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2016 Midterm2
(assignment) Sample Student Midterm2 Answers Part 1: Essays on New World Immigrants |
LITR 4340
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Zach
Thomas
“Un-American” Americans
The unpopular program of the dominant American culture has been the
America that they wish to teach. Slavery and suffering by “New World” immigrants
has been pushed slightly to the side within public school settings. Much of that
subversive curriculum has done damage to minorities in need of the truth to be
spoken. America has a rich history involving all minorities and immigrants, but
has also transplanted a history of racial discrimination through time to the
present. “New World” immigrants display a different history that highlights
their admission as both an immigrant and minority by emphasizing their forced
assimilation to larger racial groups.
This combination of minority and immigrant works well for the Mexican
culture. At one point in history, they inhabited a good portion of land in
present-day America while encompassing all of Texas. After Texas gained
independence from Mexico, they were forced farther south and thus subjugated
further by the dominant, white culture. In Gary Soto’s, Like
Mexicans, the protagonist voices his
concern of his dating life by stating, “I went about wide-eyed in my search for
the brown girl…” (302). From reading prior to this moment, the main character is
given this advice by his Mexican grandmother who really cannot understand the
thought of her grandson dating any other race besides his own. In the end, he
marries an Asian woman who invites him into her home. He notices very quickly
the similarities and quirks that both of their families share. As a minority, he
understands the scrutiny he will receive by dating outside his race, but as an
immigrant, he must do what is best for him and that means pushing aside
traditional advice.
The same is true of the Mexican culture across patriarchal, generational
gaps. The hope for the offspring is that they would not make the same mistakes
that their parents made. This in turn could come off as restrictive and
debilitating for the male heir who wants to chart his own course. Lola, in
El Patrón, made that straightforward
remark to her father concerning her brother by asking, “‘Papá, how old were you
when you left Mexico for the U.S.?’… ‘Sixteen, wasn’t it? And what did your
father say?’” (226). The American Dream was a common thread that this family
shared through the male generations as far as the reader can infer. The
frustration of the father is only because of his experiences having to struggle
in America as a minority in order to achieve some sort of status. The son is in
the earlier footsteps of the father, not wanting to be held down by the dominant
culture in regards to being drafted, so that he could trek a different and
unique course more free than the one he was following. In essence, the
traditional Mexican culture was incredibly involved in molding the son to
appreciate all the hard work his predecessors laid out for him. It was his
choice and blessing to be able to go out in search of himself through his own
mode of perseverance.
What is incredibly admirable about the Mexican culture is that though
they are labeled a minority in America, they live as immigrants who are
satisfied with what they have, though it may seem very little. Material
possessions fall by the wayside in this traditional culture that values more
intangible things, such as family, hope, love, commitment, etc. Usefulness is
much more important within this minority who expect entertainment as a farther
ideal. Barbie-Q helps emphasize this
concept. These girls who come across burned Barbies are nonetheless ecstatic
about getting the chance to take them home. The damage of the new toys does not
phase them because their way of life is not concerned with the mainstream
material push. No longer will they have to create sock dresses for them: only if
they wanted to. The dominant culture has done damage to the Mexican minority as
a poor addition to America that reap more benefits than they believe they should
have. Mexicans focus on assimilating in America because that is what they
believe will reduce the amount of discrimination towards them by looking more
like the dominant culture. Consequently, this behavior lessens the power of
their traditional culture from changing the landscape by acculturation.
While the Mexican culture continues to battle against the dominant
culture in America, other minorities that come to America face a very forceful
assimilation to the larger racial group. For instance, Puerto Ricans are almost
instantly identified and categorized as Mexicans because of their skin color.
The ignorance of the dominant culture plays a huge part in the systematic racism
of Puerto Ricans that are mistaken for Mexicans. In
Silent Dancing, the Puerto Rican
family notices this calamity; “It was as if the heart of the city map were being
gradually colored brown—café con leche
brown. Our color” (181). This gradual color change in New York was also a
segregated measure that the dominant culture took advantage of in the creation
of barrios. The father in the story wished to do everything in his power to get
his family out of the barrio in which they lived. This can also have been seen
as an assimilative move to distance themselves from the brown building. Within
the father’s perspective, the only way to escape stereotypes and racial
profiling is by positioning themselves away from the poor, brown community. The
mother did not side with this point of view. For her, the value of living in a
place with common language and the same traditions posed a greater reward.
The Distance Between Us makes a
similar argument in the use of the color code. The main character emphasizes her
distaste for her father’s new girlfriend by thinking, “I wished her skin wasn’t
so light and smooth looking, so different from my mother’s sunburned face lined
with wrinkles…I told myself I should hate that woman, not admire her clothes or
makeup or pretty skin” (87-88). The new girlfriend seems to be a “Mami 2.0” in
the mind of the daughter. This olive-skinned woman is what is more romantic and
ideal about dominant American culture. This is in direct contrast to the
Hispanic hard-working woman who takes care of her many children by working a
laborious job that causes stress on the body. The modern view of the girlfriend
her father brings home to his offspring is a painful reminder of the privilege
white-toned skinned people have over the brown and black-skinned counterparts.
For this family, moving to America from Mexico means splitting oneself right
down the middle. The traditional home is gone, but still remains, as they are
transplanted to a new location.
The same forced assimilations that Hispanics were introduced as Mexicans
by the dominant culture is also relevant to the Afro-Caribbeans being portrayed
as African-Americans. The racial profiling continues to take place out of skin
color instead of the knowledge of understanding the culture from which they
came. The narrator of Children of the Sea
helps to exploit this claim in saying, “Yes, I am finally an African. I am
even darker than your father” (102). As the ship travels to America from Haiti,
the sun beats down on the immigrants who grow darker in the constant rays. The
narrator displays a sort of sarcastic tone in emphasizing the silliness of this
racial grouping because it does not share significance with the race in
discussion. The Haitian immigrants are thus labeled as the African-American
minority, but have come to America on voluntary terms. They were not enslaved,
but rather lost in the sea of black to which they were not given their own
identity. To what degree can one assert the value of the Haitian to the
African-American. Both are seen as minorities, but one was given dominance over
the other in the eyes of the dominant culture.
The minorities and immigrants in discussion are vastly different to the
Old World immigrants. Social pairing and racial discrimination has plagued the
advancement of these people groups to the supposed American Dream. Traditional
culture of Hispanics and Afro-Caribbean groups display a completely different
set of morals and values than the dominant, American culture. Family is vitally
important in these minorities who encapsulate much of the geography of America.
The issue at hand, as it was also in the past, is that some of these immigrant
minorities are lost within a larger minority that occupied settlements in
America before their arrival. Acculturation is less likely to be monitored with
people groups that are hidden behind the shadow of the Mexican or
African-American culture. Assimilated groups are then losing some of their
traditional values to gain some type of separateness from their larger racial
group.
