Throughout Daniel’s conversation with his adoptive parents, it becomes rather obvious that Peter and Kay are quite worried about how he lives his life. Subjecting him to a number of expectations regarding his academic habits, they disapprove of the fact that he works in a Mexican restaurant. When Peter likens Daniel to a “common laborer,” readers see that he has an elitist perspective, one that disparages working-class people. What’s more, Daniel detects racist overtones when Peter says this, but Peter denies this. Rather ironically, he dismisses the idea of his own bigotry by saying, “Call a spade a spade,” a phrase that has in itself become a racially charged thing to say. In this way, Ko spotlights how unwilling Peter is to examine his own prejudices, which are so deeply engrained that he fails to even notice when he’s perpetuating culturally insensitive ideas.