LITR 4340 American
Immigrant Literature
Lecture Notes
copies of poem
Discussion vs. lecture (testing)
Quiz grades
<
<-
<--
< / x
x+
x
easy to read contemporary texts, but older texts stretch, acid test for Literture students (adaptability of language skills)
For first quiz, "N" for those who missed first class
Essay 2016 Elizabeth Tinoco
Web Highlights Thomas > Elizabeth > Zach
Proposals: many start with student's identity--perfectly good place to start but not required
http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4333/models/2016/f/RR/default.htm
human divisions frustrating but not senseless
frustrating that humans can get along with each other in some ways but not others
or get along with some people but not others
Web Review:
from
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (7.8);
Blackhistory.com article on "Great Migration"
+
recent article on racial
/ immigrant intermarriage ( =
Assimilation);
More Africans Enter U.S.
Than in Days of Slavery
assignments for East Asian
regard Model Minority as "super immigrants"?
Risk of elevating one group over another > one group defines another.
Prefer to blame others and justify ourselves.
All Americans are created
equal, but every American identity has a unique history
or
background that shapes its past, present, and future.
In dialogue together, these
unique stories define our
multicultural landscape.
African Americans as minority vs. immigrant
African Americans did not immigrate voluntarily like traditional immigrants
When African Americans arrived in New World, not opportunity but slavery
Slavery lasted app. 250 years
Segregation lasted app. 100 years (separate & unequal schools, voting restrictions, last hired-first fired, excluded from professions)
Complete legal equality only 2-3 generations
Biggest lag: capital development--slaves had to work their whole lives without profit or savings
immigrants worked, profited, accrued capital, wealth, property (some didn't, others got more than their share from work by slaves and poor whites)
migration
Lesson 145 all moved north at the same time
+ Blonde White Women reference
Af Am & immigration
overall, not an immigrant narrative of voluntary migration for opportunity and equality
instead, forced migration > slavery, then segregation
limits on assimilation and intermarriage enforced partly by both sides
intermarriage widely illegal until 1967, Supreme Court Loving vs. Virginia
comparable to caste system in which race or birth replaces class
some rough or occasional analogies between African American history and immigrant narrative
internal migration from South to North and / or from farm to city
urban ethnic enclaves may be immigrant or African American (though African Americans stay in enclaves longer, + other effects on housing)
Overall, immigration probably doesn't help African America in many direct ways
-
Civil Rights Movement climaxed at end of low-immigration period
-
High rates of immigration depress wages at bottom end of economic ladder (more people, more competition)--African American women who practice birth control sometimes express anger at immigrant women who don't--"Having more children than you can take care of"
-
Immigrants often have negative attitudes toward African Americans
-
African Americans as unknown, associated with crime and danger
-
African Americans as negative measure of assimilation, upward mobility; immigrants avoid being identified with African Americans > identify with dominant culture
-
immigrants in niche economies sometimes exploit African Americans (source of long-term enmity b/w Jews and Af Ams despite Jews' general liberalism)
Teaching rationale: not same story, can't judge by same standards: "The American Dream" > "The Dream"
Quandary: should schools support separate black identity or assimilation and intermarriage?
Intermarriage rates b/w African Americans and other Americans have increased, but not by that much. OK to date black?
Learning two separate stories may be only way to reconcile, exchange.
Assimilation is generally good economically, but . . .
making everyone the same can be awful dull
Two groups lead innovation in American and world fashion
African Americans
gays
Poetry: "Blonde White Women" p. 77
African Americans follow the immigrant narrative in moving from the South to the North
South = Old World, traditional culture, oppression
North = New World, modern culture, equality and rights (?)
Gomez 182 both from Virginia
Bambara 145 we all moved North the same time
Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, The African
Toni Cade Bambara, “The Lesson” (IA 145-152)
Alice Walker, “Elethia” (IA 307-309)
Dr. Rose
Ihedigbo, from
Sandals in the Snow (IV2 149-172)
Equiano notes
1.1 traditional culture, elders, wealth
1.4 our wants are few and easily supplied
1.5 Our land is uncommonly rich and fruitful
2.3 African kidnappers
2.17 cultural and language change
2.19 slave ship, world of bad spirits, complexions [assimilation?]
2.20 a multitude of black people of every description chained together, everyone of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow
2.21 I now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country, or even the least glimpse of hope of gaining the shore which I now considered as friendly; and I even wished for my former slavery in preference to my present situation, which was filled with horrors of every kind, still heightened by my ignorance of what I was to undergo.
2.23 brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice [greed], as I may call it, of their purchasers.
2.25 Every circumstance I met with served only to render my state more painful, and heighten my apprehensions, and my opinion of the cruelty of the whites.
2.27 Africans of all languages
3.1 I now totally lost the small remains of comfort I had enjoyed in conversing with my countrymen
3.2 I had no person to speak to that I could understand
3.3 a black woman slave as I came through the house, who was cooking the dinner, and the poor creature was cruelly loaded with various kinds of iron machines; she had one particularly on her head, which locked her mouth
3.7 By this time, however, I could smatter a little imperfect English;
3.16 employed in reading; and I had a great curiosity to talk to the books
3.19 washing make my face of the same colour as my little playmate (Mary), but it was all in vain; and I now began to be mortified at the difference in our complexions.
[4.1] . . . I have often reflected with surprise that I never felt half the alarm at any of the numerous dangers I have been in, that I was filled with at the first sight of the Europeans . . . . That fear, however, which was the effect of my ignorance, wore away as I began to know them. I could now speak English tolerably well, and I perfectly understood every thing that was said. I now not only felt myself quite easy with these new countrymen, but relished their society and manners. I no longer looked upon them as spirits, but as men superior to us; and therefore I had the stronger desire to resemble them; to imbibe their spirit, and imitate their manners
4.2 I thought now of nothing but being freed, and working for myself, and thereby getting money to enable me to get a good education; for I always had a great desire to be able at least to read and write
styled me the black Christian.
6.2 I immediately thought I might in time stand some chance by being on board to get a little money, or possibly make my escape if I should be used ill: I also expected to get better food, and in greater abundance; for I had felt much hunger oftentimes . . . .
6.3 At length I endeavoured to try my luck and commence merchant [start his own business]. I had but a very small capital to begin with; for one single half bit, which is equal to three pence in England, made up my whole stock. However I trusted to the Lord to be with me; and at one of our trips to St. Eustatia, a Dutch island, I bought a glass tumbler with my half bit, and when I came to Montserrat I sold it for a bit, or sixpence. Luckily we made several successive trips to St. Eustatia (which was a general mart for the West Indies, about twenty leagues from Montserrat); and in our next, finding my tumbler so profitable, with this one bit I bought two tumblers more; . . . When we came to Montserrat I sold the gin for eight bits, and the tumblers for two, so that my capital now amounted in all to a dollar, well husbanded and acquired in the space of a month or six weeks, when I blessed the Lord that I was so rich. As we sailed to different islands, I laid this money out in various things occasionally, and it used to turn out to very good account, especially when we went to Guadaloupe, Grenada, and the rest of the French islands. Thus was I going all about the islands upwards of four years, and ever trading as I went, during which I experienced many instances of ill usage, and have seen many injuries done to other negroes in our dealings with Europeans: and, amidst our recreations, when we have been dancing and merry-making, they, without cause, have molested and insulted us. . . .
6.5 though I did not intend to run away unless I should be ill used, yet, in such a case, if I understood navigation, I might attempt my escape in our sloop
6.6 we took a load of new slaves for Georgia and Charles Town
Opportunity of selling my little property to advantage: but here, particularly in Charles Town, I met with buyers, white men, who imposed on me as in other places.
6.7 hope of getting money enough by these voyages to buy my freedom in time, if it should please God; and also to see the town of Philadelphia,
he heard that I meant to run away from him when I got to Philadelphia: 'And therefore,' said he, 'I must sell you again:
6.9 at that instant my mind was big with inventions and full of schemes to escape.
6.10 Captain confirms speech
6.11 That he also intended to encourage me in this by crediting me with half a puncheon of rum and half a hogshead of sugar at a time; so that, from being careful, I might have money enough, in some time, to purchase my freedom; and, when that was the case, I might depend upon it he would let me have it for forty pounds sterling money, which was only the same price he gave for me. This sound gladdened my poor heart beyond measure . . .
8.2 a cargo of slaves
8.4 before night, I who had been a slave in the morning, trembling at the will of another, was become my own master, and completely free.
giving, granting, and releasing unto him, the said Gustavus Vassa, all right, title, dominion, sovereignty, and property, which, as lord and master over the aforesaid Gustavus Vassa, I had
Toni Cade Bambara, "The Lesson"
145
Back in the days
lady w/ nappy hair and proper speech and no makeup
naturally we laughed at her
Miss Moore, only woman with no first name
black as hell, feet fish-white and spoky
us being my cousin, mostly, who lived on the block cause we all moved North the same time
Miss Moore always looked like she was going to church, though she never did
She'd been to college and said it was only right that she should take responsibility for the young ones' education, and she not even related by marriage or blood. [traditional]
146
arithmetic [dom cult]
surly
Miss Moore asking us do we know what money is . . . I mean real money, she say
go to the sunset and terrorize the West Indian kids
how money ain't divided up right in this country
about we all poor and live in the slums, which I don't feature.
hands me a five-dollar bill and tells me to calculate
I'm mostly trying to figure how to spend this money
147
my plan, which is to jump out at the next light and run off to the first bar-b-que
White folks crazy.
"Can we steal?"
"I beg your pardon"
"It's a microscope."
Miss Moore gabbing about the thousands of bacteria
price tag $300, how long save allowances, Too long
learning instruments, medical students and interns
$480, don't make sense
148
[teacher talk]
on your desk at home . . . x-desk, no homeowrk
important to have a work area all your own
handcrafted sailboat $1195
"Unbelievable" . . For some reason this pisses me off.
149
"That much money it should last forever"
"how much a real boat costs? I figure a thousand'd get you a yacht any day."
least you could do is have some answers.
"Let's go in" . . . only she don't lead the way
I kinda hang back . . . I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be shamed about? Got as much right to go in as anybody. . . Sugar . . . hangs back too
150
tumble in like a glued-toogether jigsaw done all wrong.
like the time me and Sugar crashed into the Catholic church on a dare
And I watched Miss Moore who is steady watchin us like she waitin for a sign. Like Mama Drewery watches the sky and sniffs the air and takes note of just how much slant is in the fird formation. [traditional]
"You sound angry, Sylvia. Are you mad about something?"
I could see me askin my mother for a $35 birthday clown. . . . could buy new bunk beds for Junior and Gretchen's boy. . . visit Granddaddy Nelson in the country
151
rent and piano bill too
Who are these people that spend that much . . . . What kinda work do they do and how they live and how come we ain't in on it? Where we are is who we are, Miss Moore always pointin out. But it don't necessarily have to be that way . . . poor people have to wake up and demand their share of the pie and don't none of us know what kind of pie she talkin about
"White folks crazy."
Sugar: "I don't think all of us here put together eat in a year what that sailboat costs." And Miss Mooore lights up
"Imagine for a minute what kidn of society it is in which some people can spend on a toy what it would cost to feed a family of six or seven."
Sugar: "not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dought"
ain't nobody gonna beat me at nuthin.
Alice Walker, "Elethia"
307
a certain perverse experience
carried with her at all times a small apothecary jar of ashes
a man whose ancestors had owned a large plantation
many slaves
grandson of former slaveowners held a quaint proprietary point of view where colored people were concerned. He adored them , of course. Not in the present . . . his grandfather's time.
locally famous restaurant
Old Uncle Albert's
stuffed likeness, small brown dummy, lips intensely smiling, white napkin
Black people could not eat at Uncle Albert's, though they worked of course in the kitchen.
how near to the real person the dummy looked.
smiled as a dummy in a fashion he was not known to do as a man
308
grateful to the rich man, taste of vicarious fame
though niggers were not allowed in the front door, ole Albert was already inside, and looking mighty pleased
For Elthia, fascination: fingernails
worked as salad girl, discovered the truth
not a dummy, stuffed like a bird, moose's head, giant bass
someone broke in and stole nothing but Uncle Albert
Elethia and her friends, boys
They carefully burned Uncle Albert to ashes in the incinerator of their high school, and each of them kept a bottle of his ashes. . . . reaction profound
experience undercut whatever solid foundation
became secretive, wary
haunted museums, remains of Indians, real, stuffed people cf. Rue Morgue
wasn't nobody's uncle and wouldn't sit still for nobody to call him that, either.
308-9 just like always
309 Albert was born in slavery
boss man kept them ignorant of the law
trying to make him forget the past and grin and act like a nigger
seriously disremembered his past
never would let him get a job anywhere else. And Alber never would leave home.
Eletheia went away to college and her friends went into the army because they were poor and that was the way things were.
They discovered Uncle Alberts all over the world . . . textbooks, newspapers, TV
Aunt Albertas
jar of ashes, old-timers' memories written down
her friends wrote that in the army they were learning skills that would get them through more than a plate glass window
Uncle Alberts, in her own mind, were not permitted to exist.
150-151
Upon exposure to the dominant culture's heights on 5th Avenue, the normal Immigrant or American Dream response would be to ask, How do I get a piece of this? How do I get my share of this great wealth?
The African American teacher and children (Miss Moore, Sylvia, and Sugar) see something different . . . .
Not something they want to join . . .
Rather they see something that's gone wrong, basically unfair . . . .
"Elethia"
Alice Walker, “Elethia” (IA 307-309)
How much does or doesn't the immigrant and American Dream narrative apply to the experiences shown?
What other stories begin to emerge? What different social contracts?
What challenges to dominant-culture ideas such as assimilation, individualism, love it or leave it?
What is Uncle Albert's relation to the white culture? Can he join? What are his rights?
Dr. Rose Ihedigbo, from Sandals in the Snow (IV2 149-172)
Ihedigbo b. 1952
149 Nigeria, Christian Igbo > Biafra, Nigerian Civil War
(Biafran War) 1967-70
Missionary groups, husband Apollos, college-trained
teacher
Church groups + continuing educations
1979 western NY, Houghton College, Wesleyan church + 1980
3 children joined
Nigerian immigrant history: educational opportunity
Ethnic groups sponsor
1970s 9000 students
1980s 35,000 students < U.S. Immigration and Reform Act
1986
1950 ethnic financial infrastructure
Rose bachelor’s, master’s, PhD early childhood education
1999 Nigerian-American Technical and Agricultural College
in Abia
+ Head Start
2013
Sandals in the Snow:
A True Story of One African Family’s journey to Achieving the American Dream
Narrative + interview [community narrative]
Homeownership = acculturation and upward mobility
Maintaining cultural ties with extended Nigerian
community
151 a two-story paradise
Always improving, advancing, growing
“like really middle-class now! .
. . really normal
. . .
My own room, suburban neighborhood
Embodiment of the American dream
This is ours!
152 sofa, evening television network lineup
Spray-painting machine
fnf
Commercial failed to mention
Many do-it-yourself projects
153 typical Nigerian way
Bedrooms changed with allegiances, factions
Family’s first minivan . . . created for us [Evangelical
language + Nigerian English as Edwardian: shenanigans]
154 110 mph like a dream
Gadgets, toys . . . entertain passive, sedentary young
people today
Boys who were parents’ only son
A gang of boys . . . looked out for one another
Shenanigans
155 lost bike
fnf
(contingency)
NFL fame James enjoys today
Pop Warner pee wee football
Backyard football games [1950s-60s]
156 surrounded by a number of immigrant families
Violent tackle football . . . x paralyzed or killed
Rose preparing yam flour
She constantly prayed . . . x seriously hurt
157 never wanted to quit
158 backyard
sports legend fnf > fiction
competition at its best
158-9 being an “other” in society > bellowship among our
cultural group
Nigerian community
159 children connected to their roots
Lots of aunties, uncles, cousins, and music
Cf. family reunion
acceptance and connectedness
159 American education values and practices
x-traditionally accepted in un-Westernized homes
Tight family, strict parents, strong biblical beliefs
Seeing kids act like this for the first time
160 camera, pictures of their butts
Respect for those older
Parents leaders and authoritarians of household
White ones talk back disrespectfully
Missing elements were fear and accountability
CPS > parents fear children [cf. Grande, U.S. has lawas]
161 friends acting irreverently
Get me what
I want
Would have gotten them knocked out in their own culture
Another cultural difference: Nigerian children understood
what it took for their parents to get where they were, so they valued whatever
their parents could afford for them.
American model of family .
. . call the authorities
162 “It takes a village . . . “
Slapped by someone else’s parents
Child services
Community uncle or auntie
Spirit of entitlement . . . others owed them something
163 lacrosse: preppy, suburban, all-American players
x-self-righteousness, self-importance, and over-privilege
African in
Massachusetts cf. black panther walking in snow
fnf figurative
language?
[childhood +] most obvious outsider
Clothing, Survival Center shoes (local specific
reference)
164 external appearance
Ethnically styling Onyii’s hair . . . non diverse school
Teacher takes out plaits
Shocked that teacher let this go on
165 letter written to Onyii (Debbie)
[fnf
focus on Onyii-Debbie; divided self, lack of voice > 167]
For Rose, no compromise, no defeat.
Boys had their own challenges
Hair . . . specimen x human being
Assimilation battles > sports
167 unique way they smelled . . . like Nigerians . . .
natural smell
House . . . not used to our smell
Onyii-Debbie: want odors eliminated . . . husband thinks
disorder
Deodorant = less Nigerian, more American
168 shampoo
Maternal grandmother Helen—knew she was different
Family
station wagon, First Baptist Church
fnf (realistic
details)
169 Grandma
relieves herself fnf (reality effect, unpredictability, beyond
formula)
170 Uncle Smarts > Uncle Dumb
171 foods . . . palm oil, egusi soup, stews, rice, yams
Occ. Spaghetti and hot dogs for the children
Assimilated tastes
171-2 more American middle names of Debbie and Joseph
After high school > Igbo names
Special in so many ways
Anchee Min, from The
Cooked Seed (IV2 193-215)
Takisha as minority
195 Laughter, loud knock, dark-skinned person
196 African freedom fighter . . . breathing sculpture
A cripple, didn’t act like a handicapped person
198 Takisha studies to be doctor, cure mother
Kate as dominant culture
205
Kate – Esmeralda? . . . cover girl. [Esmeralda from
Hunchback of
Notre Dame?]
Brightest eyes, worry-free smile, trusting and child-like
206 x-suffered any hardship
Takisha x-Kate: “She is rich.” Room to herself + TV
Kate unmarked, Takisha unmarked
soap and water extend to Equiano
Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, The African
3.16 employed in reading; and I had a great curiosity to talk to the books
3.19 washing make my face of the same colour as my little playmate (Mary), but it was all in vain; and I now began to be mortified at the difference in our complexions.
culture as system of signs that depend on each other for meaning, connotations, values
can't have one identity without another
James Baldwin: "I'm black only as long as you're white."
dominant culture of USA
system created by early immigrants
some residual biases; "the people who write the program run the program"
BUT given the multicultural nature of the USA from the start, it's built to handle the stresses of difference as fairly as possible (so far)
web changes; course as texts + system > objectives & terms (marked and unmarked)
experience across undergrad career
early: liked this book, didn't like that one; glad the teacher made us read this book, wonder why we had to read that one
one text at a time, like / dislike
more you read, the more you read books or texts together, as a conversation, dialogue, or ongoing system
no book says it all (or not for long)
but good books connect to each other
build a system of thought or action
dominant culture
Mrs. Hamma is condescending, has mixed motives, BUT
she practices the system of equality
“English Lesson”
23 tallest person in room
24 feeling of control over the situation gve her a pleasing thrill
25 Diego Torres as Hispanic / Afro-Caribbean
25 defend your right to an opinion
25 classroom = America
27 everybody here must be treated equally. This is America!
28 history of NYC as far back as the Dutch
system as impersonal, "system of laws, not men" (John Adams) > coldness
Anzia Yezierska, “Soap and Water”
[8] Miss Whiteside had no particular reason for hounding and persecuting me. Personally, she didn’t give a hang if I was clean or dirty. She was merely one of the agents of clean society, delegated to judge who is fit and who is unfit to teach.
[17] At last I came to college. I rushed for it with the outstretched arms of youth’s aching hunger to give and take of life’s deepest and highest, and I came against the solid wall of the well-fed, well-dressed world—the frigid whitewashed wall of cleanliness.
dominant culture as plain style
"soap and water" as symbols for assimilation to dominant culture as unmarked?