Cana Hauerland

11 July 2008

Avoid Mistaking Immigrant Identities: Take Multicultural Literature

Dear Future Students,

            The many reading assignments in American Multicultural Literature seem excessive and intimidating at first, but they soon exemplify the American Immigrant Literature topic as being just that: excessive and intimidating. You will learn that each narrative is essential in understanding the diversity of the experiences and identities of American Immigrants. As you journey through the lives of these fascinating people by reading their narratives, you will realize that if the course did not require the reading and discussion of the wide range of narratives, the class would be unfulfilling, and you would misinterpret American Immigrants.

            Although you may not think this is possible, the immigrant identity can be unintentionally misunderstood before taking this course. Your enlightenment will derive from reading the assigned narratives and clarifying the mistaken identity of American Immigrants made daily by those who are not fortunate enough to be awakened to this subject. You will learn many objectives that correspond with the course such as ones that explain the terms: model minority, The American Dream vs. The American Nightmare, color code, dominant culture, and "blending in".  Please do not be scared away by these objectives as they play a huge role in helping you understand the course and applying new definitive terms to what you learn about American Immigrants in the narratives. Keep remembering the reason you have many readings and objectives; mistaken identity may occur with American Immigrants without them. While highlighting selected narratives and objective terms you will encounter during the beginning, middle, and end of the course, I will exemplify the effects of mistaken identity from having limited narratives to read or terms to apply to these.

            During the beginning of the course, you will encounter narratives of Asian American Immigrants and the objective term "model minority". The identities of the Asian American Immigrants may be easily misunderstood as the dominant culture has applied the term "model minority" to all of them. In the eyes of the dominant culture, Asian American Immigrants are all successful, smart, and assimilated to the dominant culture in America. When reading “In the American Society”, you will identify traits of the model minority. The Chinese father decides to “get a jump on things like the Americans” by opening the pancake house to save for his daughters’ college funds, and the mother drives a “station wagon with air conditioning” (IA 158).  This Chinese family exemplifies the definition of Asian American Immigrants as being the model minorities by upholding characteristics of the dominant culture such as working hard, saving, and driving the all-American station wagon. You might assume the dominant culture is correct in defining Asian American Immigrants. Then you will read “America is in the Heart”, from the same Asian American Immigrant course reading list, and meet a Filipino boy who entered America with about twenty cents and “was sold for five dollars to work in the fish canneries of Alaska”(VA 60). He ventures through hardships throughout the entire narrative and never once resembles the model minority. This Filipino narrative will enlighten your understanding the frequently mistaken identity of the Asian American Immigrant as always resembling the model minority.

            As comparative to the model minority realization, you will come to better understand a second misunderstood immigrant identity by reading the African American Minority and Caribbean Immigrant narratives during the middle of the course. The objective terms: The American Dream vs. the American Nightmare and the color code will assist you in discussing these narratives and explaining them to yourself. Beginning with African American Minorities, the explanation of African Americans being minorities because of their forced entry into America will enlighten you to the objective term, The American Nightmare. “No Name in the Street” expresses the degrading suffering African American Minorities faced when they unwillingly entered America by the forceful actions of “descendants of a barbarous Europe who arbitrarily and arrogantly reserve the right to call themselves Americans”, thus illustrating The American Nightmare (IA 285).  After enduring the struggles faced for equality by these minorities, you will be awoken to a new American Immigrant commonly labeled a minority because of the color code, a resemblance in skin color. Caribbean Immigrants overlap with African American Minorities as they face struggles to achieve The American Dream, coming to America to create a better life; however, some of these struggles faced are attributed to their mistaken identity with the African American Minority group based on the color code. The women in “The Making of a Writer” reminisce of their old country, Barbados, regarding it as “the little Caribbean island they loved but had to leave”. Because the women are constantly mistaken for their identity as African American Minorities based on the color code, they “lash out for racism encountered” (VA 85). After reading and discussing these narratives with the objective terms, the mistaken identity of African American Minorities and Caribbean Immigrants, based on the inevitable color code, is revealed.

            Also a result of the color code, a final mistaken identity for the dominant culture is explained through the narratives of European-American Immigrants. Because of their education and skin color, European-American Immigrants have the ability to blend in with the dominant culture. The idea of these immigrants easily overlooked in appearance, but not in experience, will quickly enlighten you to the immigrants hidden by the color code. While looking like the dominant culture, one could not identify the European-American Immigrant status of Oskar without reading his narrative, “The German Refugee”. In order to escape the “Nazis shattering” of his homeland, Oskar was forced to part from his family and leave his homeland behind (IA 36). Likewise, the European-American Immigrant in “Lost in Translation” goes unnoticed due to her Polish background until she voices her immigrant rage about “the artifice [she feels] imprisoned in” (Hoffman 221). Each of these European-American Immigrants blend in because of the color code daily and are assumed part of the dominant culture. If the course bypassed these narratives, your knowledge of these hidden European-American Immigrants would be nonexistent much like their identities in America.

            Finally, after discovering a correct classification and understanding of American Immigrants, you will be ready to discover the "big picture" of how the identity of dominant culture began. Based on your previous preparation in reading the short narratives and using the objective terminology, you will be able to discuss the larger narratives of the dominant culture with ease and confidence to determine the cause of the large immigrant groups' success as the dominant culture. Using the your new vocabulary for discussing the American Immigrants, you will determine the creation of the model minority and color code definition based on the huge achievement of The American Dream accomplished by the dominant culture. Furthermore, you will connect this American Dream conquest as inspiring other American Immigrants to seek the same achievement in smaller groups, and the dominant culture's horrible creation of The American Nightmare to assist in their success of The American Dream.

            As a former student, I hope this information was helpful in previewing your journey throughout the American Multicultural Literature course and in revealing objective terminology and mistaken identities. If you need help with this course in the future, other assignment examples or the intelligent professor will assist in your understanding.

Sincerely,

Cana Hauerland