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2018 Midterm2
(assignment) Sample Student Midterm2 Answers Part 1: Essays on Immigrants, Minorities, and New World Immigrants |
LITR 4340
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Breanna Runnels
A Comparison of All Types of Minorities and Immigrants
One of the major things that America is recognized for, is being a
melting pot. Though this may seem like a positive thing for immigrants and
minorities in the country, it is also a symbol of assumed complete assimilation
into American society. A “melting pot” is a way to describe things coming
together to form one whole. This is usually what is assumed for immigrants that
come to America. They are expected to become the synonymous tasting soup. I
prefer to see America as a salad bowl. The communities, immigrant, minority, and
dominant culture, all come together to form one things – but are still
individual and unique parts. There are very distinct flavors that can all be
experienced. The likelihood of an immigrant or a minority assimilating is based
on their narrative and the many ways that they differ from one another. In this
essay, we will compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority
narrative. (Objective 3) Will they be part of the melting pot or the salad bowl?
The first understanding that one would need is the distinct parts that
will make up this population salad. We will focus on the difference between
minority, immigrant, and dominant culture (Objective 1). This first section
covers the differences found within minority narrative. Many might confuse
immigrant and minority to be interchangeable, but they are not. We see that in
the minority narrative, life is the “American Nightmare”. The minority narrative
is based around African Americans and Native Americans. African Americans did
not choose, but were forced to come to America, and were met with slavery
instead of opportunity. When the African American’s narrative began, it was not
of their own choosing like other groups. These minorities were forced into this
land and had to create their own story out of it. In Alice Walker’s
Elethia, we can analyze and find that
Uncle Albert’s time that was centered around slavery is still affecting the
minority group even years after slavery was abolished. The story behind Uncle
Albert is one that defines the struggles that minorities, past and present,
face. He was born into slavery and his parents and himself were kept as slaves
for many years after slavery was outlawed, never knew since their master
wouldn’t allow them to know the law. This is a simplified example of the origins
of the African American minority group.
The
other group that is found within the minority population is the Native
Americans. Though these two groups are found in the same category, they have a
very different history and lifestyle. Native Americans are not immigrants, but
they are not 100% minority either.
Native Americans were already living
within the land when it was invaded by the dominant culture. When they came to
America, the Native Americans were forced from their rightful lands, causing an
involuntary movement. This minority group has a very unique narrative. These
minorities often resist assimilation or denied the opportunity to assimilate.
On
the other hand, we have the “model minority” which is in fact just the dominant
culture’s view of ideal immigrants. These model minorities show hard work,
education, literacy, family stability and many more characteristics that seem to
appeal to the “American standard”. At this point, the model minority is seen
within Asian Americans as they fit the positive stereotyping that Americans
place upon them. This model minority is seen in J. Christine Moon’s
What Color Would You Like, Ma’am? The
main character, Thien, is a high school student whose parents own and work in a
nail salon. He is on summer break, but still goes to work at the salon and even
studies for tests in his free time while waiting for his dad to return home from
work. We see his affinity for studying and upholding his culture as an attribute
to his status as model minority.
The story is usually opposite within the immigrant narrative, though.
There are different types of immigrants, usually based on origin or reason for
moving. Immigrants come to America by choice and usually find the “American
Dream”. The standard immigrant story is escaping the Old World and assimilating
to the new world and the dominant culture. Many immigrants want to assimilate to
better their opportunities of success. In Anchee Min’s
The Cooked Seed, the immigrant from
China comes to America to get an education and further her career as an artist.
She had roommate qualifications of “Anyone who speaks English.” We can often see
that learning the dominant language is the main symbol of assimilation for
immigrants and is a key factor in the advancement of the American daily life.
One of the categories of immigrant is the New World Immigrant. This group
of people, usually Hispanic or Afro-Caribbean, is a confusing because they have
the traits of immigrants and minorities. These New World immigrants immigrate
voluntarily (like immigrants) but often their past experience of involuntary
contact and with the USA and other nations (like minorities) is unpleasant. The
New World countries are closer to the USA, so they might travel back and forth
between their home lands and share a bit of loyalty to each land. New World
immigrants already have migration in their family or national backgrounds.
The first group of New World immigrant is the Mexican Americans. These
immigrants are unique due to their shifting border, the proximity of the United
States to their homeland, and cultural contact. Mexican Americans follow the
immigrant narrative because Mexican people have crossed a shifting border for
centuries. They have immigrated on their own. Mexican immigrants face many of
the challenges that have faced other immigrant groups in the past, like
assimilation to a new language, availability of well-funded public schools,
culture shock, longing for their homeland, and many more. We can also see the
want for assimilation, like many immigrants. An example of this can be found in
Sandra Cisneros’ “Barbie-Q”. This story follows the day of two girls that want
to assimilate and try to through Barbies. They are finally able to get quite a
few when a toy story burned down. We can see their want for something that is
generally “American” (at least, at the time this piece was written), even if
they are a little banged up and melted. Mexican Americans can be described as a
minority because Mexican Americans were once conquered and displaced like
American Indians. It is a quite confusing thing to place historically, because
when Mexican Americans immigrate, they go into places like Texas, California,
Arizona, and other lands that were once owned by Mexico. Are they going back
into their own lands, like the Native Americans, or are they traveling to new
lands, like the African Americans?
The next group of New World immigrants are the other Hispanic Americans.
Though these are quite similar, they do not have the same “traveling back to
land that was once owned by my people” factor. The poem “Coca-Cola and Coco
Frio” by Martin Espada centers around the Hispanic Americans, both as an
immigrant group and majority group. This poem follows the time of a “fat boy”
visiting his home land of Puerto Rico for the first time. The first thing he
sees is the American staple of Coca-Cola. He realized that these people are
trying to assimilate to the United States, even in their own land. He then
tasted the milk of a coconut for the first time, a common drink in Puerto Rico.
He has experienced his home land for the first time. The author states that
“suddenly, Puerto Rico was not Coca-Cola or Brooklyn, and neither was he.” We
can see the confusion between what is American and what is Puerto Rican as being
part of the confusion between immigrant and minority.
The last group of New World immigrants is the Afro-Caribbean Immigrants.
These immigrants come from Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and other
places. This group of people, on their own, are very diverse. The Caribbean is
home to many culturally diverse
societies involving mixed descendants of native Indians, African slaves,
European colonists, even Asian Indians. With this group of immigrants, they tend
to move back and forth more frequently and with improving communication and
transportation between the countries, it may mean less commitment to the new
country and more connections to the old one. Some may give this group of
immigrants the minority treatment specifically for their appearance. The members
of the Afro-Caribbean community share African descent and appearance, so thought
they may think of themselves as immigrants, native-born Americans will often
think of them as members of the black minority. Though we see many African
American leaders coming about in the community, we are still short of
recognizing the ones they are not African American but are actually
Afro-Caribbean. Most Afro-Caribbean’s come to the USA as immigrants seeking
economic opportunity and fit the immigrant narrative. But, like other New World
immigrants, they're in-between or mixed in terms if the difference between if
they are immigrants or minorities.
We also see the presence of the dominant culture in the background of
almost every piece of immigrant literature. The dominant, or settler, culture is
usually identified with whiteness and middle-class modesty, plainness, and being
clean. Cleanliness is a symbol that we see repeated often about the dominant
culture. One example of the dominant culture’s influence on the immigrant
narrative is seen by the character Miss Whiteside in Anzia Yezierska’s
Soap and Water. Miss Whiteside
withholds her diploma since she does not uphold the cleanliness standards of the
dominant culture. In most minority stories we see the dominant culture as the
rule setters or even villains. But, in many immigrant stories, we can see them
as someone they are trying to work up to be or even a kind of role model to base
their assimilation upon.
With the different status of these people we see a difference in
assimilation or resistance. Minorities remain distinct or maintain separate
communities surrounded by those with similar characteristics. We see this in
Tony Cade Bambara’s The Lesson.
Though none of the characters within the story are exactly related, they still
treat each other like family since they are connected by their history. They
speak of their block or set of apartments as a sort of community within itself.
This is an example of partly assimilating but keeping their distance from the
dominant or immigrant cultures. They believe in upholding and maintaining their
historical family and community values. Within immigrants, we can see the urge
and almost need to assimilate. Many immigrants will often distance themselves
from minorities as an effort to assimilate to the dominant culture. Often, we
can see a slight struggle between the want to assimilate and the want to keep
their roots deep in their history. In the poem “Blonde White Women” by Patricia
Smith, we see the appearance of confusion between wanting to assimilate and
wanting to hold onto the unique culture. In the end we see that she decides to
hold onto her culture and stand by her own personality and skin color, stating
that “I can find no color darker, more beautiful, than I am.”
Another thing that sets apart immigrants and minorities are their
origins. With immigrants, they voluntarily choose to come to America, so they
are expected to conform to American society to achieve the American Dream story
of freedom and opportunity (Objective 3b). We see this in
In the Land of the Free by Sui Sin
Far. When the wife and son try to meet up with the father who is already in
America, they are met with blockades due to the child not having the correct
papers. We can see that since the wife had some setbacks and had to stay in
China longer, the husband has obviously become more greatly assimilated. Since
they are voluntarily coming to America to better their opportunities, they
follow along with the laws and immigration rules that are set by the American
government. Even thought the lawyer figure scams the mother out of almost all of
her possessions, she still abides and conforms to the American laws as a sign of
need for assimilation. After over a year passes, they finally get to see their
child again. Resistance would’ve been detrimental to the advancement of this
family within America.
Since
the coming to America story is quite different for the minorities, we can see a
greater amount of resistance based solely on their origins. Minorities did not
freely choose to come to America and often speak of exploitation instead of
opportunity (Objective 3b). This text is from a Native American narrative which
is quite different than the African American narrative, in the fact that they
were not unjustly brought here but instead were unjustly relocated within their
own lands by the dominant culture. In Chrystos’ “I Have Not Signed a Treaty with
the United States Government”, we can see the negative feelings that the Native
Americans show toward the dominant culture. She finishes the poem with “Go so
far away we won’t remember you ever came here”. We can see that they want the
dominant culture out and away; they want the opposite of assimilation. The
narratives are different for African Americans but are still quite similar.
In reference to the salad bowl of America, there are so many different
pieces that can make up the one dish. In terms of immigrants, it’s like various
kinds of lettuce. One is romaine and once is iceberg, but they are all in a way
lettuce. There are many ways to describe an immigrant versus a minority, but
there are many more smaller categories within those. All these factors can be
named as attributes to the likeliness to or not to assimilate to the dominant
culture. This decision can make a drastic change for the immigrant or minority
populations. There are many ways to try and line out how one should assimilate,
but the major key is to assimilate to a point. These two groups of people are
present in America and can decide to live within their past culture and life or
to progress and become more assimilated and opportunistic. There is a “sweet
spot” point that most immigrants and minorities are looking for.
America is a land of opportunity for its
entire population, no matter how they came into this land or how they approach
their life.
