Asian American Struggle

Historically, groups of people whose “label” is comprised of conjunctive ethnicities experience a difficult time finding their true identity, but identity is found when unidentifiable individuals find a common goal. In the course of the last two weeks, we explored a concept called “Pan-Ethnicity” which deals with the unification of multiple ethnicities. It’s concept and practice is displayed by Yen Le Espiritu’s “Coming Together: The Asian American Movement”, and in chapter eight and nine of Diane C. Fujino’s book, “Samurai Among Panthers” respectively.

ASAM 100 has been one of the most insightful classes I have taken in college—so far! Through this class, I was able to learn a great deal about my culture and about myself as a person. In retrospect to my first “Why ASAM?” essay, I still believe that it is important for everybody to learn about their culture sometime throughout their life. I was able to learn about various topics such as: the issues of my culture, the traditions of my culture, how others view individuals of my culture, and more. Throughout this class, I learned about the Model Minority Myth and its effect on individuals of Asian background, I learned about issues that other Asian Americans faced through the video, Asian American Voices, and I learned to grow as a writer.

When filling out surveys or job applications, all Asians must check off the “Asian American” box regardless of national origin or place of birth, forcing a single classification on an extremely diverse group. This aggregated approach to understanding Asian American is not new, it has been present since the us versus them Occident-Orient approach that powered racism against early Asian immigrants. With the increasing presence of second and third generation Asian Americans, it is time to redefine what it means to be Asian American and to discover a new manner of framing the Asian American experience as unified yet diverse. The best approach to emphasize diversity is through stressing the national, socio-economic and gender differences within the Asian American

This paragraph from Kesaya Noda’s autobiographical essay “Growing Up Asian in America” represents the conflict that the author feels between her Japanese ethnicity, and her American nationality. The tension she describes in the opening pages of her essay is between what she looks like and is judged to be (a Japanese woman who faces racial stereotypes) versus what she feels like and understands (life as a United States citizen). This passage signals her connection to Japan; and highlights her American upbringing.

“The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María” by Judith Ortiz Cofer and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan depict the endeavors people take on in an attempt to integrate into society. Cofer demonstrates how stereotypes of Latina women have led others to misjudge her and explains the difficulty she had disassociating herself from those stereotypes. Tan demonstrates that the “broken” English her mother speaks has led others to think less of her and disregard her. One’s appearance instantaneously causes others to judge them. For some it is easier to blend in and be accepted by their community, but what is it that keeps some people from assimilating, and what effect does their otherness have on them?

In the Story “Growing Up Asian in America” by Kesaya E. Noda, she discuss many of her life events that helped her become who she is today. Noda throughout the story struggles to find her true identity. She struggles to take her three identities, Japanese, Japanese-American, and Japanese-American- woman and make them all turn into one. A great example of Noda’s struggle to find out her identity in the Japanese culture would be, “My race is a line that stretches across the ocean and time to link me to the shrine where my grandmother was raised” (lines 44-45). This means that no matter where in the world she goes she will always be connected her family. She will never be able to escape who her identity as a Japanese woman. The world will always

Clearly, performance on MAEP is not flat. The gains in reading have been slow, steady, and significant. The gains in mathematics in both tested grades have been remarkable for whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians.

The story picked is What Means Switch written by Gish Jen. It revolves around the life of Mona Chang, an 8th grade American-born Chinese girl in New York during the 1960s. She meets Sherman Matsumoto, a new Japanese student who becomes her boyfriend. She battles Japanese, traditional and modern Chinese influences, in a western environment. The concepts derived from this short story are as follows. Pull & Push Factors of Acculturation, Acculturation Process, Family models, Freudian Psychoanalysts, Discrimination, Socialization and Sex vs. Gender.

Assimilation is usually meant to indicate what happens to immigrants in a new land. However, “rejection, loneliness, discrimination—these were the byproducts of living in the United States” (Ghymn 37). In Marilyn Chin’s essay on assimilation “How I Got That Name,” the speaker acquaints the readers how she got the American name “Marilyn.” The tension between the two cultures is evident, for the speaker is treated as “Model Minority.” Her race and ethnicity define her; in fact, the stereotypes inscribed with her race restricted and cage her significance in the society. Similarly, David Hwang’s 10-minute play “Trying to Find Chinatown” centers on an encounter between Ronnie, a Chinese-American street musician, and Benjamin, a Caucasian tourist from Wisconsin who identifies himself as Asian-American, in the busy street of New York. In the play, “each character defines who he believes he is: Benjamin is convinced he is a Chinese American, and Ronnie sees

Imagine this! You are from the diverse continent of Asia.. You are a 13 year old and still go to school. You have to get an A in every class on every test. If you don't your parents will yell at you. Your parents are doctors and you have to be one too. You of course are very smart (its in your genetics) and since your eyes are different you can't see and are going to become a bad driver. How long did it take you to see that I was listing stereotypes. Putting you in the chains that people place on Asian Americans. You may say that you don't think these things. You may not think so but in your subconscious you are. You put people in these boxes without thinking. In reality I am Asian but I am from India. I am smart because I work hard. My parents

For six years I have known my friend “Annie Valentin” from a community college, the second generation of Filipino Americans. Although I never knew much about her family immigration background and experiences. Her parents born in Manila, Philippines, Mr. Valentin was born in the 1940s and Mrs. Valentin was born in the 1950s. They immigrated to the United States in the 1970s for jobs offered. Like countless first generations of Filipino American from the post-1965 wave, they have achieved a high educational level. However, they had a different socioeconomic background. This paper is to persuade representing Filipino American in Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issue and History of Asian Americans Exploring Diverse Roots to capture Mr.

There’s a myth about Asian Americans, that generalizes them into one group. People create false images of us through stereotypes. These stereotypes have been manifested in books, movies, and literature, but they have repercussions for Asian Americans in society. We are often treated as foreigners, people leading us to believe that we don’t belong in American society, and that we have no purpose being here.

In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “ How to date a Brown girl, Black girl, White girl or Halfie “ by Junot Diaz, both authors elaborate on culture and how it shapes outlook on women. In Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” a mother enforces her culture’s strong beliefs on her daughter. As the result, she displays her parental authority with a sequence of short commands influenced by her culture. A sense of judgment can be seen in the young girl, after questioning her mothers’ request. The culture associated with “ Girl “ has a definite attitude towards women, believing they should live a modest and conservative lifestyle. In Junot Diaz “ How to date a Brown girl, Black girl, White girl or Halfie”, the culture associations with women is

In the United States, there exists a gap in equality for different demographics of students. The factors contributing to educational disadvantages include socioeconomic struggles, gender of students, language or culture, and particularly for the scope of this paper, race. Racial inequality in education is predominant in black students and is perpetuated further by educators. A theory that explains this could be the “hidden curriculum” theory which conditions students to believe that their cultural backgrounds must be silenced to resemble the model white student. Studies show that training educators in cultural sensitivity and establishing trust between students and teachers allows students from varying cultural backgrounds to improve in classroom settings.

Second, the form they express their emotions and how they communicate with each other change based on their culture. The way they address the counterpart is different. While Asians are more formal using family names or titles when they talk to the other part, Americans are more informal since the use first names looking to be more friendly (Ready and Tesseman, 2009). Another difference is the form they develop the negotiations changes. For example, Asians are not that not linear, that means they may combine the negotiation with type of events, while Americans are linear, they want to focus on one aspect ate the time, so they do not have events (Ready and Tessema, 2009). Moreover, the way they discuss their interest may change, since Asians