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2019 Midterm1
(assignment) |
LITR 4340
American Immigrant Literature Model Assignments |
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Heidi Kreeger
The American Thing to Do: Assimilation Vs. Resistance
The focus of our American Immigrant course has centered mainly around the
question of choice. The majority of our discussion has covered the difference
between immigrants and minorities being whether or not they chose to immigrate
to America or whether they had America forced upon them. There is another choice
however that we have touched on which interests me more because of all the
nuances contained: the choice to assimilate to America's dominant culture or to
retain a previously held culture. Several of my peers have explored these
topics, and reading over their work has broadened my view on the subject of
assimilation vs. resistance. In addition they have inspired me to broaden
discussion of the topic further through education.
My interest in this line of thinking was piqued after reading the 2013 essay
"The Dominant Culture", by Anthony Randall. In it he points out that equal
education among African Americans was not legally achieved until Brown vs. the
Board of Education in 1954. And that while African Americans are often compared
to model minorities to demonstrate their deficiencies despite being part of
American culture, that "The denial
of equal access of quality education is a denial to all the values the dominant
culture represents". Therefore it seems the dominant culture rejects African
Americans, then vilifies them for not assimilating "well enough". It would seem
a logical progression then that some in the African American culture would
resist assimilation altogether.
In his 2016 research paper "Superman Himself is Literally an Immigrant", Austin
Green offered a contrasting example, in which model minority members are
desperate to assimilate. The graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang details the
experiences of a boy named Jin, who only has one other Asian person in his
school, a girl. He explains that "the other children initially thought they must
be related. When they find out the two are not related, they make jokes that the
two must are already arranged to be married to each other when they are older.
Jin then goes on to mention that the two of them stay away from each other. If
they spend time with each other, it would make them stand apart from the rest of
their peers even more. Jin even eventually perms his hair in order to try and
look how the “cool kid” in school looks." In this instance both Asian kids are
subjected to stereotypes and bullying and their response is to be guided into
assimilation by dissociating with each other and trying to change outward
appearances to be more in line with the dominant culture. This struck me because
children assimilate better than adults for many reasons, but it had not occurred
to me before that part of it is because their personalities are more susceptible
to influence from bullying. An adult is secure in their identity and their
personality is already shaped, for the most part. Children may feel compelled to
assimilate rather than resist before they truly understand the ramifications of
that choice.
While this fact may be a little disheartening it is also true that children can
easily be educated about different cultures, the negative aspects of bullying,
and the positive aspects of cultural inclusion. I hope that one day I will be
able to teach an English class that includes minority or immigrant literature as
a path to understanding and compassion. Greg Bellomy is also an aspiring teacher
and wrote an essay in 2018 entitled "The Mirror from the Outside". Within the
essay he summarized my thoughts completely and beautifully when we said "Besides
encouraging people to imagine the thoughts and feelings of a person who has an
outsider’s perspective in our society, the process of reading immigrant and
minority narratives also inspires identification and understanding between
members of different backgrounds". It is my hope that as we move forward as a
country the new normal becomes a type of assimilation that includes the
retention of familial culture as well, and if anyone can do it, it is our
children.
I learned much more than I expected from my peers, particularly a new way to
view many situations that had not occurred to me before. The subject of
assimilation vs. resistance is a complex one and at the end of the day a very
personal decision. Every individual has their own experiences which shapes them
and their own free will with which to decide how to conduct their lives. It is
my personal hope though that with our help, our future generations will make
their decision after experiencing less hate, and more understanding.
