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

 

 

 

Model Assignments Highlights

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Declaration of Independence

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

self-other

 

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; Intermarriage and Assimilation; Barack Obama, Dreams from my Father; white flight; What's changed for African Americans since 1963; Henry Louis Gates notes on African American genetics

 

 

 

 

 

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] [imperial advantage]

 

154 110 mph like a dream

Gadgets, toys . . . entertain passive, sedentary young people today

Boys who were parents’ only son  (realistic detail)

A gang of boys . . . looked out for one another

Shenanigans

 

155 lost bike  fnf (contingency)

NFL fame James enjoys today (reference to shared reality beyond text)

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   (realistic detail, reality effect, not predicted, outrageous and beyond pale)

Respect for those older

Parents leaders and authoritarians of household

White ones talk back disrespectfully

Missing elements were fear and accountability  (editorializing, commentary; values named rather than evoked, ergo nonfiction)

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] fiction

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.

 

 

marked and unmarked

dominant culture as plain style

"soap and water" as symbols for assimilation to dominant culture as unmarked?