copy of midterm exam

Topic 1 (minority culture): Explain this course's "minority concept" in relation to Objectives 1-4 & 2-3 texts

"Excerpts"
striking selections from partly right answers

 . . . The problems with this approach of defining minorities are that for some minorities such as Mexican Americans, the definition only sometimes applies and the dominant culture keeps changing. The attraction of the minority definition used in this class is that it is a way to define a minority, which is very complicated due to varying ethnicity structures, and continuing assimilation.  I believe that the way that this class distinguishes minorities and immigrants is more intuitive than any other approach. Most government and educational programs add Asian Americans, to our list of minorities: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and American Indians. This is another way to define minorities which is based on population figures, but it does not account for Asian Americans being immigrants and not a minority. As previously stated, the dominant culture will continue to change as immigrants continue to make up that dominant culture, so the definition of dominant will change. The class minority definitions and objectives encompass the delicate subject of race and make it possible to study minority literature objectively and talk about minority issues passionately. [VV]

 . . . Objective 3 brings up another main way in which minority groups differ from dominant groups.  Minority groups tend to resist becoming a complete part of the dominant culture in that they choose to retain many of their customs and habits.  Contrary to this immigrants tend to assimilate directly into the dominant group as evidenced with Max.  Right off the boat he starts working and becoming part of America.  In many ways minority groups and dominant groups can be related to Star Trek.  Dominant groups are like the Borg, all the same and taking in newly assimilated immigrants whereas the federation can represent minority groups.  Though grouped together, as minorities in America, the Federation is comprised of many smaller groups who retain their own culture.  Though immigrants and minorities may start similarly in other countries, the ways in which they come to America as well as how the live and are treated when they arrive differ greatly. [JH]

 The United States is a country deeply rooted in the histories of other cultures, though most descendants of immigrants choose to cling only to the more attractive aspects of their mother country, i.e. St. Patrick’s Day, Oktoberfest, etc. These special days are remembered by generations following the immigrants in an idealized sense, while most of their immigrant culture is left behind for a new life in America. These immigrants are hopeful for the future to come. This hope could not be more clearly expressed than in Bread Givers. The main character is admired for “standing on [her] own feet” and “making [her] own way in the world”. This is a commanding thought among early immigrants; the world was at their fingertips and they could feel “the riches of all America” if only they would work hard enough; this is The American Dream.

            The minority culture includes ethnic group that do not fit the immigrant ideal. They are groups who have either been forced into the country (African Americans) or have been pushed out (American Indians). These cultures, through both physical and psychological means, become both voiceless and choiceless. They are not allowed to speak up against the horrors being committed to their people. The most profound example of being voiceless in the African American slave community was a lack of education. The theory behind this restraint must undoubtedly be that education opens up doorways to lives unimagined and this would certainly not be wanted among slaves on plantations. . . .  [EN]

 . . . We typically recognize immigrants as those who are in search of some sort of escape. Not necessarily from some fault of their own, but instead escape from persecution. For most Americans, we view immigrants as those who served as the foundation of this country. In most cases, it is these same people that have come to be viewed as America’s minorities and those in search of the American Dream. In some sense, the original Dominant Culture was composed of those men who formed The Declaration of Independence. Among many other reasons, Congress declared “he has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people”. In a most generalized manner we perceive minorities as those who have endured something. The founding fathers endured persecution from their mothering nation, Native Americans and Africans received the exact treatment the Founding Fathers spoke against in The Declaration of Independence. For myself, the notion of a minority, and the notion most appropriately represented in this course would define a minority as any of those who groups of people who have been oppressed.

The one problem that may arise from my notion of minorities is how they are created. Many of the minorities that have developed in this nation are due to the dominant culture--Anglos, and other Europeans. The very reasons immigrants chose to leave their respective nations, became the very same injustices implemented onto Native American and Africans--in the most basic sense. The term minority seems to elude white Americans, and rightfully so. Typically, we view minorities as being anything but Anglo. Others often view minorities as simple percentages of population. In which case certain areas would contain varying “minorities” and “dominant cultures”. However, none of which carry the same historical or literary weight as does the term minority in relation to this course. [BMcD]

. . . In closing, it is important to note that a minority group in the United States is often a group which has faced adversity by essentially losing their native culture and having to make the decision of assimilating or resisting. When comparing a minority group and an immigrant group it is very important to note the strong difference that immigrant groups came to the United States to live the American Dream, while often at the expense of minority groups.  [AT]

I Lost Myself: A Distant Land, A Dark World

            American minority cultures are distinguishable from Immigrant minorities because they would choose not to assimilate, but are rather forcibly assimilated by the dominant culture after being forced to immigration.  This is most easily identifiable with the experience of the African American population. They were brought over America forcibly to work as slaves, when the American legal system finally decided that the treatment of African American slaves was inhumane, and ultimately that the African American slaves were in fact human, the African American minority slowly began to integrate into the majority population. This integration was not easy, it was something that the slave population had to struggle for, and it came at the price of the sacrifice of cultural values that the slave population would never have abandoned were it not for the slave trade. Adding to the difficulty and sacrifices that any population faces during a period of assimilation, the African American population suffered from the demoralizing, dehumanizing and degrading effects of slavery for generations. . . . [PB]