In these lines, Noda tells us that her mother is Asian, and therefore she was not considered black or white. This statement, far from being obvious, reveals an important characteristic of the way American society operates. What Noda implies in the passage is that, at the time, society was divided along racial lines. However, this usually only meant black and white people. Other minorities were considered nonexistent or less important, and because of this, they struggled finding the place where they belonged and the identity that corresponded to them.
