Descriptions of Bodies in Asch's "In Search of America"

One thing I found troubling in Asch's In Search of America was his descriptions of some of the workers he met.

Beginning in his descriptions of those he met in Garland, AK Asch has a pattern for what he is looking to show his readers. He consistently describes the reactions to his questions of those he meets, describes their working conditions, their housing conditions, and if he is able to go inside their homes he describes the make up of their family as well. This changes some, however, when he meets workers who are non-white. The same focus is given to the previously mentioned attributes of their lives, but he goes a step further with non-whites and goes into detail about their physical and genealogical differences from whites.

He describes the Mexicans he meets at a bar in Denver as having "Spanish eyes set in Indian faces, with strong hook noeses, high cheekbones, and always even on overalls and cheapest dresses a touch of color," (Asch 292). What image does "Spanish eyes" elicit for Asch's reader? What is an Indian face? Asch continues and describes another man, Aragon: "To me, everything about Aragon was amazing; this man whose face was of red copper, whose head was like an eagle's, whose shoulders were so wide that when he spread his arms to prove a spoken point he looked like an eagle with the wings outstretched..." (293).

Asch's descriptions of non-white bodies troubled me because I cannot tell whether it comes from a need to describe for a white audience, who may have never met a minority before, the workers he wishes them to sympathize with, or from racism. It seems to me to be partly both, because he certainly wishes for the reader to understand the people he describes, and uses the problematic language (describing a person using animal qualities) to show admiration for those he is meeting. Maybe a better question to ask would be why does he have to describe their bodies at all? What is Asch anticipating from his white audience?