When we first started having discussions in this class, I remember sitting at my table thinking What’s the big deal about color? I grew up in a family and schools that taught us to ignore color differences and treat everyone equally because we are all the same on the inside. It was considered rude to notice a person’s ethnicity. The “melting pot” theory taught in history classes was my understanding of culture. Yet this theory leaves no room for individuality and cultural identity. Everyone becomes the same in the sense that everyone strives to blend into the white culture. A problem in this theory is everyone is not the same and not everyone wishes to be the same.

 I will discuss later in this essay how the immigrants change from generation to generation, but I must bring up that the dominant culture changes as well. The American understanding of culture and how all ethnicities should come together changes over time. As I’ve learned in my education classes, a new “salad bowl” theory is now taught. Rather than the assimilation of the “melting pot,” this idea represents a new culture joining the dominant culture while maintaining part of their old identity and customs. Cultural differences become celebrated, not ignored. All humans have a cultural background that runs through their blood and through their history. One way to preserve history and identity is using narratives.  Narratives tell a story, whether they are fiction or non-fiction, and in this class the stories discuss ethnic issues of non-whites in the United States. These narratives provide an in depth look at the various ethnic group experiences. The texts we have read can be divided into three categories: the immigrant narrative, the minority narratives and stories that fall somewhere in between.

The immigrant story is the foundation of multicultural literature because it describes the transition from the “old world” to the “new world” and explains the process of acculturation. The phrase is often associated with the immigrant story is the pursuit of “The American Dream.” Several groups left their home countries to find prosperity and opportunity in America. Generally these immigrants are willing to at least partially assimilate into the dominant culture because they believe to achieve the “American Dream” you must become like an American. One thing most pick up from the dominant culture is the language. “The English Lesson” features a classroom full of immigrants who want to learn English in order to further their opportunities in America. Knowing the dominant language is fundamental for communication in the business world when looking for a job. Many of the students’ responses to Mrs. Hamma reflect this: “…because my ambition is to learn to speak and read English very good. To get a better job,” “…to improve my economic situation,” “[to] improve my position better in this country.” Most do not have a problem learning the language of the dominant culture because it will benefit them.

Other immigrants cast away their “old world’s” gender roles to make a better life for themselves. The typical gender role for women in many of the old countries is to stay home and take care of the house and children while the husband works, yet many women rebel against this idea when they get to the “new world.” For them equal opportunity should mean equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of race or gender. “Soap and Water” portrays a woman attempting to better herself by going to college. She is met by anything but equality as all of her differences pose as roadblocks for her education and freedom. This woman, however, does achieve assimilation in the sense that she chooses to follow the gender roles of the dominant culture rather than the ones established by her previous culture.

Many immigrants face discrimination and hostility from the dominant culture. The “American Dream” is not always achieved and sometimes immigrants looking for a better life find nothing better than what they left. These experiences, failures and successes, are what make up the immigrant narrative. Objective 2 in this course explains the stages of the Immigrant Narrative. First the immigrant must travel from the old world to the new. Upon arriving to the new there is a kind of culture shock, usually accompanied with resistance of the immigrant to assimilate and resistance of the dominant culture to accept. In an attempt to start a new life and take advantage of the American opportunities, the immigrant often does assimilate and begin to give up their old culture. When established, however, the immigrant may start to “rediscover” his or her original heritage, though it will never come back fully.

Not all non-whites in America are immigrants. The Native Americans were here long before the present dominant culture. African-Americans did not choose to come to America, but instead for forced by the dominant culture to come to America as slaves. These two cultures are often considered minorities. As described in these groups origin in the United States, minorities never asked to be a part of the dominant culture and often resist assimilation. Rather than finding “The American Dream” immigrants come searching for, the minorities often face “The American Nightmare.” These groups faced poor treatment and harsh discrimination from the dominant culture. African Americans were enslaved and treated as property, stripped of all human qualities. Even after slavery ended, segregation continued, and while even this segregation has ended, blacks and whites still do not share the same equality. In “The Lesson,” Miss Moore tries to demonstrate to her students this inequality. In the toy store the children discover toys that cost more than their families’ incomes and wonder who could buy those. The teacher’s goal is to get the students upset and encourage them to criticize the fairness of the government and this “supposedly” equal opportunity country. Whites made blacks American by bringing them here, yet refuse to treat them the same as the dominant culture. Their salaries are considerably less and the opportunities even smaller. The only right they have is to live (not necessarily peacefully) in America.

Native Americans were stripped of their land and culture as whites attempted to convert them and move them to tiny reserves. Everything is taken away from the Native Americans yet if they want to be considered equal they must adhere to the same standard of living as the dominant culture. Much of this history leads to a mistrust between them and the dominant culture. “American Horse” demonstrates the condescending attitude toward Native Americans that is held by the dominant culture. Albertine and Buddy are a mother and son trying to live off of the government’s welfare, yet criticized for not living up to standards. No one really tries to help them, but instead breaks them apart. At the end, Albertine loses one of the only things she had left, her son. All of her experiences, from having to hide out to the dramatic stand-off portray “The American Nightmare.”

Not all stories can simply be classified as immigrant or minority. There are a few cultures that fall somewhere in between. Mexicans immigrate into the United States but since Mexico borders America and actually once was part of America, they seem to fulfill both roles, immigrant and minority. Mexican-Americans usually learn the language, as well as enjoy certain benefits from American society such as education and economic opportunity, but also retain part of their own culture. Some of the stories show them (especially the younger but not completely assimilated generations) using both a public and private language. In public, the younger Mexicans use the dominant culture’s language, English. The boy in “Hunger of Memory” recalls: “Most of those people who called me pocho could have spoken English to me but…they seemed to think that Spanish was the only language we could use, that Spanish alone permitted our closeness.” This idea of using the private first language at home preserves a part of their original culture and is the sign of a minority group, while knowing English as well is more of an immigrant trait. As new generations come, they will tend to represent more of the immigrant pattern, rather than the minority pattern. The little boy in this story can understand Spanish when it is spoken to him, but because he “used public language for most of the day,” he has almost completely forgotten how to speak in Spanish.

Afro-Caribbean immigrants also fall into this in between category. They are a minority because of their black heritage and connection to an involuntary coming to America. Yet we can also see them take on the dominant culture and immigrate like in the story “To Da-Duh, in Memoriam. The children and mother travel from New York, where they have assimilated into the new country, to Barbados, the old country, to visit their grandmother. The grandmother spends the vacation showing her grandchild everything she left and constantly brags about Barbados. Yet as her grandchild describes New York, Da-Duh cannot help but be interested. She, too, begins to see America in a new light, a closer picture of the American Dream. She wants to hear stories and see pictures and admire this new country. However, her refusal to leave Barbados displays the sign of a minority. Both of these immigrants are considered “New World” immigrants. Rather than leaving the old country permanently, they usually have an opportunity to travel back and forth (as seen in “To Da-Duh”). With this ability to connect back to their original culture, they are less likely to completely assimilate and more likely to hold on to that minority status.

As we have seen with these stories, classifying groups is never a straight forward task. There will always be overlapping and blurry lines of distinction. America will never be a completely assimilated country and that is what makes it rich; not necessarily in the sense of wealth but in culture. The differences provide us with a plethora of unique histories and cultures. The cuisines, the clothes, the music, the festivals…everything we have in America is diverse because our people are diverse. As Americans we experience a world of culture in our own backyard. We are not the melting pot, we are a rainbow with the colors of our cultures, our clothes, our foods, our identities, each shining bright and distinct, but coming together to create something beautiful.

[Ashley W]