Content Warning: This section references racial prejudice and racist slurs.

Perception of ethnic/racial identity—particularly incorrect perception—is a major theme. Julia has often experienced negative perceptions, so she is both sensitive to them and painfully aware of how hurtful they can be. She distances herself from her heritage due to her friends’ disgusted reactions to kimchi, and she has traumatic memories of being called slurs associated with Chinese people (since her family is Korean American, the words doubly negate her background). Julia also observes her mother’s prejudice against Black people, possibly due to inherited trauma from the Korean War, which Julia must actively reject.

Park demonstrates that regardless of ethnicity or allyship, no one is immune to these (mis)perceptions. Most prejudice in the novel is subtle, stemming not from negative feelings so much as lack of reflection—i.e., a failure to question the ideas one has absorbed or to consider how other people’s perspectives might differ from one’s own. Mr. Dixon, a Black man, assumes the Songs are white and then Chinese, lumping together very different Asian cultures and ethnicities. Patrick, though appreciative of Korean culture (and kimchi) to the point that he considers his own heritage boring, can’t fully grasp Julia’s sensitivity about her heritage because it’s something he has never had to deal with.