stifling homelife by cycling to City Terrace, a gang-ridden area that reminds him of his old neighborhood. He approaches a group of Hispanic boys hoping to make friends, but they turn on him when he claims to be from the Kingsley Street Gang. They chase on foot him until he crests a hill, only to reappear in a black Chevy a short time later. Su escapes when their car gets caught in freeway traffic. 

Su reluctantly accompanies Pa and his siblings to Santa’s village at a local YMCA at the age of 14. After sitting on Santa’s lap and receiving a present, Pa instructs Su to get back in line and start again. Santa recognizes him, but nonetheless gives him a gift. He objects, however, when Su goes back a third time. The family leaves with more gifts than the trunk can hold. Su escapes to the 7-Eleven to meet Art, a studious Mexican classmate. He gets into a fight when a boy makes derogatory remarks about Quy. Dragon Head, the leader of the Street Ratz (a gang of Asian graffiti artists and thugs) witnesses the altercation and praises Su. Art arrives and peruses Su’s graffiti scrapbook. A member of the Street Ratz catches a glimpse of his drawings and invites him to paint walls, but Su declines fearing his father’s reaction.

Pa takes Su to Kmart to buy sneakers. Su is delighted to be rid of the tattered Pro Wings his classmates mock. The shoes are too big, but Pa does not want Su to grow out of them before wearing them out. He lectures Su about being influenced by white classmates when his son asks if the shoes are a Christmas present. Su borrows his father’s green sweater and goes to Art’s house to celebrate the holiday, where he eats Mexican food while admiring the Christmas tree. Art’s parents give the boys matching electronic thesaurus machines. Su is moved by the affection they show one another, particularly by their declarations of love. He becomes convinced that telling his father he loves him will fix their relationship. Pa rages at Su’s words, accusing him of weakness and of “trying to imitate white people” (150). Su cries, further infuriating his father.

A doctor prescribes Tylenol 3 and Wellbutrin to treat Pa’s rheumatoid arthritis and depression, but Pa refuses to take them, claiming they make him weak. His medicine man gives him herbal remedies as well as mystery pills (possibly steroids) that increase his irritability. Su copes by spending more time with the Street Ratz in Dragon Head’s garage, where gang members treat him like family. He begins drinking alcohol, both at home and with his friends. Drinking helps Su release his emotions and bond with the gang members, who also have emotionally unavailable and abusive Asian fathers. They pressure him to join the group, but Su is reluctant to steal and vandalize buildings.

Pa loses his temper when Ma overcooks the rice. He tips the kitchen table over, sending dinner onto the floor. Ma gets down on her hands and knees to pick up the food while Pa continues to yell. Su cries as he helps Ma clean up, drawing the ire of Pa. He does not react when his father calls him stupid and berates him for not feeding the dog, even though he did so earlier. Pa drags him to the laundry room and shoves his head into the bag of dog food. Ma comes to Su’s defense, prompting Pa to attack her.

Su steps in, but Pa reaches for a meat cleaver and brings it to his son’s throat. He threatens to behead Su if he ever raises a hand to him again. Su retreats to his room and sobs. That night, he joins Dragon Head and the Street Ratz, who are drinking and snorting coke. Blaming himself for his father’s attack, Su gets drunk and tags a series of murals, crossing out the names of rival gang members. The rivals catch him in the act and beat him up, but Dragon Head and the Street Ratz come to his rescue.