. . . The latter minority is still so different than the former because African Americans were brought over into slavery. Because of this injustice to their culture they have been able to gain a strong voice, differing much from the  dominant culture and further keeping themselves separated from it voluntarily. In the poem “Blonde White Women” you can see the struggles that an African American girl deals with in an effort to fit in with the dominant culture, until finally on growing up she realizes that is not even what she wants. This shows something similar to the five stages of the immigrant narrative where in the last stage there is rediscovery of ethnic identity. A lot of minorities go through this stage, especially repressed minorities as a backlash to the dominant culture.

There are many cultures that get thrown in the middle because of “the color code”. Many Afro-Caribbean immigrants are thought of as African and get labeled as minorities. I once dated someone from Trinidad who looked black in appearance and was often called black or African; however, he was only one quarter African. This is just one example of the common mistakes made by the dominant culture in labeling people. The story “How to Date A Brown Girl” revolves around “the color code” as an explanation for certain behavior for certain colors; thus further complicating things for everyone.  In “Gussuk”  Lucy is mistaken for a native by the Eskimos but she is actually the daughter of Chinese immigrants. These are just a few examples of how “the color code” complicates the immigrant and minority narratives and makes it hard to label certain groups.

This course has showed me many new cultures that I was ignorant to before which has made me more aware of the people and customs around me. Also it has given me a chance to gain better understanding of why things are the way they are in America today. I think all Americans should be required to take a course like this and then there could be some serious changes made in our culture as a whole. BF sums it up best by saying, “We are so lucky to be born in America. However, we must remember that we are here by chance. We could have easily been born in China or Mexico and we might have found ourselves just as hungry for opportunity as American immigrants often are.” I think that’s the biggest lesson that Americans need to know so that these hardships and discriminations can be absolved for future immigrants.

[Ashley K]