Fil-Am journalist Jose Antonio Vargas unveils new book exploring racial identity

The book will follow his best-selling 2018 memoir ‘Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen’ 

At a time when the world is working to undo traditionally destructive and exclusionary perspectives on racial identity, celebrated journalist and immigration activist Jose Antonio Vargas is currently writing about an issue that many people of color in America face: what it’s like to live on the outside of the white and Black binary.

In a new book titled “White is Not a Country,” Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, plans to explore the nuances of race through research, interviews with immigrants and the hard-hitting analysis that is signature to Vargas’ activism and written work.

Vargas, 39, made international headlines a decade ago when he wrote an essay where he revealed that he was undocumented, sowing the seeds for the destigmatization of being a non-citizen. He founded the nonprofit Define American with the mission to help humanize immigrant portrayals and conversations about immigrants in media and entertainment.

As previously reviewed in the Asian Journal, his 2018 memoir “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen” explored his early life as a young boy sent to California from the Philippines and the identity crisis that many undocumented people feel today: being American in every single way but without documentation to prove it.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times for his forthcoming sophomore book, Vargas said, “All of us are trying to understand where we fit in this urgent, unprecedented time in American history. I think all Americans, documented or not, are struggling to figure out where we fit in conversations around race and identity.”

“White is Not a Country” is set to be published in 2023 by Pantheon Books. In the LA Times interview, Vargas revealed that the title of his book was inspired by a conversation he had with a University of Georgia student in 2012. Vargas had asked the student where he was from — a question and microaggression that people of color often receive.

The student had replied, “I’m white,” to which Vargas replied, “White is not a country, where are you from?” which gave the student pause.

“My hope is that by writing this book, I will be having this conversation with the reader,” he told the LA Times. “What’s our role? Because everyone has a role. There’s no opting out.”