In this article, I share the philosophical stance that I have developed in relationship to my teaching of U.S. Ethnic Literature and examine the rewards and pitfalls of this path by reflecting on my own experiences teaching John Okadas No-No Boy in undergraduate American literature courses. By illuminating why texts (especially texts by Ethnic American authors) matter intellectually, emotionally, and politically, this discussion will provide a model for critical and self-reflexive pedagogy at the beginning of the twenty-first century
